Building equipment selection using soft constraints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing building equipment systems, such as HVAC systems, face challenges in optimizing the operation of subplants within a central plant to efficiently serve building spaces while adhering to various constraints.
Innovation Solution
A method is introduced that determines hard and soft constraints for building equipment, identifies possible combinations of equipment to serve building spaces, and selects the optimal combination based on these constraints, using a processing circuit to perform a branch and bound process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If building equipment selection considers only hard constraints, then equipment reliability is improved, but operational flexibility and optimization capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments constraints into two distinct categories: hard constraints (must be satisfied) and soft constraints (preferred but not required). This segmentation allows the system to maintain reliability through hard constraints while gaining operational flexibility by selectively violating soft constraints when beneficial for optimization objectives such as cost reduction or energy efficiency improvement.
2Productivity
If building equipment selection optimizes for cost and energy consumption, then operational efficiency is improved, but constraint satisfaction reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic constraint satisfaction approach where the system evaluates whether to satisfy soft constraints based on real-time optimization needs. The constraint satisfaction requirement is made dynamic rather than static, allowing the system to adaptively decide which soft constraints to violate when doing so significantly improves operational efficiency metrics such as cost or energy consumption, while hard constraints remain dynamically enforced.
3Measurement precision
If building equipment selection evaluates all possible combinations, then solution optimality is improved, but computational complexity and time consumption worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by evaluating only those equipment combinations that satisfy hard constraints and selectively violate soft constraints based on optimization benefits. Rather than exhaustively evaluating all possible combinations, the system performs partial evaluation focused on promising candidates, reducing computational complexity while maintaining sufficient solution optimality for practical applications.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If building equipment selection enforces all constraints strictly, then system safety is improved, but solution feasibility and adaptability worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the strictness of constraint enforcement across different constraint types. Hard constraints related to system safety and operational requirements are enforced strictly, while soft constraints related to preferences and optimizations are enforced selectively. This local differentiation of constraint quality allows the system to maintain safety while improving solution feasibility and adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of selecting building equipment for serving a building including determining one or more hard constraints and one or more soft constraints for the building equipment, determining a plurality of possible combinations of building equipment to serve the building, determining a first set of possible combinations that meet all of the hard constraints and all of the soft constraints, determining a second set of possible combinations that meet all of the hard constraints and do not meet all of the soft constraints, selecting a combination of building equipment to serve the building from the first set of possible combinations if the first set contains a possible combination, or selecting a combination of building equipment to serve the building from the second set of possible combinations if the first set contains no possible combinations, and serving the building using the selected combination of building equipment.