Monitoring efficiency and operational mode changes of combustion equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10047956-B2
Application number	US-201414521204-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2014
Priority date	Oct 22, 2014
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are described herein. One method embodiment includes determining an unscaled efficiency signal of combustion equipment using data measured from the combustion equipment, determining a theoretical efficiency signal of the combustion equipment using a theoretical efficiency surface of the combustion equipment and a subset of the measured data, and normalizing the unscaled efficiency signal using values from a correlated portion of the theoretical efficiency signal to monitor efficiency of the combustion equipment. Other embodiments can include providing a performance indicator of the combustion equipment in response to an operational mode change.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for monitoring efficiency of combustion equipment including:
determining an unscaled efficiency signal of combustion equipment using data measured from the combustion equipment;
determining a theoretical efficiency signal of the combustion equipment using a theoretical efficiency surface of the combustion equipment and a subset of the measured data;
normalizing the unscaled efficiency signal using values from a correlated portion of the theoretical efficiency signal to monitor efficiency of the combustion equipment;
providing, to a user, an alert from a controller in response to at least one of:
an identified parameter of a fuel consumption model determined using the measured data meeting or exceeding a threshold change from a baseline parameter; and
an output of the fuel consumption model meeting or exceeding a threshold change from a measured fuel consumption; and

altering, by the controller, an operating condition of the combustion equipment responsive to input from the user after the alert has been provided to the user, wherein altering the operating condition of the combustion equipment includes changing a position of a valve, speed of a fan, position of a damper, or a combination thereof of a fan-valve-controller subsystem of the combustion equipment.

2. The method of claim 1 , including receiving the measured data from a number of sensors connected to the combustion equipment, wherein the measured data includes a temperature of supply liquid and a temperature of return liquid.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the measured data includes a temperature of return liquid and a firing rate of the combustion equipment.

4. The method of claim 1 , including determining a fuel consumption of the combustion equipment using the measured data and wherein the determined fuel consumption is used to determine the unscaled efficiency signal.

5. The method of claim 1 , including determining the theoretical efficiency surface using offline data, wherein the offline data includes at least one of:
manufacturer data for the combustion equipment; and
data measured from the combustion equipment during a previous period of time.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein normalizing the unscaled efficiency signal includes:
adjusting coefficients for a range of the unscaled efficiency signal to a range of the theoretical efficiency signal and a bias of the unscaled efficiency signal to a bias of the theoretical efficiency signal.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions executable by a processing resource to cause a computing device to:
identify a parameter from data measured using a number of sensors connected to combustion equipment;
update a fuel consumption model using the measured data;
compare the identified parameter to a baseline parameter of a baseline fuel consumption model;
compare the updated fuel consumption model and the baseline fuel consumption model to a measured fuel consumption of the combustion equipment; and
provide, to a user, a performance indicator of the combustion equipment from a controller in response to at least one of:
the identified parameter meeting or exceeding a threshold change from the baseline parameter; and
an output of the updated fuel consumption model or the baseline fuel consumption model meeting or exceeding a threshold change from the measured fuel consumption; and

alter, by the controller, an operating condition of the combustion equipment responsive to input from the user after the performance indicator has been provided to the user, wherein altering the operating condition of the combustion equipment includes changing a position of a valve, speed of a fan, position of a damper, or a combination thereof of a fan-valve-controller subsystem of the combustion equipment.

8. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the measured data includes a fuel consumption and a firing rate of the combustion equipment.

9. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to determine the baseline fuel consumption model using data measured during a reference period of time.

10. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the identified parameter includes a slope of the updated fuel consumption model and the identified baseline parameter includes a slope of the baseline fuel consumption model.

11. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the fuel consumption model includes a local fuel consumption model that is updated iteratively using current online data.

12. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to provide the performance indicator of the combustion equipment and a potential degradation of combustion equipment in response to a determined decrease in efficiency from a previous period of time.

13. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the provided performance indicator of the combustion equipment includes an alert to a user.

14. An efficiency monitoring system including:
combustion equipment;
an offline database including offline data;
a number of sensors connected to the combustion equipment and configured to measure online data from the combustion equipment; and
a computing component configured to:
determine an unscaled efficiency signal of the combustion equipment using the online data;
identify a theoretical efficiency surface of the combustion equipment using the offline data;
extrapolate and interpolate the identified theoretical efficiency surface to cover a wider range of operating conditions than the identified theoretical efficiency surface;
determine a theoretical efficiency signal of the combustion equipment using the extrapolated and interpolated theoretical efficiency surface and a subset of the online data;
compare the unscaled efficiency signal to the theoretical efficiency signal to identify a common pattern;
normalize the unscaled efficiency signal using values from a correlated portion of the theoretical efficiency signal within the identified common pattern; and
alter, by the computing component, an operating condition of the combustion equipment responsive to input from a user after the normalized unscaled efficiency signal has been provided to the user, wherein altering the operating condition of the combustion equipment includes changing a position of a valve, speed of a fan, position of a damper, or a combination thereof of a fan-valve-controller subsystem of the combustion equipment.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the computing component is configured to identify a model to use to calculate efficiency of the combustion equipment, wherein the model includes a direct method to determine the unscaled efficiency signal.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein:
the number of sensors are connected to a controller of the combustion equipment; and
the computing component includes the controller.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the common pattern includes a correlation between a time series of the theoretical efficiency signal and a time series of the unscaled efficiency signal.

18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the normalized efficiency signal includes an output of a normalized efficiency signal in physical units.

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Strelec Martin
• Vass Jiri
• Kucera David

Classifications

• F23N2225/21

  outlet temperature · CPC title

• F23N2223/44

  Optimum control · CPC title

• F23N2241/04

  Heating water · CPC title

• F23N1/002

  using electronic means (F23N1/04 - F23N1/10 take precedence) · CPC title

• F23N1/022 Primary

  using electronic means · CPC title