SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISPLAYING HVAC INFORMATION

• US 20110083094A1
• Filed: 09/27/2010
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Laycock, Graeme, Smith, Laura
• Granted Patent: US 8,584,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/772
• 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 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Described herein are systems and methods for displaying HVAC information. One embodiment provides a method for displaying HVAC information including obtaining data indicative of a plurality of HVAC components of an HVAC system. For example, this data may be maintained by a building management system. The method further includes defining data indicative of a display object for rendering on a client display, the display object including a plurality of geometrically arranged indicator blocks, wherein each indicator block is associated with a respective HVAC component. For the purposes of this display object, each indicator block is bound with respective source of comfort level data for its associated HVAC component. Display characteristics are defined for each indicator block responsive to the comfort level data. The display characteristics are selectively modified responsive to changes in the comfort level data. The resulting display object is referred to as a “comfort map” for the present purposes.

Claims

1. A method for displaying HVAC information, the method including;

obtaining data indicative of a plurality of HVAC components of an HVAC system;

defining data indicative of a display object for rendering on a client display, the display object including a plurality of geometrically arranged indicator blocks, wherein each indicator block is associated with a respective HVAC component;

binding each indicator block with a respective source of comfort level data for its associated HVAC component; and

for each indicator block, defining display characteristics responsive to the comfort level data, and selectively modifying the display characteristics responsive to changes in the comfort level data.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of HVAC components include a plurality of Air Terminal Units (ATUs).

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein each indicator block is associated with a respective ATU.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein each HVAC component has an assigned comfort setpoint, and wherein the defining of display characteristics responsive to the comfort level data includes a step of analysing the comfort level data based on the comfort setpoint.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the display characteristics visually indicate whether a region serviced by the relevant HVAC component satisfies predefined comfort parameters.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the display characteristics visually indicate a relationship between the comfort level data for the relevant HVAC component and a comfort level setpoint for the relevant HVAC component.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein the display characteristics include the colour of the indicator block.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the display component is sized responsive to the number of HVAC components.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the indicator blocks are quadrangular.

10. A method according to claim 1 wherein the indicator blocks are arranged as a grid.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein rows in the grid represent a first HVAC system attribute and columns in the grid represent a second HVAC system attribute.

12. A method according to claim 1 wherein a given indicator block, when rendered on a client display, provides an interactive object for accessing additional information describing its associated HVAC component.

13. A method according to claim 1 wherein the source of comfort level data is a data reference in a building management system.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein the data reference is indicative of a value derived from analysis of one or more point values associated with the relevant HVAC component.

15. A method according to claim 1 wherein the source of comfort level data is an HVAC component.

16. A method according to claim 1 wherein the comfort level data is derived from one or more parameters including temperature data.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein the one or more parameters additionally include humidity data.

18. A computer readable medium containing code that, when executed on one or more processors, causes the processors to perform a method according to claim 1.

19. A computer system configured to perform a method according to claim 1.