System for optimization of building heating and cooling systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial and residential buildings face high energy consumption costs due to inefficient heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems, including wasteful energy usage, inadequate insulation, and the inability to effectively utilize local energy sources, leading to significant environmental impact and economic burdens.
Innovation Solution
An optimized HVAC system design method that automatically imports energy model data, simulates energy use to determine an optimized system design, develops intelligent controls, and exports these controls directly to the HVAC system, allowing for efficient operation, tracking, and energy-saving strategies, including geothermal heat exchanger management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If intelligent building energy operations are custom designed for each individual building, then energy efficiency is improved, but design cost and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the building (digital twin) that replicates the physical building's geometry, materials, and systems. This virtual model can be simulated and optimized without affecting the actual building, allowing multiple design iterations and energy efficiency optimizations to be tested virtually before implementation, thereby reducing real-world design complexity and costs while improving energy efficiency.
2Ease of operation
If control systems are manually programmed and commissioned, then system functionality is achieved, but implementation cost and time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processes of control system programming and commissioning with automated computational processes. The optimization software automatically generates control strategies, simulates system performance, and configures building automation systems without manual intervention, dramatically reducing implementation time while maintaining full system functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The building management system performs self-configuration and self-optimization through automated algorithms that analyze building performance data and adjust control parameters without external intervention. The system automatically commissions itself by comparing simulated performance with actual performance and self-adjusting control strategies, eliminating the need for manual programming and commissioning.
3Temperature
If conventional HVAC systems are used to meet building heating and cooling needs, then thermal comfort is maintained, but energy consumption and costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the building mass and thermal storage systems to pre-condition spaces during periods when energy costs are lower or renewable energy is available. By storing thermal energy in the building structure itself during off-peak hours and releasing it during peak demand periods, the system maintains thermal comfort while significantly reducing overall energy consumption and costs.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of designing an optimized heating and cooling system includes: (1) automatically importing data from an energy model into an optimization model; (2) simulating energy use of a virtual heating and cooling system operating a thermal source or sink with the optimization model based upon the data from the energy model to obtain an optimized system design; (3) developing controls for an actual heating and cooling system based upon the optimized system design; and (4) automatically exporting the controls directly to a controller for the actual heating and cooling system.