Space comfort control detector
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Solution Overview
Problem
Small to medium-sized HVAC contractors face challenges in efficiently managing and interpreting the vast amounts of data generated by building management systems, leading to inefficient alerting workflows and a need for a more streamlined, user-friendly notification system that can differentiate between various alert priorities and provide timely, relevant information.
Innovation Solution
A lightweight alerting system that includes a space comfort control detector for heating or cooling systems, which uses a controller to monitor the difference between a set point and the actual space temperature, triggering alerts based on predetermined error thresholds and derivatives, and dynamically adjusts gateway poll rates to optimize data transmission, while also utilizing relative degree days and delta temperature calculations to detect capacity losses in HVAC systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional building management systems are used to monitor HVAC performance, then comprehensive data collection is achieved, but data complexity and difficulty in interpretation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates specific critical parameters (proportional error and its derivative) from the vast HVAC system data. The controller specifically monitors the difference between set point and actual temperature, plus the rate of change of this difference, filtering out unnecessary data complexity while maintaining monitoring precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary that processes raw temperature data and transforms it into meaningful comfort control assessments. By calculating proportional error and its derivative, the controller mediates between raw sensor data and actionable comfort monitoring, simplifying the information flow.
2Reliability
If traditional alerting workflows are used for HVAC monitoring, then all system parameters are tracked, but alert efficiency and contractor response time decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the most critical comfort control indicators (proportional error magnitude and its derivative) to trigger alerts. This selective extraction allows reliable comfort monitoring while generating fewer, more actionable alerts that improve contractor response efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the monitoring parameters from tracking all HVAC system variables to focusing on the proportional error and its derivative. This parameter transformation enables reliable comfort control assessment while reducing alert volume and improving operational efficiency.
3Loss of information
If detailed monitoring of all HVAC parameters is implemented, then system performance visibility is improved, but noise filtering and critical issue identification become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The controller extracts and monitors specifically the proportional error (difference between set point and actual temperature) and its derivative (rate of change). This extraction of critical comfort control information from the broader HVAC data set makes it easier to identify issues without being overwhelmed by noise.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality monitoring by focusing on the specific local parameter of proportional error and its derivative, rather than uniformly monitoring all HVAC parameters. This localized approach to quality monitoring improves critical issue detection while maintaining comfort control information integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for light commercial building solutions (LCBS). Solutions and other systems may incorporate lightweight alerting service, auto-adjustment of gateway poll rates based on the needs of various consuming applications, detecting loss of space comfort control in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, HVAC capacity loss alerting using relative degree days and accumulated stage run time with operational equivalency checks, and HVAC alerting for loss of heat or cool capacity using delta temperature and dependent system properties. Also, incorporated may be triggering s subset of analytics by automatically inferring HVAC equipment details from controller configuration details, ensuring reliability of analytics by retaining logical continuity of HVAC equipment operational data even when controllers and other parts of the system are replaced, and an LCBS gateway with workflow and mechanisms to associate to a contractor account.