Electrical load validation for a smart space in a building
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional building construction methods are inefficient, leading to increased costs, waste, and complexity, while modular construction techniques face challenges in providing sustainable and optimized building operations, including energy efficiency and maintenance issues.
Innovation Solution
A monitoring and control system for smart spaces in buildings that stores reference data, compares real-time sensor data, validates user actions, and generates alerts for mismatches, enabling efficient energy management, maintenance, and improved comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If modular construction techniques are used, then construction time and cost are reduced, but challenges exist in providing sustainable and optimized building operations including energy efficiency and maintenance monitoring
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-installs monitoring devices, sensors, and control systems within modular units during factory manufacturing before delivery to the construction site. This preliminary integration ensures that building operations monitoring infrastructure is already in place when modules are assembled, eliminating the need for post-installation work and ensuring reliable monitoring from day one of building operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system is designed with universal applicability across different modular unit types and building configurations. The same infrastructure can monitor various parameters (energy consumption, environmental conditions, equipment status) across different modules, providing comprehensive building operations monitoring without requiring module-specific customizations that would increase complexity and cost.
2Reliability
If traditional construction techniques are used, then building operations monitoring can be implemented, but construction time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
All monitoring infrastructure, including sensors, controllers, and communication systems, are pre-installed and tested within modular units during factory manufacturing. This eliminates on-site installation time and ensures monitoring reliability is achieved immediately upon building completion, rather than requiring separate post-construction installation phases.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces traditional manual monitoring methods with automated sensor-based monitoring and control systems. This substitution enables continuous, reliable monitoring of building operations without requiring manual intervention, reducing operational overhead and improving detection accuracy while maintaining compatibility with both traditional and modular construction methods.
3Device complexity
If manual monitoring methods are used, then system complexity is reduced, but energy efficiency and maintenance detection capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors energy consumption, environmental conditions, and equipment status, then provides real-time feedback to control systems. This feedback enables automatic adjustments to optimize energy efficiency, such as adjusting HVAC operations based on occupancy and temperature sensors, or controlling lighting based on natural light availability and occupancy detection, thereby reducing energy waste without requiring complex manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system is designed to operate autonomously, with sensors automatically detecting conditions and control systems automatically responding without human intervention. The system self-manages data collection, analysis, and control actions, reducing the need for complex manual monitoring procedures while maintaining high energy efficiency through continuous automated optimization.
4Productivity
If comprehensive monitoring is implemented, then maintenance turnaround time is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors equipment status, environmental conditions, and operational parameters, providing real-time feedback that enables early detection of potential issues. When anomalies are detected, the system automatically generates alerts and notifications, allowing maintenance personnel to respond proactively before failures occur, thereby reducing maintenance turnaround time without requiring overly complex diagnostic procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring infrastructure is pre-installed during manufacturing, ensuring that all necessary sensors and detection devices are already in place to detect maintenance issues. This preliminary setup enables immediate detection of problems upon building operation, eliminating delays associated with installing monitoring equipment after construction, and allowing rapid maintenance response without adding significant complexity to the overall system.
Data Source
AI summary
A method/system monitors and controls operational aspects of devices in a space, for example a living, office or other human-occupied space or storage space, in a building, such as turning lights on/off, raising/lowering blinds, maintaining or changing temperature, and other operational aspects. Sensors monitor energy usage of the devices in the space, and a controller/engine compares the monitored energy usage with reference energy usage to validate whether the devices are performing as expected. A temperate set-versus-anomaly detection technique may use temperature set point adjustments by a user (during a timeframe) to determine whether an anomaly exists that requires changes in the central plant of the building.