Zone Controller Root Cause Diagnosis for Building HVAC Sensor Failures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing building management systems require labor-intensive manual evaluation to identify the root cause of failures, leading to inefficiencies and potential errors in fault detection and diagnostics, as they often generate multiple faults for a single device and can't accurately determine the correct root cause of a failure.
Innovation Solution
A zone controller with a processor and communication component that performs real-time root cause analysis by detecting deviations in temperature and airflow measurements, generating repair codes to replace sensors or release overrides, and providing these codes to a remote device for corrective actions, thereby reducing manual labor and time to repair.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual evaluation by technician is used to identify root cause, then flexibility in analysis is maintained, but labor intensity and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-diagnosis by automatically analyzing sensor data and generating repair codes without requiring manual technician intervention. The zone controller independently identifies root causes through automated algorithms that evaluate multiple potential causes and determine the most likely failure source.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical analysis by technicians with automated electronic processing. The system uses processors to execute diagnostic algorithms, analyze sensor readings, and generate repair codes, substituting human cognitive processes with computational automation.
2Reliability
If FDD rules are used to detect faults, then fault detection capability is provided, but accuracy in identifying root cause deteriorates due to multiple faults being generated for single device
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the fault diagnosis process into distinct analytical stages. Instead of treating all faults uniformly, it divides the analysis into evaluating individual sensor failures, communication failures, and control failures separately, then integrates results to identify the root cause among multiple potential faults.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than starting with fault detection and trying to find causes, the system inverts the approach by starting with potential root causes and determining which one explains the observed symptoms. It works backward from possible failures to match against actual system behavior.
3Measurement precision
If multiple sensors and devices are deployed for monitoring, then measurement coverage is improved, but system complexity and potential failure points increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple diagnostic functions into a single integrated zone controller. Instead of having separate diagnostic systems for temperature, airflow, and pressure sensors, it combines all sensor monitoring and root cause analysis capabilities in one unified device that processes data from multiple sources simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The zone controller is designed with multi-functionality to handle various types of sensor failures and diagnostic scenarios. It can detect and diagnose issues with temperature sensors, airflow sensors, communication failures, and control failures using the same integrated processing architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
There is described a zone controller and method for identifying a root cause failure at a zone. The zone controller determines whether a temperature measurement deviates from a temperature setpoint of the temperature sensor, and generates a first repair code, a second repair code, and/or a third repair code. The first repair code replaces a temperature sensor in response to detecting that a reading of the temperature sensor has failed. The second repair code releases an operator override on the reading of the temperature sensor in response to detecting that the reading of the temperature sensor has been overridden. The third repair code releases an operator override on a setpoint of the temperature sensor in response to detecting that the setpoint of the temperature sensor is outside the predetermined setpoint range. One or more of these repair codes are provided to a remote device.