Configuration of systems with applications for small and medium buildings
A system that accommodates such high number of input/output (I/O) terminals of a single big complex application, by splitting the application into smaller, logical fixed applications so that each application can be deployed in one small controller that small and medium buildings can afford. This system also has a feature of an easy and intuitive way of installing, configuring and commissioning these multiple controllers for a single application by abstracting the complexity of entire application/program logic.
1 . A building management system comprising:
a comprehensive building management software application that is an operational application for controlling building systems; and
one or more specialized building management software applications derived from the comprehensive building management software application by extracting a subset of control functionality from the comprehensive building management software application, wherein each specialized building management software application comprises a subset of functionality of the comprehensive building management software application; and
wherein:
each specialized building management software application is deployed to execute independently in a respective small electronic controller for managing building system parameters; and
each small electronic controller has a number of physical input/output (I/O) terminals less than a number of physical input/output (I/O) terminals of a large electronic controller, and the comprehensive building management software application is deployed in the large electronic controller.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the comprehensive building management software application comprises application control logic for technological building automation.
3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the each of the one or more specialized building management software applications comprise application control logic that controls a specific building system.
4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the small electronic controller for each specialized building management software application has fewer than twenty physical input/output terminals.
5 . The system of claim 3 , wherein each specific building has less than fifty thousand square feet of enclosed floor space.
6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the specific building system is a hot water system.
7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein each building system is selected from the group consisting of: a heating application, a constant temperature pump application, a variable temperature pump application, a boiler application, a non-gas calorifier application, and a gas calorifier application.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the specialized building management software applications are installed, configured, and commissioned on the one or more small electronic controllers with a mobile software application.
9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein:
configuration of the one or more small electronic controllers via the mobile software application appears as a single system view by abstracting the complexity of multiple specialized building management software applications executing on the one or more small electronic controllers; and
the multiple specialized building management software applications execute in parallel on their respective small electronic controllers but operate as a coordinated system through data point sharing.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the each specialized building management software application comprises inputs and outputs for control operation execution; and
inter-application between specialized building management software applications is achieved via data point sharing.
11 . A mobile configuration system, comprising:
a mobile software application; and
one or more specialized building management software applications that are derived from a comprehensive building management software application that is an operational application for controlling building systems, wherein the one or more specialized building management software applications are generated by dividing the comprehensive building management software application, wherein each specialized building management software application comprises a subset of functionality of the comprehensive building management software application; and
wherein:
each specialized building management software application is deployed to execute independently in one small electronic controller;
the comprehensive building management software application is deployed in a large electronic controller;
each small electronic controller has a number of physical input/output (I/O) terminals less than a number of physical input/output (I/O) terminals of the large electronic controller;
the mobile software application is used to remotely configure and commission the specialized building management software applications on respective small electronic controllers.
12 . The mobile configuration system of claim 11 , wherein the mobile software application comprises:
software templates; and
wherein:
the software templates comprise configurations of specialized building management software applications having one or more configurable parameters;
the one or more configurable parameters include default values of data points, schedules, and displays; and
the software templates can be used to automatically establish point sharing between or among small building management applications and small electronic controllers when created.
13 . The mobile configuration system of claim 11 , wherein:
the mobile software application prompts a user to select one or more sub control systems of a hot water system;
the mobile software application provides a graphical representation of the hot water system;
one or more sub control systems are selected from a group comprising a heating control application, a constant temperature (CT) pump, a variable temperature (VT) pump, boiler, non-gas calorifier and a gas calorifier; and
the one or more sub control systems are selected by default.
14 . A method for installing, configuring and commissioning a building management system using a mobile phone, comprising:
dividing a comprehensive building management software application that is an operational application for controlling building systems into a plurality of specialized building management software applications by extracting subsets of control functionality from the comprehensive building management software application, wherein each specialized building management software comprises a subset of functionality of the comprehensive building management software application and includes configuration parameters that enable the specialized building management software application to execute on one electronic controller; and
wherein each specialized building management software application is developed such that inputs for control operation are designed as physical inputs and inter-application communication is achieved via data point sharing.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein:
a mobile software application is used to install, configure, and commission the software applications of a plurality of various technological systems;
the mobile software application provides a step by step configuration of a hot water system selected from the plurality of various technological systems; and
the mobile software application provides a way to add and configure an electronic controller with a smart IO/wireless IO configuration and choose a type of control.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the mobile software application provides a unified interface display that presents the hot water system and its sub control systems as a single view by abstracting that the hot water system is being controlled by multiple specialized building management software applications executing on respective electronic controllers.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the mobile software application provides an on/off with monitoring option for the hot water system.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein in the selection of the hot water system, the mobile software application has software templates of default configurations/points of the hot water system and creates configurations with default values including inputs, outputs, configuration parameters and displays.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein when the hot water system is selected, the mobile software application uses the software templates and creates physical input, output and configuration parameters of a heating control application.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein for each sub control system selected, the mobile software application automatically creates smart I/Os as each of these software applications needs one I/O electronic controller.