Failure detection and compensation in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment
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Solution Overview
Problem
HVAC equipment failures in facilities lead to deviations from setpoints, causing uncomfortable conditions and potential critical situations, as existing systems lack efficient detection and compensation mechanisms to maintain environmental control.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that monitors HVAC equipment and confined areas, detects failures, and automatically adjusts adjacent equipment to compensate by controlling airflow or radiation to maintain setpoints, ensuring continuous operation and comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If HVAC equipment is operated without failure detection and compensation mechanisms, then the system structure remains simple, but environmental control reliability deteriorates when equipment failures occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary failure detection by monitoring HVAC equipment status and predicting potential failures before they occur. This allows the system to prepare compensation strategies in advance, such as pre-positioning backup equipment or adjusting operational parameters, thereby maintaining environmental control reliability without requiring complex redundant systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops that monitor environmental conditions and equipment status. When deviations from setpoints are detected or failures are predicted, the system automatically adjusts operational parameters or activates compensation mechanisms. This feedback-driven approach enables reliable environmental control through a relatively simple system structure by dynamically responding to actual conditions.
2Productivity
If manual intervention is used to mitigate HVAC failures, then equipment complexity remains low, but productivity and comfort deteriorate due to delayed response
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service operation by automatically detecting HVAC equipment failures and executing compensation actions without human intervention. The failure detection module continuously monitors equipment status, and when failures are detected, the system automatically activates backup equipment or adjusts operational parameters to maintain environmental conditions. This automation ensures continuous facility productivity while keeping the control system relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements automated feedback loops that continuously monitor environmental conditions and equipment status. When deviations from setpoints are detected or failures occur, the system automatically adjusts operational parameters or activates compensation mechanisms. This feedback-driven automation maintains high productivity by ensuring rapid response to failures without requiring complex manual intervention procedures.
3Reliability
If additional equipment is brought in to compensate for HVAC failures, then environmental control reliability improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements multi-functional HVAC equipment that can perform both primary cooling and backup heating functions. For example, a heat pump system can operate in cooling mode during normal conditions and automatically switch to heating mode when cooling equipment fails. This universality allows a single piece of equipment to provide multiple functions, maintaining environmental control reliability without requiring separate dedicated backup equipment for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains reliability by dynamically changing operational parameters rather than adding equipment. When HVAC equipment fails, the system adjusts parameters such as airflow rates, temperature setpoints, or operational modes of existing equipment to compensate for the failure. This parameter-based compensation approach maintains environmental control reliability while avoiding the need for additional physical equipment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively maintains environmental conditions within acceptable parameters, even during equipment failures, preventing discomfort and critical situations, and ensuring facility operations continue uninterrupted.
Implementation Method 1
controlling at least one of the first or a second of the HVAC equipment to cause additional conditioned air to permeate to the first of the confined areas from an adjacent, second of the confined areas
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment includes: a memory configured to store computer-readable program code; and processing circuitry configured to access the memory to execute the computer-readable program code, where executing the computer-readable code causes the processing circuitry to detect that a first HVAC unit has failed to control a first environmental condition of a first confined area serviced by the first HVAC unit to meet a first predetermined setpoint for the first confined area and to draw second conditioned air from a second confined area into the first confined area until the first environmental condition meets the first predetermined setpoint by controlling the first HVAC unit to cause the first HVAC unit to reduce air pressure in the first confined area.