Climate Control Load Capping for Building Comfort Balance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Building management systems face challenges in controlling power consumption of climate control devices while maintaining thermal comfort, as reducing energy consumption often leads to occupant discomfort, and existing methods lack dynamic and fine-grained decision-making to balance energy savings with comfort levels.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method that sets local power caps for climate control appliances, using real-time sensor data to determine whether appliances should be active or inactive, and prioritizing their operation based on climate parameters to minimize discomfort and adhere to energy caps, allowing for dynamic adjustments and communication between neighboring appliances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If thermostat setting is reduced to save energy, then energy consumption is reduced, but building inhabitant comfort deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by allowing different climate control appliances to operate with different setpoints based on their local conditions. Each appliance independently determines its optimal setpoint within the capped range, considering local occupancy, temperature, and humidity conditions, rather than applying a uniform reduction across all appliances.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dynamics by making the system adaptive and responsive to changing conditions. The cap on setpoints is dynamically adjusted based on real-time sensor data, occupancy patterns, and environmental conditions, allowing the system to optimize energy savings while maintaining comfort as conditions change throughout the day and across different locations.
2Use of energy by moving object
If demand side management is implemented to time-shift energy consumption, then peak energy consumption is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the building management system into independent, autonomous climate control appliances. Each appliance operates independently with its own processor and sensors, making local decisions about when to operate and at what setpoint. This segmentation eliminates the need for complex centralized control systems while still achieving demand side management objectives through coordinated local actions.
Solution Approach 2:
Each climate control appliance performs self-service by autonomously determining its own operation schedule and setpoints based on local conditions and the energy cap constraints. The appliances self-regulate their operation to avoid peak demand periods without requiring external control signals, reducing system complexity while achieving load management goals.
3Use of energy by moving object
If global temperature adjustment is applied to reduce demand, then energy consumption is reduced, but thermal comfort uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by allowing each climate control appliance to maintain its own local temperature setpoint within the capped range, rather than applying a uniform global adjustment. This enables different zones to have different temperature profiles suited to their specific occupancy and environmental conditions, maintaining thermal comfort uniformity across diverse locations while still achieving overall energy reduction through the cap mechanism.
Data Source
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AI summary
This invention relates to methods and systems for controlling consumption, particularly power consumption, more particularly by appliances in a building, and is generally suitable for integration with building management systems. Embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems which probabilistically limit the aggregated power load of a plurality of climate control appliances in a building to a selected value, whilst seeking to minimize the deviation from target environmental conditions within the building. The embodiments of the invention propose distributed decision-making by individual devices based on projected deviation from the target conditions after a period of activity or inactivity.