System and method for building climate control

Abstract

A system and method for climate control of an environment in a building are provided. The system includes a first loop and second loop for circulating a heating medium. The system also includes a boiler, an energy optimizer and a controller. The method involves circulating a heating medium, providing heat to the heating medium, and controlling the boiler based on various inputs.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An energy savings projection system, comprising:
 an energy meter for detecting fuel used to control temperature of a building;   an outdoor sensor for detecting temperature at the location of the building; and   a computing device for
 maintaining an energy consumption database for storing historical energy consumption data for the building, 
 maintaining an outdoor temperature database for storing historical temperature data for the building, 
 downloading historical outdoor temperature and energy consumption data from the energy consumption database and outdoor temperature database, respectively, 
 isolating data during which space heating or cooling for the building is substantially active from data during which space heating or cooling is substantially inactive, 
 developing an energy consumption trend line representing a best-fit of the historical energy consumption data when regressed against the historical outdoor temperature data, 
 determining an optimized system performance line based on a substantially linear relationship of historical energy use between a maximum energy consumption point at a design temperature and a minimum energy consumption at a balance temperature, and 
 calculating and outputting a projected energy savings based on an area between the energy consumption trend line and the optimized system performance line. 
   
     
     
         2 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 1 , wherein the energy meter is installed at an input energy pathway to the building. 
     
     
         3 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 2 , wherein the input energy pathway corresponds to fuel used for space heating or space cooling. 
     
     
         4 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 1 , wherein the energy consumption database comprises a database maintained by an energy supplier. 
     
     
         5 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 1 , wherein the energy consumption database comprises a database maintained by an entity collecting energy consumption data for the building. 
     
     
         6 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 1 , wherein the energy consumption database is online. 
     
     
         7 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 1 , wherein the outdoor temperature sensor forms part of a weather station operated by a public agency and wherein the outdoor temperature database is accessible via the public agency. 
     
     
         8 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 1 , wherein the historical temperature data and historical energy consumption data are interval data, averaged or totalized over an interval of time. 
     
     
         9 . The energy savings projection system of  claim 8 , wherein the interval of time is one of daily, weekly or hourly. 
     
     
         10 . A method of projecting energy savings for a building, comprising:
 maintaining an energy consumption database for storing historical energy consumption data for the building,   maintaining an outdoor temperature database for storing historical temperature data for the building,   downloading historical outdoor temperature and energy consumption data from the energy consumption database and outdoor temperature database, respectively,   isolating data during which space heating or cooling for the building is substantially active from data during which space heating or cooling is substantially inactive,   developing a historical energy consumption trend line representing a best-fit of the historical energy consumption data when regressed against the historical outdoor temperature data,   determining an optimized system performance line based on a substantially linear relationship of historical energy use between a maximum energy consumption point at a design temperature and a minimum energy point at a balance temperature, and   calculating and outputting a projected energy savings based on an area between the energy consumption trend line and the optimized system performance line.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  applied to a plurality of buildings, further including comparing potential savings across the plurality of buildings to identify opportunities for savings and conservation. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein annual projected energy savings are calculated by determining an average daily operating temperature representing a typical day of typical heating or cooling season for the building multiplied by the number of days of the typical heating or cooling season, and applying the value to the difference between energy consumption trend line and optimized system performance line. 
     
     
         13 . A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with codes, the codes for directing a processor to operate a controller to:
 maintain an energy consumption database for storing historical energy consumption data for the building,   maintain an outdoor temperature database for storing historical temperature data for the building,   download historical outdoor temperature and energy consumption data from the energy consumption database and outdoor temperature database, respectively,   isolate data during which heating and cooling for the building is substantially active from data during which heating and cooling is substantially inactive,   develop a historical energy consumption trend line representing a best-fit of the historical energy consumption data when regressed against the historical outdoor temperature data,   determine an optimized system performance line based on a substantially linear relationship of historical energy use between a maximum energy consumption point at a design temperature and a minimum energy consumption at a balance temperature, and   calculate and output a projected energy savings based on an area between the energy consumption trend line and the optimized system performance line.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the calculating and outputting a projected energy savings is conducted over a historical period of one year. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 14 , wherein annual projected energy savings are calculated by determining an average daily operating temperature representing a typical day of typical heating or cooling season for the building multiplied by the number of days of the typical heating or cooling season, and applying the value to the difference between energy consumption trend line and optimized system performance line. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining the historical energy consumption trend line and optimized system performance line comprises making adjustments to the historical energy consumption data to account for non-space heating or cooling processes that are not linear with outdoor temperature.