Methods of increasing the average life time of building materials as well as reducing the consumption of other resources associated with operating buildings

Abstract

Disclosed are methods for at least approximating any one or any combination of system targets of a) reducing the average energy expenditure for keeping at least one primary compartment of a building within a desired temperature range by means of active e air conditioning, or b) reducing temperature variations during a typical 24-hour cycle within said at least one primary compartment of said building, or c) reducing one or both of the average temperature or the peak temperature of said at least one primary compartment of said building. The invention concerns predominantly enclosed spaces, typically buildings, which are at least exposed to directionally and temporally varying levels of solar electromagnetic radiation as well as temporally varying levels of ambient air temperature and ambient air flow velocity and direction. Such a building comprising at least one primary compartment and at least one secondary compartment, and wherein said primary compartment predominantly serves to achieve the primary purpose of the building. The disclosed methods are furthermore at least in part based on at least one electronic controller, which is able to one or both of a) controlling means to modulate the amount of passive air flow to and from said at least one secondary compartment, and b) controlling means to modulate the amount of actively driven air flow to and from said at least one secondary compartment, and said electronic controller furthermore comprising at least one, at least partially descriptive, analytical and/or, numerical, and/or reduced order model to at least approximately compute, i.e. predict, the thermal behavior of said building, and said controller using said at least partially descriptive model to derive control signals suitable to at least approximate said at least one system target. In some embodiments the disclosed methods are at least partially incorporated in a home automation system, including optionally internet connectivity. In some embodiments the disclosed methods are at least partially capable of increasing the typical lifetime of some components of buildings and thus reducing resources associated with maintaining at least some buildings functional.

1 - 84 . (canceled) 
     
     
         85 . A method of identifying a control strategy for reducing consumption of energy by an air conditioning system of a building comprising a primary compartment and a secondary compartment, comprising:
 providing an algorithm including at least one of a reduced order model and a simplified discrete numerical model of thermal behavior of the building;   sensing at least one environmental condition selected from the group consisting of:
 a) a convective thermal gain or loss resulting from an external airflow; 
 b) a radiative gain or loss from a solar irradiance; 
 c) a redistribution of energy and/or a thermal gain or loss resulting from an induced air flow outside and/or inside the building as a result of thermal gradients; 
 d) a modulation of a passive air flow or an actively driven air flow inside the building; and 
 e) an actively powered internal source or a sink of energy inside the building to measure a removed and/or gained thermal energy value; 
   inputting the changed thermal energy value to the reduced order model and/or the simplified discrete numerical model, and executing the algorithm;   predicting at least one of:
 a) a temperature response based on the changed thermal energy; and 
 b) how air flow into or out of the secondary compartment influences the thermal budget of the building and affects a temperature in the primary compartment based on the changed thermal energy; 
   preparing a plurality of scenarios and evaluating the plurality of scenarios based on the prediction;   identifying a control strategy reducing consumption of energy supplied to the air conditioning system.   
     
     
         86 . The method of  claim 85 , wherein the actively powered internal source is an air conditioning system, a heater, or a cooking oven. 
     
     
         87 . The method of  claim 85 , wherein the algorithm is conducted either entirely in a software or at least partially in a hardware. 
     
     
         88 . A method of controlling air flow in a building having a primary compartment and a secondary compartment, comprising:
 providing a storage storing at least one selected from the group consisting of control system status data, energy consumption data, thermal budget data, and control system status performance data,   providing a sensor sensing at least one selected from the group consisting of a solar radiation level, an ambient air temperature level, an air temperature in the secondary compartment,   transmitting the data selected in the storage and the data sensed by the sensor to an analyzer,   analyzing the data selected in the storage and the data sensed by the sensor, and generating an analyzed data,   sending the analyzed data to a controller,   modulating air flow to and from the secondary compartment to approximate a desired system target based upon the analyzed data.