Air-conditioning control system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016187019-A1
Application number	US-201514978360-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 22, 2015
Priority date	Dec 24, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An air-conditioning control system includes a grouping target apparatus storage unit that stores information about a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses which are rotation group setting targets; an attribute storage unit that stores an attribute of each of the air-conditioning apparatuses; a group setting rule storage unit that stores a group setting rule for reducing, between the rotation groups, a difference in total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses having an identical attribute; a power consumption obtaining unit that obtains information about power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses; a group determination unit that determines rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong in accordance with the power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses and the group setting rule; and a group storage unit that stores grouping information indicating the rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An air-conditioning control system for performing fluctuating air-conditioning control for cyclically repeating an operation in which a plurality of rotation groups enter an energy saving mode in turn, the air-conditioning control system comprising:
a grouping target apparatus storage unit that stores in advance information about a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses which are rotation group setting targets; an attribute storage unit that stores in advance an attribute of each of the air-conditioning apparatuses for which the information is stored in the grouping target apparatus storage unit; a group setting rule storage unit that stores in advance a group setting rule for reducing, between the rotation groups, a difference in total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses having an identical attribute; a power consumption obtaining unit that obtains information about power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses for which the information is stored in the grouping target apparatus storage unit; a group determination unit that determines rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong in accordance with the power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses obtained by the power consumption obtaining unit and the group setting rule; and a group storage unit that stores grouping information indicating the rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong.

2 . The air-conditioning control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the group setting rule is a rule that a process of comparing total power consumption values of the rotation groups, each of the total power consumption values of the rotation groups being a total power consumption value of air-conditioning apparatuses classified into each of the rotation groups, with each other for each attribute and classifying an air-conditioning apparatus into a rotation group having the smallest total power consumption value is performed for each attribute until rotation groups of all of the air-conditioning apparatuses that are grouping targets are determined.

3 . The air-conditioning control system according to claim 2 , wherein
the group determination unit performs, for each attribute, a process of determining the rotation groups of the air-conditioning apparatuses by applying the group setting rule to the air-conditioning apparatuses in descending order of required power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses.

4 . The air-conditioning control system according to claim 1 , wherein
in a case where a value of the attribute is denoted by H, a rotation group determined for each attribute value H in accordance with the group setting rule is referred to as an attribute-basis rotation group Rp(H), a rotation group that is finally determined is denoted by Rp, total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses included in an attribute-basis rotation group Rp(H) is denoted by Wgp(H), and total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses included in a rotation group Rp is denoted by Wgp, the group determination unit further performs, for each attribute value H, a process of classifying an air-conditioning apparatus that is included in an attribute-basis rotation group Rp(H) having the largest total power consumption Wgp(H) among attribute-basis rotation groups Rp(H) for which classification into rotation groups Rp is not completed into a rotation group Rp having the smallest total power consumption Wgp.

5 . The air-conditioning control system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a control device that gives instructions to the air-conditioning apparatuses for cyclically repeating an operation in which the plurality of rotation groups enter the energy saving mode in turn in accordance with the grouping information stored in the group storage unit.

6 . An air-conditioning control method for performing fluctuating air-conditioning control for cyclically repeating an operation in which a plurality of rotation groups enter an energy saving mode in turn, the air-conditioning control method comprising:
a power consumption obtaining step of referring to a grouping target apparatus storage unit that stores in advance information about a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses which are rotation group setting targets, and obtaining information about power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses for which the information is stored in the grouping target apparatus storage unit; a group determination step of referring to the grouping target apparatus storage unit, an attribute storage unit that stores in advance an attribute of each of the air-conditioning apparatuses, and a group setting rule storage unit that stores in advance a group setting rule for reducing, between the rotation groups, a difference in total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses having an identical attribute, and determining rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong in accordance with the power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses obtained in the power consumption obtaining step and the group setting rule; and a recording step of recording, to a group storage unit, grouping information indicating the rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong.

7 . The air-conditioning control method according to claim 6 , wherein
the group setting rule is a rule that a process of comparing total power consumption values of the rotation groups, each of the total power consumption values of the rotation groups being a total power consumption value of air-conditioning apparatuses classified into each of the rotation groups, with each other for each attribute and classifying an air-conditioning apparatus into a rotation group having the smallest total power consumption value is performed for each attribute until rotation groups of all of the air-conditioning apparatuses that are grouping targets are determined.

8 . The air-conditioning control method according to claim 7 , wherein
the group determination step includes a step of performing, for each attribute, a process of determining the rotation groups of the air-conditioning apparatuses by applying the group setting rule to the air-conditioning apparatuses in descending order of required power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses.

9 . The air-conditioning control method according to claim 6 , wherein
in a case where a value of the attribute is denoted by H, a rotation group determined for each attribute value H in accordance with the group setting rule is referred to as an attribute-basis rotation group Rp(H), a rotation group that is finally determined is denoted by Rp, total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses included in an attribute-basis rotation group Rp(H) is denoted by Wgp(H), and total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses included in a rotation group Rp is denoted by Wgp, the group determination step further includes a step of performing, for each attribute value H, a process of classifying an air-conditioning apparatus that is included in an attribute-basis rotation group Rp(H) having the largest total power consumption Wgp(H) among attribute-basis rotation groups Rp(H) for which classification into rotation groups Rp is not completed into a rotation group Rp having the smallest total power consumption Wgp.

10 . The air-conditioning control method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
a control step of giving instructions to the air-conditioning apparatuses for cyclically repeating an operation in which the plurality of rotation groups enter the energy saving mode in turn in accordance wi

Assignees

• Azbil Corp

Inventors

• Miura Mayumi
• Tanaka Masato
• Higashijima Kouji
• Koyanagi Takashi

Classifications

• H02J2105/42

  Home appliances · CPC title

• Y04S20/244

  the home appliances being or involving heating ventilating and air conditioning [HVAC] units · CPC title

• F24F11/62

  characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values · CPC title

• F24F11/65

  for selecting an operating mode · CPC title

• G05B2219/2642

  Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house · CPC title