Control method and apparatus for an air conditioner using occupant feedback

• US 20070138307A1
• Filed: 09/10/2004
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Teck Khoo
• Original Assignee: Teck Khoo
• Inventors: Khoo, Teck
• Application Number:
  US10/571,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20070138307A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 236/1.C
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/54 using one central controller connected to several sub-controllers
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/50 Air quality properties
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/20 Feedback from users
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 30/70 Efficient control or regulation technologies, e.g. for control of refrigerant flow, motor or heating

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for determining a command which controls a device in a heating ventilation aid-conditioning (HVAC) system 10. A plurality of comfort related values are entered by occupants of an environment to be air conditioned. A rule-base takes the comfort related values, and one or more rules are applied to these so as to produce a fuzzy results. This is then defuzzified so as to obtain a crisp device command value.

Claims

1. A method of determining a command for a device in a heating ventilation air-conditioning (HVAC) system, said device being arranged to control a characteristic of an environment occupied by one or more occupants, the method comprises the steps of:

a) obtaining a plurality of comfort related values from an occupant,

b) inputting said comfort related values into a rule-base, said rule-base being associated with the command for the device and comprising at least one rule, each of the at least one rule having one or more of the comfort related values as an input variable,

c) obtaining a result from each of the at least one rule in the form of fuzzy data, and

d) defuzzifying the result thereby obtaining a crisp device command value.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein if there are a plurality of rules in the rule-base, the method further comprising,

if there are more than one result, combining the fuzzy data results for each of the plurality of rules, and

defuzzifying the combination of said results thereby obtaining a crisp device command value.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of rule-bases, each rule-base being associated with one of a plurality of HVAC devices, the method further comprising the step of

repeating steps a) to d) for each rule-base, thereby providing crisp device command values for each of the HVAC system devices.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein some of the plurality of comfort related values are utilised by more than one rule-base.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein each characteristic of the environment is either

the humidity of the conditioned-air supplied by the HVAC system,

the temperature of the conditioned-air supplied by the HVAC system,

the supply rate of the conditioned-air supplied by the HVAC system,

the amount of atmosphere recycled from the environment in the conditioned-air supplied by the HVAC system, or

the temperature of the air in the environment or quality of the air in the environment.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the comfort related values include the one or more occupant'"'"'s perception of temperature, humidity, odours, airflow rate in the environment, or medical symptoms.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the medical symptoms include,

whether the one or more occupants are feeling lethargic or stuffy, or

whether the one or more occupants are suffering from headaches, itchy eyes, blocked nose, or dry eyes.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more occupants input their comfort related values into a computer terminal, said computer terminal being part of a computer network.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the device command value is communicated to the HVAC device via a computer network.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the HVAC device is controlled by a building energy management system (BEMS), said BEMS being computer based and linked to said computer network.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the comfort related values used by the rule-base are the most recently submitted comfort related values by any one of the one or more occupants.

13. A carrier medium arranged to carry elements of computer code which, when run on a computer, carry out the steps of claim 1.

12. (canceled)

14. An apparatus arranged to determine a command for a device in a heating ventilation air-conditioning (HVAC) system, said device being arranged to control a characteristic of an environment occupied by one or more occupants, the apparatus comprising,

a terminal for inputting a plurality of comfort related values from the one or more occupants,

a rule-base arranged to receive said comfort related values, said rule-base being associated with the command for the device and comprises a plurality of rules, each of the plurality of rules being arranged to receive one or more of the comfort related values as an input variable and arranged to output fuzzy data results, and

a combining engine arranged for combining the fuzzy data results for each of the plurality of rules and arranged for defuzzifying the combination of said fuzzy data results to determine a crisp device command value.