HVAC equipment with wireless connectivity features
A heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system in accordance with present embodiments includes a housing, one or more sensing units disposed within the housing, and a controller disposed within the housing. The controller is operable to communicate with the one or more sensing units through a wireless communication link to receive sensed data, and analyze the sensed data by applying one or more data processing techniques.
1 . A heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system configurable to control a temperature within a building, the HVAC system comprising:
an HVAC system housing, wherein the HVAC system housing is configured to be located within the building or on a roof of the building;
one or more sensing units disposed within the HVAC system housing; and
a controller disposed within the HVAC system housing, wherein the controller is configured to:
communicate with the one or more sensing units through a wireless communication link to receive sensed data;
instruct the one or more sensing units to reorient to adjust a transmission direction of wireless communications from the one or more sensing units;
manage power supplied to the one or more sensing units to control a signal strength for the wireless communications from the one or more sensing units based on positional data for the one or more sensing units;
analyze the sensed data by applying one or more data processing techniques, wherein the one or more data processing techniques comprise an artificial intelligence, a neural network, one or more machine learning techniques, or any combination thereof; and
analyze the sensed data by applying the one or more data processing techniques to:
generate one or more control signals to operate one or more HVAC devices; and
provide a visualization of the sensed data and information pertaining to the one or more HVAC devices on a user interface.
2 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the HVAC system housing comprises a packaged terminal air conditioner (PTAC) unit housing, a roof top unit (RTU) housing, or a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) unit housing.
3 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , comprising one or more HVAC devices, wherein the one or more sensing units are configured to monitor an operation of the one or more HVAC devices to generate the sensed data pertaining to temperature, humidity, pressure, air quality, fan speed, or a combination thereof.
4 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensing units include a control board that is configured to generate the sensed data based on one or more sensed signals provided by one or more sensors.
5 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , comprising one or more actuators configured to receive wirelessly transmitted instructions from the controller based on output from the analysis of the sensed data by applying the one or more data processing techniques.
6 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to communicate with the one or more sensing units using one of a plurality of communication protocols selected from a group consisting of Wi-Fi, MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport), Lora WAN, Zigbee, Z-wave, NB-IOT (Narrow Band-Internet of things), RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Bluetooth, and NFC (Near Field Communication).
7 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to be powered using inductive coupling, capacitive coupling, piezoelectricity based charging, thermoelectric generator based charging, or a combination thereof.
8 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the controller and/or the one or more sensing units is configured to be powered using a rechargeable battery.
9 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , comprising an air handling unit (AHU), wherein the HVAC system housing is an AHU housing.
10 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensing units comprises sensors with integral transceivers.
11 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensing units are configured to articulate to facilitate directed wireless transmissions based on the controller instructing the one or more sensing units to reorient.
12 . The HVAC system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to instruct an actuator to cause the one or more sensing units to reorient to adjust the wireless communication transmission direction.
13 . A method comprising:
monitoring an operation of one or more heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) devices disposed within an HVAC system housing with one or more sensing units disposed within the HVAC system housing, wherein the HVAC system housing is configured to be located within a building or on a roof of the building, and wherein the one or more HVAC devices are configured to control a temperature within the building;
generating, by the one or more sensing units, sensed data based on the monitoring;
reorienting, based on instructions from a controller disposed within the HVAC system housing, the one or more sensing units to adjust a transmission direction of wireless communications from the one or more sensing units;
adjusting, based on the instructions from the controller, power supplied to the one or more sensing units to control a signal strength for the wireless communications from the one or more sensing units based on positional data;
receiving, by the controller, the sensed data from the one or more sensing units via a wireless communication link;
analyzing, by the controller, the sensed data by applying one or more data processing techniques to generate one or more control signals to operate one or more HVAC devices, and provide a visualization of the sensed data and information pertaining to the one or more HVAC devices on a user interface, wherein the one or more data processing techniques comprise an artificial intelligence, a neural network, one or more machine learning techniques, or any combination thereof.
14 . The method of claim 13 , comprising wirelessly transmitting instructions based on the analyzing by the controller to one or more actuators within the HVAC system housing, wherein the one or more actuators each include a respective transceiver or each share a single transceiver for receiving the instructions.
15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein one or more actuators reorient the one or more sensing units based on the instructions from the controller to adjust the wireless communication transmission direction.
16 . An air handling unit (AHU) configurable to control a temperature within a building, the AHU comprising:
an AHU housing, wherein the AHU housing is configured to be located within the building or on a roof of the building;
a controller disposed within the AHU housing and configured to analyze sensed data by applying one or more data processing techniques to generate one or more control signals to operate one or more HVAC devices, and provide a visualization of the sensed data and information pertaining to the one or more HVAC devices on a user interface;
a communications interface of the controller, wherein the communications interface is configured to transmit and receive communications wirelessly;
a sensor disposed within the AHU housing, wherein the sensor is configured to transmit the sensed data wirelessly to the controller via the communications interface; and
an actuator disposed within the AHU housing, wherein the actuator is configured to receive instructions wirelessly from the communications interface and to reorient the sensor to adjust a transmission direction of wireless communications from the sensor based on the instructions;
wherein the controller is configured to control power and/or orientation of the sensor and/or the actuator to manage transmission quality of the sensed data and/or feedback from the actuator.
17 . The AHU of claim 16 , comprising an antenna extending from the AHU housing or disposed in an area of the AHU housing that is not a Faraday shield or cage, wherein the antenna is directly communicatively coupled with or part of the communications interface.
18 . The AHU of claim 16 , wherein the controller is configured to communicate with the one or more sensing units using one of a plurality of communication protocols selected from a group consisting of Wi-Fi, MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport), Lora WAN, Zigbee, Z-wave, NB-IOT (Narrow Band-Internet of Things), RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Bluetooth, and NFC (Near Field Communication).