WO2018165537A1

WO2018165537A1 - Estimating potential energy savings from systems in occupied region.

Info

Publication number: WO2018165537A1
Application number: PCT/US2018/021720
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jürgo-Sören PREDEN
Original assignee: Thinnect, Inc.
Priority date: 2017-03-09
Filing date: 2018-03-09
Publication date: 2018-09-13

Abstract

A system and method enables estimation of occupancy levels and other relevant parameters in a room, area, building or an open space (such as a parking lot or a city street). The areas listed are examples of occupied regions for which obtainable energy savings can be estimated if automation that uses occupancy and other relevant information as an input will be implemented in the occupied region. The system has autonomous sensor units that are equipped with a sensor detecting movement and/or other parameters, a wireless communication interface and a power supply. The sensor units are installed temporarily to obtain estimations for potential energy savings using automation.

Description

ESTIMATING POTENTIAL ENERGY SAVINGS FROM SYSTEMS IN OCCUPIED REGION.

Jiirgo-Soren Preden

Priority Claims/Related Applications

This application claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) and 120 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/469,175, filed March 9, 2017 and entitled "A system and method for estimating potential energy savings from lighting and HVAC systems based on occupancy and other parameter estimation using wireless sensors", the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Field

The disclosed solution falls in the field of energy saving and monitoring systems. Background

There is a wide range of energy saving solutions that rely on automation to obtain energy saving in lighting, HVAC and other automation applications that could be applied in buildings, facilities or city streets. However, it is very difficult to obtain an accurate estimate for the actual savings that will be obtained by implementing automation for a lighting, HVAC or other system in a given region using automation rules, which oftentimes holds the users (customers) back from implementing automation.

It is desirable, however, to be able to provide an automated energy saving, and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 illustrates an example of an implementation of an energy saving determining system;

Figure 2 illustrates a method for energy saving determination; and

Figure 3 illustrates an example of an energy saving report generated by the system Detailed Description of One or More Embodiments

The disclosure is particularly applicable to a system and method for estimating energy saving using a plurality of sensors with a wireless network for a set of building systems, like HVAC, etc. and it is in this context that the disclosure will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the system and method may be used to estimate energy savings for a room, area, building, an open space, one or more systems in other larger system including facilities or city streets. The disclosed system and method provides information to a user on the potential savings that can be obtained by implementing an automation system for systems of a facility, such as a building, a larger facility or city streets.

The disclosed solution enables estimation of occupancy levels and other relevant parameters in a room, area, building or an open space (such as a parking lot, a city street, a storage area and a loading area.) The areas listed are examples of occupied regions for which obtainable energy savings can be estimated if automation that uses occupancy and other relevant information as an input will be implemented in the occupied region. The solution consists of autonomous sensor units that are equipped with a sensor detecting movement and/or other parameters, a wireless communication interface and a power supply. The sensor units are installed temporarily to obtain estimations for potential energy savings using automation. The collected information on occupancy and other parameters can be used for the purpose of estimating energy saving that can be obtained with an automation system, which uses occupancy and other sensor information in real time for controlling various systems, such as lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, transportation (e.g., elevators or escalators) or other systems in the exemplary embodiment used for estimating energy saving in a building with the various systems.

Figure 1 illustrates an example of an implementation of an energy saving determining system 100 that may estimate occupancy and other relevant parameters. The system 100 may include a plurality of sensor devices with a wireless interface 102 that form a network as shown in Figure 1, a gateway 104 that wirelessly receives the data directly or indirectly from each sensor device 102 and enables automated and real-time communication of the collected sensor data to a backend system 106, such as a server computer, where occupancy and other sensor data is collected and visualized and potential energy savings for the monitored occupied region, such as a room, area, building or open space, are estimated. Each sensor device 102 may sense different parameters, such as movement, natural light level, temperature, humidity and other parameters in the occupied region being monitored. Examples of such sensors include commercially available movement sensors, such as McWong Pacwave sensor series (www.mcwonginc.com/products_sensors.aspx) or Panasonic AMN PIR sensors

(na.industrial.panasonic.com/products/sensors/sensors-automotive-industrial-app]ications/pir- motion-sensor-papirs/series/amn-napion-series/1391?reset=l), ambient light sensors, such as Honeywell SD5610-001, environmental sensors capable of measuring temperature and/or humidity, such as Bosch BME280. Each sensor device 102 may receive the data from the monitored environment, process that data and store the data locally before communicating the raw and or processed data. Each sensor device 102 may have a wireless communication interface and each of the devices 102 may be powered by battery or mains.

Each sensor device 102 may consist of hardware and software. The hardware consists of a microcontroller and a radio (which may be integrated into the microcontroller) with sensors interfaced to the microcontroller. The individual hardware components are typically commercially available components, which are integrated typically into a custom device designed for the purpose. Each sensor device 102 may be equipped with one or more sensors, such as sensors to measure the different occupied region parameters like motion, temperature, etc., which are typically integrated into a single enclosure with the rest of the sensor device 102 components (such as power supply, printed circuit board). The software in each sensor device 102 may consist of the communication software modules, the sensor drivers and the application software modules that may be loaded and executed by the microcontroller or processor of the sensor device. The clocks of each sensor device 102 may be synchronized centrally or by the Gateway device 104 to ensure accurate timestamping of collected and processed sensor data.

The communication gateway device 104 consists of hardware and software, implementing the function of relaying data packets from the sensor devices 102 to the backend 106 device. The communication gateway 104 is based on commercially available hardware and it is typically powered by mains power, but it may also be powered by batteries. The communication gateway 104 may have at least two communication interfaces: one for communication with the sensor devices 102 and one for communication with the backend 106 device. Communication between the gateway device and the backend 106 (possibly via the internet) may be implemented using local wireless interface (such as WiFi), local wired interface (such as Ethernet), wide area fiber interface or a cellular network (such as 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G). The communication gateway 104 software runs on a standard operating system, such as Linux, with application level software modules implementing the communication function.

The backend 106 may consist only of software, being hosted on a cloud server platform or it may consist of dedicated hardware and software. The backend 106 has a communication interface for communicating with the Communication Gateway 104. The backend 106 has a database for storing data collected by the sensor devices and application modules for processing the collected data. The communication gateway device 104 and the backend 106 may also be integrated into a single unit, in which case the communication interface between these two devices may be omitted.

To obtain estimation of occupancy and other relevant parameters for an occupied region, such as a room, area, building or open space, the sensor devices 102 are installed in the occupied region for which the estimation needs to be obtained. Each of the sensor devices 102 may be installed in the ceiling, walls or poles in the occupied region to obtain data with the highest quality. The sensor devices 102 may be installed and fixed, for example, using a method that enables very quick installation, such as magnets or double sided tape. Once the sensor devices 102 have been installed, each sensor device 102 starts sensing, collecting and communicating occupancy and other sensor data. The deployment of the system needs no network planning and the network properties of the sensor devices 102 need not be configured at deployment time for the reasons described below. The sensor devices 102 may

communicate the movement and other sensor data every time a parameter value change is detected or they may store the data locally and communicate the data at regular intervals or when a predefined amount of data has been collected. A parameter value change is defined as a percentage of change of the full scale or a change of the parameter value greater than specific units. When a percentage of full scale of is used to identify parameter value change, the full scale of the parameter is 120 and 5% of change is defined as the criteria for change then every time the parameter value changes more than 6 units a value change is reported (e.g., when the value changes from 21 to 30 the parameter value change is reported but when the value changes from 21 to 25 the change of value is not reported). When a change of the parameter value greater than specific units is used to identify parameter value change and the criteria for change is 3 units then every time the parameter value changes more than 3 units the value change is reported (e.g., when the value changes from 21 to 25 the parameter value change is reported but when the value changes from 21 to 22 the change of value is not reported).

For communication, the sensor devices 102 form a wireless network (which may be a star or a mesh type of network) as shown in Figure 1 in an ad-hoc manner, requiring no planning or configuration of the network. Specifically, once the sensor devices 102 have been installed and powered, they auto-form the network and start communicating data. The collected data may be communicated to a remote backend or it may be stored at the backend 106, which is located at the premises, where the sensor devices are located.

The locations of the individual sensor devices in the network may be configured after installation using a visual user interface either on a handheld device, on the backend 106 or on a computer, which communicates with the backend 106 to associate the data collected by a sensor device 102 with the occupancy of the area being monitored. For configuration purposes, direct communication with the sensor device may be used, switching on and off an LED on the device for identification.

The data collected by the sensor devices 102 is used to create information on occupancy and other parameters of the monitored occupied region. This information may characterize the times of the day and times of the week when the occupied region is used and other relevant parameter values. The created information also may characterize the lengths of the periods that the region is being used and the temporal characteristics of other relevant parameter values. The individual data items collected by each sensor device 102 reflects the state of the monitored phenomena/parameter (such as light level, movement, temperature, humidity or other phenomena) at the time the data was sampled. Each collected data item is associated with the time when the data was sampled and the identifier of the sensor device that sampled the data and/or the location where the data item was sampled. An example of a data item collected by a sensor may look the following:

Sensor ID: 0x2345

Location: Xcoordinate, Ycoordinate

Time: 10:35 01.01.2017

Data type: movement

Data value: 0

In some embodiments, the location data in each piece of sensor data, if it is present, may be in a relative or absolute coordinate system or in a relative positioning system (e.g., sensor 1 in conference room A). The data value in the sensor data may be represented in engineering units or it may be the raw data value sampled from the sensor device. Each sensor device 102 may communicate a single data item at a time but the sensor device 102 may also communicate a collection of data items at one time, in which case one or more of the elements in the data item may be omitted and other elements may be added.

Figure 2 illustrates a method for energy saving determination 200. The method shown in Figure 1 may be implemented using the elements of the system 100 shown in Figure 1 and the method processes may be executed by the backend 106 and the processor of the backend 106. Alternatively, the processes shown in Figure 2 may be performed by other hardware or software. In the method, to estimate the energy savings obtainable with automation, the power consumption of the lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling, transportation or other system for the monitored region (s) and other parameters may be supplied as (a) configuration parameter(s) (e.g., the typical hours of operation for these systems) (202) to the backend 106 in one embodiment along with the data from the various sensors. The lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling, transportation or other system power may characterize the power of an existing solution or a solution that is planned to be installed.

The method may retrieve a set of automation rules (204) wherein each automation rule may correspond to a particular system that is part of the occupied region. Then, to estimate the energy savings, the application of planned automation rules may be emulated to the systems for which energy savings estimates are needed. In each automation rule, a power level for the systems to be automated is provided as a minimum (standby) power level and a system normal power level, but it may be also expressed as a linear function dependent of one or more parameters being monitored. For example, when the occupancy level is low or when there is no occupancy, the light level of lights may be dimmed to a minimum but when the occupancy level is high the lights may be adjusted to a higher level. Similarly, the power consumed (and the output) by a ventilation system may be adjusted based on the detected C02 or occupancy levels in the monitored region. Furthermore, there can be many different power normal levels for a system. For example, a lighting system could run at 10%, 20% or 100% normal power level.

The method may then use the sensor data (detected C02 levels or lighting level) in the occupied region and the set of rules to estimate energy savings in the occupied region (206). A sample formula for estimating the obtainable power savings may be the following: saved kWh = currentOperationHoursPerWeek * systemNormalPowerkW - ((currentOperationHoursPerWeek - hoursPerWeekWhenNo Occupancy) * systemMinirnumPowerkW + (currentOperationHoursPerWeek - hoursPerWeekWhenOccupancy) * systemNormalPowerkW) where currentOperationHoursPerWeek is a parameter provided for the occupied region, systemNormalPowerkW is a value contained in the set of rules for the particular occupied region, hoursPerWeekWhenNoOccupancy is a value determined from a movement sensor or occupancy sensor, systerr inimumPowerkW is a value contained in the set of rules for the particular occupied region and hoursPerWeekWhenOccupancy is a value determined from a movement sensor or occupancy sensor.

The planned automation rules for the lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling, transportation or other system can be specified in the backend 106 for each individual region within an occupied region or as a single rule for all the regions being monitored. The automation rule(s) may use time of the day, movement and natural light information as inputs to the automation rule.

As an example, an automation rule for lighting controls may be the following:

From 11:00pm to 5:00am

If_(movement)

Light level 50%

Else

Light level 5%

From 5:00am to 11:00pm

If_(movement)

Light level 80%

Else

Light level 40%

In the example above, the specific light levels correspond to specific lighting system power consumptions (and effective light levels), these power consumption estimates are used as an input for the power estimation method described above.

As an example, an automation rule for HVAC controls may be the following: From 7:00pm to 7:00am

If_(number_movement_events_in_hour > 20)

Set HVAC to 50%

Else

Light level 5%

From 7:00am to 7:00pm

Set HVAC to 100%

In the example above, the HVAC system is run at full power only during the hours when employees are typically in the building, during other hours the HVAC system is run at minimum power unless there is significant amount of movement in the building, in which case the HVAC system is run at half the power. The different power levels of the HVAC system correspond to specific power consumption of the HVAC system and these power consumption estimates are used as an input for the power estimation method described above.

The information on occupancy, natural light levels and other parameter values can be combined with the specified automation rules to provide estimates on potential energy savings when the occupancy, natural light level and other parameter value information is used to control the operation of the lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling, transportation or other systems. Different automation rules can be alternated to obtain information on the potential savings that could be obtained with these automation rules. The solution may enable comparison of savings obtainable with different automation rules. The savings estimations can be provided in the form of a chart or a table. An example of an energy saving report generated by the system is shown in Figure 2. A sample energy saving report may look the following:

Energy saving report (thousands kWh)

In the above the consumed power is calculated based on the estimated power consumption using the collected sensor information and the defined rules, the saving is calculated by subtracting the consumed power from the power that was consumed prior to installing the automation.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the disclosure and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the disclosure and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

The system and method disclosed herein may be implemented via one or more components, systems, servers, appliances, other subcomponents, or distributed between such elements. When implemented as a system, such systems may include an/or involve, inter alia, components such as software modules, general-purpose CPU, RAM, etc. found in general- purpose computers. In implementations where the innovations reside on a server, such a server may include or involve components such as CPU, RAM, etc., such as those found in general-purpose computers.

Additionally, the system and method herein may be achieved via implementations with disparate or entirely different software, hardware and/or firmware components, beyond that set forth above. With regard to such other components (e.g., software, processing components, etc.) and/or computer-readable media associated with or embodying the present inventions, for example, aspects of the innovations herein may be implemented consistent with numerous general purpose or special purpose computing systems or configurations. Various exemplary computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the innovations herein may include, but are not limited to: software or other components within or embodied on personal computers, servers or server computing devices such as routing/connectivity components, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, consumer electronic devices, network PCs, other existing computer platforms, distributed computing environments that include one or more of the above systems or devices, etc.

In some instances, aspects of the system and method may be achieved via or performed by logic and/or logic instructions including program modules, executed in association with such components or circuitry, for example. In general, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that performs particular tasks or implement particular instructions herein. The inventions may also be practiced in the context of distributed software, computer, or circuit settings where circuitry is connected via communication buses, circuitry or links. In distributed settings, control/instructions may occur from both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

The software, circuitry and components herein may also include and/or utilize one or more type of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that is resident on, associable with, or can be accessed by such circuits and/or computing components. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and can accessed by computing component. Communication media may comprise computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and/or other components. Further, communication media may include wired media such as a wired network or direct- wired connection, however no media of any such type herein includes transitory media.

Combinations of the any of the above are also included within the scope of computer readable media.

In the present description, the terms component, module, device, etc. may refer to any type of logical or functional software elements, circuits, blocks and/or processes that may be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, the functions of various circuits and/or blocks can be combined with one another into any other number of modules. Each module may even be implemented as a software program stored on a tangible memory (e.g., random access memory, read only memory, CD-ROM memory, hard disk drive, etc.) to be read by a central processing unit to implement the functions of the innovations herein. Or, the modules can comprise prograrnming instructions transmitted to a general purpose computer or to processing/graphics hardware via a transmission carrier wave. Also, the modules can be implemented as hardware logic circuitry implementing the functions encompassed by the innovations herein. Finally, the modules can be implemented using special purpose instructions (SIMD instructions), field programmable logic arrays or any mix thereof which provides the desired level performance and cost.

As disclosed herein, features consistent with the disclosure may be implemented via computer-hardware, software and/or firmware. For example, the systems and methods disclosed herein may be embodied in various forms including, for example, a data processor, such as a computer that also includes a database, digital electronic circuitry, firmware, software, or in combinations of them. Further, while some of the disclosed implementations describe specific hardware components, systems and methods consistent with the innovations herein may be implemented with any combination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Moreover, the above-noted features and other aspects and principles of the innovations herein may be implemented in various environments. Such environments and related applications may be specially constructed for performing the various routines, processes and/or operations according to the invention or they may include a general-purpose computer or computing platform selectively activated or reconfigured by code to provide the necessary functionality. The processes disclosed herein are not inherently related to any particular computer, network, architecture, environment, or other apparatus, and may be implemented by a suitable combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. For example, various general-purpose machines may be used with programs written in accordance with teachings of the invention, or it may be more convenient to construct a specialized apparatus or system to perform the required methods and techniques.

Aspects of the method and system described herein, such as the logic, may also be implemented as functionality programmed into any of a variety of circuitry, including programmable logic devices ("PLDs"), such as field programmable gate arrays ("FPGAs"), programmable array logic ("PAL") devices, electrically programmable logic and memory devices and standard cell-based devices, as well as application specific integrated circuits. Some other possibilities for implementing aspects include: memory devices, microcontrollers with memory (such as EEPROM), embedded microprocessors, firmware, software, etc.

Furthermore, aspects may be embodied in microprocessors having software-based circuit emulation, discrete logic (sequential and combinatorial), custom devices, fuzzy (neural) logic, quantum devices, and hybrids of any of the above device types. The underlying device technologies may be provided in a variety of component types, e.g., metal-oxide

semiconductor field-effect transistor ("MOSFET") technologies like complementary metal- oxide semiconductor ("CMOS"), bipolar technologies like emitter-coupled logic ("ECL"), polymer technologies (e.g., silicon-conjugated polymer and metal-conjugated polymer-metal structures), mixed analog and digital, and so on.

It should also be noted that the various logic and/or functions disclosed herein may be enabled using any number of combinations of hardware, firmware, and/or as data and/or instructions embodied in various machine-readable or computer-readable media, in terms of their behavioral, register transfer, logic component, and/or other characteristics. Computer- readable media in which such formatted data and/or instructions may be embodied include, but are not limited to, non-volatile storage media in various forms (e.g., optical, magnetic or semiconductor storage media) though again does not include transitory media. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description, the words "comprise," "comprising," and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of "including, but not limited to." Words using the singular or plural number also include the plural or singular number respectively.

Additionally, the words "herein," "hereunder," "above," "below," and words of similar import refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. When the word "or" is used in reference to a list of two or more items, that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list and any combination of the items in the list.

Although certain presently preferred implementations of the invention have been specifically described herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains that variations and modifications of the various implementations shown and described herein may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention be limited only to the extent required by the applicable rules of law.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodiment of the disclosure, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

Claims:

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of sensor devices, each sensor device having a wireless interface and being removably installed in an occupied region for an audit and collecting data about the occupied region, the sensor devices automatically forming a network; and

a backend that determines an estimated energy savings from one or more energy consuming systems in the occupied region based on the data about the occupied region collected from the plurality of sensor devices and a set of automation rules to be apphed to the systems in the occupied region.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a gateway connected to the plurality of sensors and the backend, the gateway enabling automated and real-time communication of collected and processed sensor data to the backend.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each automation rule for an energy consuming system further comprises a standby power level for the energy consuming system and a normal power level for the energy consuming system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy consuming system is a lighting system, an HVAC system and a transportation system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the occupied region is one of a room, an area, a building and an open space.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the open space is one of a parking lot, a storage area, a loading area and a street in a city.

7. A method, comprising:

collecting data by a plurality of sensor devices about an occupied region;

automatically forming, by the sensor devices, a network;

wirelessly communicating the sensor data to a backend over the automatically formed network; and

determining an estimated energy savings from one or more energy consuming systems in the occupied region based on the data about the occupied region collected from the plurality of sensor devices and a set of automation rules to be apphed to the systems in the occupied region.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising automated and real-time

communications, by a gateway connected to the plurality of sensors and the backend, of collected and processed sensor data to the backend.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein each automation rule for an energy consuming system further comprises a standby power level for the energy consuming system and a normal power level for the energy consuming system.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the energy consuming system is a lighting system, an HVAC system and a transportation system.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the occupied region is one of a room, an area, a building and an open space.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the open space is one of a parking lot, a storage area, a loading area and a street in a city.

13. The method for claim 7 further comprising removing the plurality of sensor devices.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein removing the plurality of sensor devices further comprises removing the plurality of sensor device when an audit is completed.