Building Air-Conditioning Energy Forecasting Within Contract Limits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air-conditioning systems struggle to manage electrical energy consumption effectively, leading to excessive costs when energy usage exceeds contract limits, necessitating precise prediction and management of energy consumption to stay within defined periods.
Innovation Solution
A building-air-conditioning-equipment electrical-energy-consumption predicting apparatus that uses time-series analysis and autoregressive models to forecast energy consumption based on historical data, including temperature settings and outside air temperatures, allowing for the calculation of cumulative energy use and implementation of operational limitations to stay within target consumption levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If air conditioners operate continuously to maintain comfort, then user comfort is improved, but electrical energy consumption increases and may exceed contract limits
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by predicting future energy consumption before the contract limit is exceeded. The prediction apparatus calculates expected energy usage for upcoming time periods and issues advance warnings, allowing operators to take preventive measures (such as adjusting temperature settings or scheduling operations) before exceeding contract limits, thus avoiding penalty charges while maintaining comfort.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring actual energy consumption, comparing it with predicted values and contract limits, and providing feedback information to operators. This feedback loop enables dynamic adjustment of air conditioner operations to balance comfort requirements with energy consumption constraints, allowing operators to make informed decisions about when and how to adjust system operation.
2Use of energy by moving object
If energy consumption is strictly limited to meet contract requirements, then energy costs are reduced, but air conditioner operation may be restricted affecting user comfort
Solution Approach 1:
The prediction apparatus enables preliminary planning by providing advance information about expected energy consumption patterns. Operators can proactively adjust temperature settings, pre-cool or pre-heat spaces, or schedule high-consumption operations during periods when contract limits are less likely to be exceeded, thereby maintaining comfort while adhering to energy constraints without reactive restrictions.
3Reliability
If manual monitoring of energy consumption is performed, then energy usage can be tracked, but the complexity of constant monitoring and management increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically performing energy consumption prediction, comparison with contract limits, and issuance of warnings without requiring manual intervention. The prediction apparatus autonomously collects data, performs calculations, and provides information to operators, eliminating the need for complex manual monitoring procedures while ensuring reliable tracking of energy usage patterns.
Data Source
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AI summary
It is an object to keep an electrical energy consumption per predetermined period within a target electrical energy. Provided is a building-air-conditioning-equipment electrical-energy-consumption predicting apparatus including a database (31) that stores actual operation data in association with the day, hour, and minute, the actual operation data including the electrical energy consumption of building air-conditioning equipment during a predetermined unit time, etc., a data specifying unit (32) that specifies actual operation data to be used for predicting the cumulative electrical energy consumption of the building air-conditioning equipment during a prediction target period, a data extracting unit (33) that extracts the specified actual operation data from the database (31), a statistical prediction unit (34) that predicts the electrical energy consumptions during individual prediction target times in the prediction target period by using a statistical method on the basis of the extracted actual operation data, and an electrical-energy-consumption accumulating unit (35) that calculates the electrical energy consumption of the building air-conditioning equipment during the prediction target period by using the predicted electrical energy consumptions during the individual prediction target times.