Hvac control system and method

Abstract

A method of controlling the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building, the method comprising the steps of: (a) developing an initial thermal model of the building, and continuously updating the thermal model over time; (b) utilising the thermal model to continuously develop a daily HVAC operating plan for the building; and (c) continuously examining a current HVAC operating plan and optimising the alignment of the current HVAC operation with the current HVAC operating plan.

1 - 13 . (canceled) 
     
     
         14 . A method of controlling the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building, the method comprising the steps of:
 (a) determining a thermal model for the building;   (b) determining expected external meteorological conditions for an area surrounding the building;   (c) determining an external meteorological condition model for the HVAC system;   (d) utilising the external meteorological condition model as the prime factor in calculating an HVAC operating plan of the building.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein said external meteorological condition model is augmented with data from meteorological data suppliers. 
     
     
         16 . A method of controlling the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building, the method comprising the steps of:
 (a) determining a thermal model for the building;   (b) determining an expected human comfort model for users of the building;   (c) determining a power consumption or carbon emission model for the HVAC system;   (d) determining a energy cost model for the HVAC system;   (e) determining an external meteorological condition model for the HVAC system;   (f) applying relative weightings of two or more of the expected human comfort model, power consumption or carbon emission model, energy cost model, and external meteorological condition model for the HVAC system in calculating an HVAC operating plan of the building.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said human comfort model is augmented with personal comfort data of users of the building by means of data feed back from users of the building. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said human comfort model is derived from the ASHRAE standard comfort models. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said power consumption or carbon emission model and said energy cost model is augmented with consumption and pricing data from energy suppliers. 
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . The method  claim 14 , wherein said thermal model is iteratively updated substantially daily. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein said HVAC operating plan is recalculated substantially in increments of minutes. 
     
     
         23 - 29 . (canceled)