Condition-Based Building Equipment Maintenance Scheduling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Determining an appropriate maintenance strategy for building equipment to minimize total life cycle cost is challenging due to the trade-off between reduced operating costs from improved efficiency and increased maintenance costs.
Innovation Solution
A model predictive maintenance (MPM) system that uses processing circuits to obtain performance indicators, determine trigger conditions, and generate a maintenance schedule based on estimated degradation and predicted future performance of building equipment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maintenance is performed frequently, then equipment operating efficiency is improved and operating cost is reduced, but maintenance cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The maintenance system transitions from static scheduled maintenance to dynamic condition-based maintenance. The system continuously monitors equipment performance indicators and adjusts maintenance timing based on actual equipment state, allowing maintenance to be performed optimally - neither too early nor too late - thereby balancing operating efficiency gains with maintenance cost reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops by continuously monitoring equipment performance indicators and comparing them against thresholds. This feedback mechanism enables the system to detect equipment degradation in real-time and trigger maintenance activities only when necessary, avoiding unnecessary maintenance while ensuring equipment operates efficiently when condition permits.
2Loss of energy
If maintenance is performed infrequently, then maintenance cost is reduced, but operating cost increases due to reduced efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary monitoring and assessment of equipment condition through continuous performance indicator tracking. By detecting degradation trends early and predicting future equipment state, the system prepares for maintenance activities in advance, allowing optimization of maintenance timing to minimize both maintenance and operating costs while preventing efficiency degradation.
Solution Approach 2:
The feedback mechanism continuously monitors equipment performance and compares actual state against predicted degradation models. This enables the system to identify the optimal moment to perform maintenance - early enough to prevent efficiency loss but late enough to minimize maintenance frequency - thereby resolving the contradiction between maintenance cost and operating cost.
3Loss of energy
If continuous monitoring and predictive maintenance is implemented, then total life cycle cost is optimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables equipment to essentially monitor and report its own condition through performance indicators. The equipment's operational data serves as the monitoring input, eliminating the need for separate complex sensing systems. This self-service approach reduces overall system complexity while enabling continuous condition assessment for optimized maintenance scheduling.
Solution Approach 2:
The system focuses monitoring efforts on key performance indicators and critical parameters rather than attempting to monitor all equipment aspects. By identifying and tracking only the most relevant parameters that indicate equipment degradation, the system achieves effective predictive maintenance with minimal complexity overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
A model predictive maintenance (MPM) system for building equipment includes one or more processing circuits including one or more processors and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations. The operations include obtaining one or more performance indicators for the building equipment and determining whether a trigger condition has been satisfied based on the one or more performance indicators. The operations include triggering a model predictive maintenance process to generate a maintenance schedule for the building equipment in response to determining that the trigger condition has been satisfied. The operations include initiating a maintenance activity for the building equipment in accordance with the maintenance schedule.