Intra-Area Environmental Control System and Intra-Area Environmental Control Method

• US 20110093126A1
• Filed: 10/20/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: MORI, Yasuhide, SAKURAI, Takao, NAONO, Ken, TOBA, Minako, EGI, Masashi
• Granted Patent: US 8,352,093 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/291
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/82 Energy audits or management systems therefor

Abstract

An environmental control system according to the present invention is a system for controlling environmental devices by which a work status and a behavior status are monitored and the environmental devices are finely controlled in accordance with the statuses to improve comfort. The environmental control system includes a communication unit, a unit for detecting environments, a unit for detecting a work status, a unit for obtaining power consumption, a unit for determining the control of a device, and a unit for transmitting a control signal, and enables fine control in accordance with a work type.

Claims

1. An intra-area environmental control system which includes a plurality of environmental devices that control environments in an area, and a control apparatus that monitors conditions in the area to control the respective environmental devices in accordance with the conditions in the area, the control apparatus comprising:

a unit for setting control policies for the respective environmental devices in accordance with a work status in the area on the basis of predetermined evaluation indexes;

a unit for obtaining information about power consumption of the respective environmental devices;

a unit for detecting environmental information of the area;

a unit for detecting the work status of each person in the area; and

an evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit,

wherein the evaluation indexes of the respective environmental devices are calculated on the basis of the environmental information of the area and the information about the power consumption of the respective environmental devices, a combination of controls of the respective environmental devices adapted to the control policies is determined on the basis of the calculated evaluation indexes, the set control policies, and the work status of each person in the area, and the respective environmental devices are controlled on the basis of the determined combination.

2. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 1,

wherein the unit for detecting the work status includes a PC of each person in the area and a camera coupled to the PC, and

wherein the work status of each person is analyzed on the basis of an image of the camera and operation logs of the PC, and classified into any one of preliminarily-defined work types.

3. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 2,

wherein the unit for detecting the work status of each person in the area determines whether or not the person is working on the PC on the basis of analysis of the PC operation logs, identifies a work type on the basis of an operation application if the person is working on the PC, and analyzes the work status on the basis of image analysis if the person is not working on the PC.

4. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 1,

wherein the control apparatus includes a function of setting a work adaptive condition, as the control policy for the environmental devices, which provides an environment suitable for each person to efficiently carry out the work and a function of calculating control target values of the respective environmental devices, as the control policy for the environmental devices, which satisfy the work adaptive condition, and

wherein the control apparatus combines the controls of the respective environmental devices which satisfy the work adaptive condition in the area on the basis of the calculated evaluation indexes.

5. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 4,

wherein, in the case where the work status detected by the unit for detecting the work status is a PC operation, the control policies for the environmental devices change the speed of a CPU in accordance with the type of an application being executed.

6. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 1,

wherein the evaluation indexes include those of a comfort level, an energy saving level, and production efficiency, and control priorities of the respective evaluation indexes and allowable control ranges of the respective evaluation indexes can be set,

wherein the evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit calculates the current evaluation indexes of the respective environmental devices on the basis of the environmental information of the area and the information about the power consumption of the respective environmental devices, and determines a combination of controls of the respective environmental devices adapted to the control policies on the basis of the calculated current evaluation indexes, the set control policies and the work status of each person in the area.

7. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 6,

wherein the evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit calculates all combinations of controls of the respective environmental devices which satisfy the work adaptive condition in the area.

8. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 1,

wherein the control apparatus includes a data holding unit having a control table of the respective environmental devices, and

wherein the control table contains control statuses of the respective environmental devices installed in the area to be controlled.

9. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 1,

wherein the control apparatus includes a database which holds environmental logs and a database which holds power consumption logs, and

wherein the evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit has a function of calculating a comfort level, as the evaluation index, on the basis of the environmental information in the area,

a function of calculating an energy saving level, as the evaluation index, on the basis of the information about the power consumption of the respective environmental devices, and

a function of calculating production efficiency, as the evaluation index, on the basis of the information about the work status of each person in the area.

10. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 9,

wherein the evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit calculates the energy saving level using Formula 1.

11. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 9,

wherein the evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit calculates the comfort level index using Formula 2.

(i) When a discomfort index Cm=67.5,

(comfort level index)=Cm+(CO2 concentration weighted value)

(iii) When a discomfort index Cm<

67.5,

(comfort level index)=Cm−

(CO2 concentration weighted value)

wherein Cm represents a discomfort index 

 

(2)

12. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 9,

wherein the evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit calculates the production efficiency using Formula 4.

13. An intra-environmental control system which includes a plurality of environmental devices that control environments in an area, and a control apparatus that monitors conditions in the area to control the respective environmental devices in accordance with the conditions in the area, the system comprising:

a unit for setting control policies for the respective environmental devices in accordance with a work status in the area on the basis of predetermined evaluation indexes;

a unit for obtaining information about power consumption of the respective environmental devices;

a unit for detecting environmental information of the area;

a unit for detecting the work status of each person in the area;

an evaluation index calculating and control device determining unit; and

a display apparatus,

wherein the control apparatus sets the control policies using scripts, calculates the evaluation indexes of the respective environmental devices on the basis of the environmental information of the area and the information about the power consumption of the respective environmental devices, determines a combination of controls of the respective environmental devices adapted to the control policies on the basis of the calculated evaluation indexes, the set control policies, and the work status of each person in the area to control the respective environmental devices, and presents the scripts for setting the control policies for the respective environmental devices and the calculated evaluation indexes on the display apparatus.

14. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 13,

wherein the display apparatus includes an evaluation index condition input user interface, a work adaptive condition input user interface, and an area adaptive condition input user interface for the scripts for setting the control policies.

15. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 13,

wherein the scripts presented on the display apparatus include, as definitions, an evaluation index definition for defining an energy saving level index, a comfort level index, and a production efficiency index, a variable definition for defining actual measurement values of the respective indexes calculated on the basis of actual measurement values obtained by the unit for detecting the environmental information of the area, and a control value definition for defining target values of controls in the indoor environment such as a temperature and humidity,

wherein the scripts is described, as the control policies for the respective environmental devices, an evaluation index condition, a work adaptive condition, and an area adaptive condition,

wherein the evaluation index condition is described the priorities of the energy saving level index, the comfort level index, and the production efficiency index, and allowable control ranges of the respective indexes,

wherein the work adaptive condition is described a control condition adapted to the work status of each person, and

wherein the area adaptive condition is described a control condition adapted to all persons existing in the area.

16. The intra-area environmental control system according to claim 15,

wherein the actual measurement values of the respective indexes of the comfort level, the energy saving level, and the production efficiency are displayed on the display apparatus while being superimposed on a layout of the respective persons in the area.

17. An intra-area environmental control method for controlling environments in an area by using an intra-area environmental control system including a plurality of environmental devices that control the environments in the area, and a control apparatus that monitors conditions in the area to control the respective environmental devices in accordance with the conditions in the area, the method comprising:

setting control policies for the respective environmental devices in accordance with a work status in the area on the basis of predetermined evaluation indexes;

obtaining information about power consumption of the respective environmental devices;

detecting environmental information of the area;

detecting the work status of each person in the area;

calculating the evaluation indexes of the respective environmental devices on the basis of the environmental information of the area and the information about the power consumption of the respective environmental devices;

determining a combination of controls of the respective environmental devices adapted to the control policies on the basis of the calculated evaluation indexes, the set control policies, and the work status of each person in the area; and

controlling the respective environmental devices on the basis of the determined combination.

18. The intra-area environmental control method according to claim 17, the method further comprising:

setting a work adaptive condition, as the control policy for the environmental devices, which provides an environment suitable for each person to efficiently carry out the work;

calculating control target values of the respective environmental devices, as the control policy for the environmental devices, which satisfy the work adaptive condition; and

combining the controls of the respective environmental devices which satisfy the work adaptive condition in the area on the basis of the calculated evaluation indexes.

19. The intra-area environmental control method according to claim 17,

wherein the evaluation indexes including those of a comfort level, an energy saving level, and production efficiency,

the method further comprising:

setting control priorities of the respective evaluation indexes;

setting allowable control ranges of the respective evaluation indexes;

calculating the comfort level on the basis of the environmental information in the area;

calculating the energy saving level on the basis of the information about the power consumption of the environmental devices;

calculating the production efficiency on the basis of the comfort adapted to the work status of each person in the area and the information about the work status of each person in the area; and

displaying the comfort level, the energy saving level, and the production efficiency on the display apparatus.

20. The intra-area environmental control method according to claim 19, the method further comprising:

displaying the actual measurement values of the respective indexes of the comfort level, the energy saving level, and the production efficiency on the display apparatus while superimposing on a layout of the respective persons in the area.