Environmental control for HVAC system
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional HVAC systems lack efficient energy control mechanisms, requiring frequent updates, hardware modifications, and expertise, leading to high costs and complexity, with combined optimization and hardware logic reducing reliability and responsiveness.
Innovation Solution
An external application communicates with a building automation system to process HVAC data, separating energy optimization from hardware control functions, enabling more complex control and interaction with external systems, and providing optimized set points to the HVAC system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If complex optimization logic is programmed into the BAS to optimize HVAC systems, then energy efficiency is improved, but reliability and responsiveness of the real-time system deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides control functions into two separate segments: the BAS handles real-time hardware control functions, while an external application handles energy optimization functions. This segmentation prevents the BAS from being overloaded with complex optimization logic, maintaining its reliability and responsiveness while still achieving energy efficiency through the external application's recommendations.
Solution Approach 2:
An external application serves as an intermediary between the BAS and the HVAC system. This external application processes optimization logic separately and communicates recommendations to the BAS, which then implements them. This intermediary approach allows complex optimization to occur outside the real-time BAS environment, preserving system reliability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If optimization logic is combined with hardware logic in the BAS, then control functions are integrated, but operational problem resolution becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments control functions into distinct components: hardware control logic remains in the BAS, while optimization logic resides in an external application. This segmentation maintains control integration benefits while enabling independent troubleshooting and repair of each component without affecting the other.
Solution Approach 2:
Optimization logic is extracted from the BAS and placed in an external application. This extraction allows operational problems to be resolved more easily by isolating issues to specific components - whether they originate from the BAS hardware control or the external application's optimization algorithms.
3Loss of energy
If BAS programming is modified to implement optimization, then energy control capability is improved, but system operation is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
An external application acts as a mediator that implements optimization logic without requiring modifications to the BAS programming. The external application communicates with the BAS through standard interfaces, enabling energy control capability improvement while avoiding disruptions to ongoing system operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The external application prepares optimization recommendations in advance and communicates them to the BAS for implementation. This preliminary action approach allows energy control improvements to be made without interrupting the BAS's real-time operations, as the BAS simply adopts pre-prepared recommendations.
4Device complexity
If conventional BAS resources are used for optimization computing, then hardware utilization is maximized, but processing and computing capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Complex optimization computing functions are extracted from the resource-limited BAS and transferred to an external application with greater processing and computing capabilities. This extraction allows the BAS to maintain its real-time control functions with limited resources while the external application handles computationally intensive optimization tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a copy approach where the external application performs optimization computations that would be too resource-intensive for the BAS. The external application creates optimized control recommendations that are then copied back to the BAS for implementation, enabling advanced processing capabilities without modifying the BAS hardware.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for controlling energy consumption in a building having a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) which includes using an external application to perform HVAC energy consumption optimization algorithms and other external energy control functions and transmit application control data to a building automation system (BAS), which in turn provides hardware level equipment control for the HVAC system. The external application evaluates equipment data received from the HVAC system by way of the BAS and processes these equipment data to provide application control data back to the BAS. The application control data are calculated to achieve a desired operating efficiency for the HVAC system.