HVAC system including smart diagnostic capabilities
AssigneeTrane International Inc.
InventorsPrerana Maslekar, Mageshkumar Muthuswamy, Carl L Garrett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for remote diagnostic analysis of a heating, ventilation and air condition (HVAC) system is provided. The system includes a thermostat in operable communication with at least one peripheral component of the HVAC system and configured to receive information relating to the at least one peripheral component, and a server in operable communication with the thermostat for receiving and analyzing the information. The server causes the at least one peripheral component to conduct a diagnostic test and analyzes the test result to perform a root cause analysis of a system malfunction.
Claims18
A computer for remote diagnostic analysis of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system that includes HVAC equipment and that is configured to provide conditioned air to an environment, the computer comprising digital circuitry configured to implement a server configured to at least:
- receive over a network from the HVAC system, conditions of at least one of the HVAC system or the environment recorded during operation of the HVAC system;
- perform a root cause analysis of the conditions to identify a cause of a fault condition at the HVAC system;
- make a determination that the cause of the fault condition is fixable or unfixable by a user of the HVAC system;
- and
- perform one or more operations to address the cause of the fault condition based on the determination, the one or more operations including sending a notification to the HVAC system over the network for on-site display to the user, the notification including at least one of the fault condition, the cause of the fault condition, or the HVAC equipment at the cause of the fault condition,
- wherein when the determination is that the cause of the fault condition is fixable by the user identify a corrective action to address the cause of the fault condition, and the notification sent from the computer to the HVAC system further including an indication of the corrective action.
A method for remote diagnostic analysis of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system that includes HVAC equipment and that is configured to provide conditioned air to an environment, the method comprising at a server computer connected to the HVAC system over a network:
- receiving over a network from the HVAC system, conditions of at least one of the HVAC system or the environment recorded during operation of the HVAC system;
- performing a root cause analysis of the conditions to identify a cause of a fault condition at the HVAC system;
- making a determination that the cause of the fault condition is fixable or unfixable by a user of the HVAC system;
- and
- performing one or more operations to address the cause of the fault condition based on the determination, the one or more operations including sending a notification to the HVAC system over the network for on-site display to the user, the notification including at least one of the fault condition, the cause of the fault condition, or the HVAC equipment at the cause of the fault condition,
- wherein when the determination is that the cause of the fault condition is fixable by the user, performing the one or more operations further includes identifying a corrective action to address the cause of the fault condition, the notification sent from the server computer to the HVAC system further including an indication of the corrective action.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.