System and method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment in an enclosure

• US 20070199336A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ergelis Co.
• Original Assignee: Ergelis Co.
• Inventors: Tantot, Florence
• Application Number:
  US11/511,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20070199336A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 62/157
• 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 11/47 Responding to energy costs
• 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 2130/00 Control inputs relating to environmental factors not covered by group F24F2110/00
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2130/10 Weather information or forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/021 in which a variable is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and device for controlling air-conditioning equipment, in particular to a method for controlling air-conditioning equipment in a chamber or the assembly of chambers consisting in pre-calculating at least one parameter selected between the temperature, chemical composition of the chamber or the assembly of chambers, the energy consumption of air-conditioning equipment and the energy production cost for a given time range by simulation carried out for an arbitrarily large number of explicit calculation formulae for a given time range and in selecting between said formulae the formulae called optimal explicit calculation formulae which meet predefined temperature and chemical composition restrictions and correspond to the minimisation of a cost function related to said energy production cost.

Claims

1. A system for controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures, the system comprising:

a computer operable to calculate in an anticipated manner, by simulation, at least one parameter selected from among the temperature and the chemical composition of the enclosure or set of enclosures, the energy consumption of the environmental conditioning equipment and the cost price of the consumed energy, forecast over a given time period, according to an explicit calculation formula associated with at least one command sequence sent to the environmental conditioning equipment during this time period;

the computer operable to perform this calculation by simulation for a randomly large number of explicit calculation formulas over a given time period; and

the computer operable to select from among the simulated calculation formulas the calculation formula, called optimum calculation formula, which respects the predefined constraints of temperature and chemical composition, and corresponds to the minimisation of a cost function relating to the energy cost price.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising communication means for the acquisition of external data, for example but not necessarily, weather forecast data or data relating to energy availability conditions.

3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a calculation subsystem implementing optimisation algorithms such as the simplex algorithm or other similar algorithms, that make it possible to speed up the process of simulating and selecting the optimum command sequence.

4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising instructions including functions that provide it with specific characteristics of tolerance to breakdowns and continuity of service.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising instructions including functions that enable it to control energy producing equipment.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising instructions including functions that enable it to calculate, in an anticipated manner, the amount of energy produced by the energy producing equipment and the cost price of producing this energy, according to an explicit calculation formula associated with at least one command sequence sent to this equipment and to external data.

7. The system according to claim 5, further comprising instructions including functions that enable it (i) to calculate in an anticipated manner, by simulation, at least one parameter selected from among the temperature and the chemical composition of the enclosure or set of enclosures, the energy consumption of the environmental conditioning equipment, the energy production of the energy producing equipment, and the cost price of the consumed energy and of the produced energy, forecast over a given time period, according to an explicit calculation formula associated with at least one command sequence sent to the environmental conditioning equipment and to the energy producing equipment during this time period, (ii) to perform this calculation by simulation for a randomly large number of explicit calculation formulas over a given time period, and (iii) to select from among the simulated calculation formulas the calculation formula, called optimum calculation formula, which respects the predefined constraints of temperature and chemical composition, and corresponds to the minimisation of a cost function relating to the energy cost price.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising calculation and communication means that enable it to implement automatic transactional sub-processes with external systems.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a calculation subsystem and relay subsystems that enable it to relay the commands from the calculation subsystem to the controlled equipment;

the calculation subsystem and the relay subsystems then comprise communication functions that enable them to exchange data.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the relay subsystems comprise calculation capacities that enable them to calculate the commands to be sent to the environmental conditioning equipment or to the energy producing equipment as the result of explicit calculation formulas applied to the measured values of a certain number of environmental variables.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the calculation subsystem and the relay subsystems comprise functions that automatically enable the calculation subsystem to load and modify in the relay subsystems the explicit calculation formulas used by these relay subsystems to calculate commands to be sent to the controlled equipment.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the calculation subsystem comprises functions that enable it (i) to calculate in an anticipated manner, by simulation, at least one parameter selected from among the temperature and the chemical composition of the enclosure or set of enclosures, the energy consumption of the environmental conditioning equipment, the energy production of the energy producing equipment, the cost price of the consumed energy and of the produced energy, forecast over a given time period, according to explicit calculation formulas sent to the relay subsystems at the start of this time period, (ii) to perform this calculation by simulation for a randomly large number of explicit calculation formulas, and (iii) to select the explicit calculation formulas, called optimum explicit calculation formulas, which respect the predefined constraints of temperature and chemical composition, and correspond to the minimisation of a cost function relating to the energy cost price.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the calculation subsystem is located remotely in relation to the controlled equipment.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the calculation subsystem comprises calculation functions that enable it to calculate the optimum explicit calculation formulas or command sequences for equipment located on different geographical sites.

15. The system according to claim 9, wherein the calculation subsystem or the relay subsystems comprise man-machine interfaces that enable them to describe the characteristics of the environmental conditioning equipment, the characteristics of the enclosure or set of enclosures, and the characteristics of the energy producing equipment, as well as other data.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the enclosure or set of enclosures are a building or a group of buildings, the environmental conditioning equipment is the environmental conditioning equipment of these buildings, the production equipment is made up of electricity generators, cogeneration plants, wind power stations, solar power stations or geothermal power stations, the calculation subsystem is a computer or a set of computers, the relay subsystems are electronic cards or sets of interconnected electronic cards, and the energy sources are electricity, gas, heating oil or biomass.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the enclosure or set of enclosures are a refrigerated warehouse or a cold room, or a set of refrigerated warehouses or cold rooms, and the environmental conditioning equipment consists of the cold production and distribution equipment.

18. A method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures, the method comprising:

calculating in an anticipated manner, by simulation, at least one parameter selected from among the temperature and the chemical composition of the enclosure or set of enclosures, the energy consumption of the environmental conditioning equipment and the cost price of the consumed energy, forecast over a given time period, according to explicit calculation formulas during this time period, the calculation being performed by simulation for a randomly large number of explicit calculation formulas over a given time period; and

selecting from among said explicit calculation formulas the explicit calculation formulas, called optimum explicit calculation formulas, which respect the predefined constraints of temperature and chemical composition, and correspond to the minimisation of a cost function related to the energy cost price.

19. The method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures according to claim 18, further comprising a data-call step corresponding to at least one parameter selected from among the temperature and the chemical composition of the enclosure or set of enclosures, the energy consumption of the environmental conditioning equipment, and the cost price of the energy consumed, forecast over a given time period.

20. The method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures according to claim 18, further comprising acquiring data associated with said enclosure or set of enclosures.

21. The method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures according to claim 18, further comprising anticipated calculation of the amount of energy produced by the energy producing equipment and the cost price of producing this energy, according to the commands sent to this equipment and external data.

22. The method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures according to claim 21, wherein the simulation step is also performed in relation to the energy production of the energy producing equipment and the cost price of the energy produced.

23. The method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures according to claim 18, wherein the explicit calculation formula corresponds to a set of arithmetic and logical operations applied to the environmental variables in order to obtain a command sequence.

24. The method of controlling environmental conditioning equipment for an enclosure or a set of enclosures according to claim 18, wherein the minimisation of the cost function corresponds to a minimisation of the cost price of the energy.

25. A computer program stored in memory, the program comprising:

a first set of instructions operable to obtain weather forecasts and energy prices;

a second set of instructions operable to acquire data relating to at least one enclosure;

a third set of instructions operable to determine energy consumption of environmental conditioning equipment associated with the enclosure;

a fourth set of instructions operable to calculate an anticipated amount of energy production needed; and

a fifth set of instructions optimizing, through automatic simulations, energy consumption for the environmental conditioning equipment.

26. The program of claim 25, further comprising:

a sixth set of instructions automatically purchasing energy based on the optimizing instructions; and

a seventh set of instructions controlling performance of the environmental conditioning equipment based at least in part on the optimizing instructions; and

the enclosure being at least one building.