Diagnosing building operational problems
Jeff S. Haberl, J.V. Spadaro, Les K. Norford · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 1989
Inefficient operation of HVAC systems wastes valuable resources, can be difficult to track and rarely receives the attention necessary from understaffed building operators. The authors have found that building operators have a need for focused, timely energy information. New techniques that are capable of automatically tracking and diagnosing problems in HVAC systems are beginning to appear. Such techniques have been applied to several building complexes with encouraging results. They show that operational problems can be correctly diagnosed using metered data and computerized decision support in the form of expert systems. This article reviews the application of intelligent systems to building HVAC diagnostics, discusses selected applications and presents early results from applications to several buildings.