1. An intelligent controller that controls an environment, the intelligent controller comprising: a processor; a memory that stores a control schedule; a current control schedule stored in the memory; one or more sensors that sense current values of an environmental parameter; instructions stored within the memory that, when executed by the processor, control the intelligent controller, during a response time following an immediate-control input or a scheduled setpoint change recorded in the control schedule, to at each of multiple points in time, record, in the memory, a current value for the environmental parameter, when the environmental parameter values recorded in memory fit a local model for change in the parameter with time, determine a remaining response time using the local model, storing the determined response time in memory, and displaying the remaining response time on a display device, and when the environmental parameter values do not fit a local model but fit a global model, determine a remaining response time using the global model, storing the determined response time in memory, and displaying the remaining response time on the display device.