Intelligent Building Controls Employing Adaptive Physical-System Models for Automatic Programming and Dynamic Commissioning

Existing building stock represents a significant opportunity for energy savings through efficiency measures, as it accounts for 41% of US energy use. Advanced control strategies and better systems commissioning offer the least expensive routes to energy savings by utilizing existing building infrastructure with only minimal additional investment cost. If a conservative estimate of 25% energy savings could be seen in the building energy use due to advanced building controls, this would amount to a potential annual savings of 8.7 Quads, or $94 billion across the nation. Heliocentric is developing a new approach to whole-building energy systems control. This approach utilizes an extensive distributed object framework of adaptive interactive physical-models that form self-organizing control programs based on simple input from a graphical user interface (GUI). This approach has several innovative elements that are the result of our market experience in building forensics, commissioning, and developing advanced controls systems in high performance and cost sensitive building applications. The worldwide building controls market was $72.5 billion in 2011, and is set to rise to $146.4 billion by 2021. Successful commercialization of our technology could have tremendous public benefit, potentially saving tax payers 0.187 Quads in energy savings, or $2 billion annually. This technology will help DOE, EERE, and the Building Technology Program meet their goals of improving the efficiency of buildings to reduce national energy demand.