Method for regulating room comfort variables

• US 9,285,135 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2011
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Schweiz AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Schweiz AG (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Gwerder, Markus, Schumacher, Benedikt, Walti, Marcel, Gao, Tianyun
• Primary Examiner(s): McAllister, Steven B
• Assistant Examiner(s): COTOV, JONATHAN J
• Application Number:
  US13/049,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20110230131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,826 Days
• Field of Search: 454/239, 454/256, 700/276
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 11/46 Improving electric energy efficiency or saving
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/61 using timers
• 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 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/77 by controlling the speed of ventilators
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/50 Air quality properties
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1919 characterised by the type of controller
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 30/70 Efficient control or regulation technologies, e.g. for control of refrigerant flow, motor or heating

Abstract

An appropriately treated flow of air is supplied to a room in an automatically executed pulsed operation, in which the air flow is alternately switched on and switched off. The air flow is switched off independently of the room usage state if the regulated room comfort variables lie within a respectively assigned comfort band. If at least one of the regulated room comfort variables lies outside the comfort band assigned to it, the flow of air minimized in respect of its volume is supplied to the room. This means that ventilators used for the exchange of air will be operated at the lowest possible speed, optimized in respect of time and thereby with high energy efficiency.

Claims

1. A method to regulate at least one room comfort variable in at least one room using an air flow supplied via an inlet air duct, comprising:

supplying, by a primary ventilation system, the air flow minimized in respect of volume flow;

regulating a room comfort variable by a regulator device in a comfort band assigned to the room comfort variable; and

controlling supply of the air flow, from the primary ventilation system to the room, in an automatically executed pulsed operation in which the air flow is alternately switched on and switched off, the air flow supplied to the room being switched off when the room comfort variable lies within the comfort band assigned thereto, and the air flow supplied to the room being switched on when at least one out-of-band room comfort variable lies outside the comfort band assigned thereto, to bring about a required change to the at least one out-of-band room comfort variable,

wherein the room comfort variable including an inner comfort band, an outer comfort band and a central comfort band, the central comfort band being within the outer comfort band and the inner comfort band being within the central comfort band, and

said controlling demands the air flow to be switched off when a value of the room comfort variable lies in the inner comfort band and demands switching on the air flow when the value of the room comfort variable reaches the central comfort band, and

a setpoint value related to the at least one room comfort variable of the air flow is changed by a signal from the regulator device to a pre-specified value to obtain an accelerated displacement of an actual value of the at least one room comfort variable into the inner comfort band, when an actual value of the at least one room comfort variable established by the regulator device for the at least one room lies outside the central comfort band.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the air flow supplied to the at least one room is switched off by a flap arranged in the inlet duct of the at least one room and closed by a signal from the regulator device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the air flow supplied to the at least one room is switched off by the primary ventilation system being switched off by a signal of the regulator device.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising:

changing a setpoint value related to the at least one room comfort variable in an air postprocessing module assigned to the at least one room by the signal of the regulator device to the pre-specified value to obtain the accelerated displacement of the actual value of the at least one room comfort variable into the inner comfort band, when an actual value of the at least one room comfort variable established by the regulator device for the at least one room lies outside the central comfort band.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, comprising:

switching off a ventilator arranged in an exhaust air duct of the at least one room when the at least one room comfort variable of the at least one room lies within the inner comfort band.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, comprising:

switching off the primary ventilation system when, in all rooms able to be supplied by the primary ventilation system, each of the at least one room comfort variable lies within the inner comfort band, or when all of the rooms able to be supplied by the primary ventilation system are not occupied.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the at least one room comfort variable regulated by the regulator device includes room temperature.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the at least one room comfort variable regulated by the regulator device includes air quality.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the at least one room comfort variable regulated by the regulator device includes air humidity.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the supply of the air flow is controlled to bring about the required change to at least one-out-of-band room comfort level based on evaluation of the at least one room comfort variable corresponding with the comfort band assigned to each room.