US 12,345,436 B2 · Dynamic ventilation control for a building

Abstract

Appropriate ventilation for a building space while maintaining building comfort includes tracking one or more interior environmental conditions within the building space and one or more exterior environmental conditions outside of the building space during operation of the HVAC system. An environmental model for the building space is learned over time based at least in part on these tracked environmental conditions, where the environmental model predicts an environmental state of the building space in response to operation of the HVAC system under various interior and exterior environmental conditions. A maximum allowed ventilation rate that can be achieved without causing the HVAC system to compromise on any of one or more comfort conditions of the building space is predicted using the environmental model. The outdoor air ventilation damper of the HVAC system is then controlled to provide an appropriate ventilation up to or at the predicted maximum allowed ventilation rate.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method of controlling an outdoor air ventilation damper of a Heating, Ventilating and/or Air Conditioning (HVAC) system that services a building space of a building, the method comprising:

receiving one or more comfort conditions for the building space;
receiving one or more interior environmental conditions within the building space;
receiving one or more exterior environmental conditions;
using the one or more interior environmental conditions within the building space and the one or more exterior environmental conditions when determining a maximum allowed ventilation rate of outside air having the one or more exterior environmental conditions that can be conditioned by the HVAC system without exceeding a heating and/or cooling capacity of the HVAC system and without causing the HVAC system to compromise on any of the one or more comfort conditions for the building space;
and
controlling the HVAC system to achieve the one or more comfort conditions in the building space, including controlling the outdoor air ventilation damper of the HVAC system to provide ventilation up to or at the maximum allowed ventilation rate.

3 more elements

A controller for controlling an outdoor air ventilation damper of a Heating, Ventilating and/or Air Conditioning (HVAC) system that is servicing a building space of a building, the controller comprising:

an output for providing control commands to the outdoor air ventilation damper;
one or more processors operatively coupled to the output, the one or more processors configured to:
determine a measure of currently unused heating and/or cooling capacity of the HVAC system that is not currently used to achieve the one or more comfort conditions in the building space;
determine a maximum additional amount of outside air having one or more exterior environmental conditions that can be admitted by the outdoor air ventilation damper of the HVAC system and conditioned by the currently unused heating and/or cooling capacity of the HVAC system such that the HVAC system does not cause the HVAC system to compromise on any of one or more comfort conditions for the building space;
and
output one or more control commands to the outdoor air ventilation damper to provide ventilation up to or at the maximum allowed ventilation rate.

3 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to:

receive one or more comfort conditions for a building space;
receive one or more interior environmental conditions within the building space and one or more exterior environmental conditions;
use the one or more interior environmental conditions within the building space and the one or more exterior environmental conditions to determine a maximum allowed ventilation rate of outside air that can be conditioned by an HVAC system servicing the building space without exceeding a heating and/or cooling capacity of the HVAC system and without causing the HVAC system to compromise on any of the one or more comfort conditions for the building space;
and
control an outdoor air ventilation damper of the HVAC system to provide ventilation up to or at the maximum allowed ventilation rate.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Dynamic ventilation control for a building

Life of this patent

Dynamic ventilation control for a building

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16