The Workshop on FDD for RTUs – Moving from R&D to Commercialization was held on Sunday, July 13 2014 in Rawls Hall, Purdue University. The primary goals were to review where we are with respect to commercialization of FDD for RTUs and to identify specific needs for moving this technology forward in the marketplace.
The workshop was divided into 3 sections:
- Review of Existing and Emerging RTU Diagnostic Technologies;
- Policy Influencing Development, Adoption, and Evaluation of RTU FDD;
- Evolution of Business Opportunities.
Participants in the workshop included researchers (university and government labs), industry developers, enduse customers, and policy makers (utility and government) with breakdown shown in the table below.
| Participant Type | Number |
|---|---|
| University/Government Researchers | 13 |
| Industry Developers |
9 |
| Utility & Policy |
5 |
| Customers | 4 |
A number of methods for FDD applied to RTUs have been developed over the past 20 years. However, commercialization has been relatively slow. The most commercially successful FDD products are generic tools for service technicians that apply to any packaged HVAC equipment and that are implemented in smart phones and/or through web services. However, recent performance evaluations of generic FDD tools have raised serious concerns about their ability to robustly diagnose faults across a variety of equipment without significant false alarms that can be costly and create credibility problems. There appears to be much greater potential for good FDD performance with continuous FDD where methods learn unit-specific performance characteristics under normal operation or when methods are integrated with equipment controllers and on-board measurements in the factory. Recently, FDD technology that provides continuous monitoring and diagnostics has been developed for commercial and residential packaged HVAC equipment and are being or will soon be offered as optional features. Examples include products by Lennox (integrated smart AirFlow and economizer diagnostics for RTUs), York (integrated FDD for York Predator RTU), and Emerson (cloud-‐based diagnostics for HVAC residential). However, it is believed that the marketplace will be slow to adopt these features for a variety of reasons, including:
- although the national energy impact is high, the benefits for individual customer are uncertain and relatively low compared to other operating expenses;
- there are limited federal and state government incentives and regulations to promote automated diagnostics for HVAC;
- continuous FDD requires installation of additional sensors that can significantly increase the overall cost of the equipment;
- most of the previous diagnostic R&D has focused on mainstream equipment and additional work is necessary to develop methods for higher-end equipment where automated FDD might be more economically deployed within OEM RTUs in the factory.
The bottom line is that RTU OEMs have been slow to invest the necessary resources to fully develop, deploy, and market integrated FDD because of difficulties in making a business case relative to other R&D projects. The principal exception has been in the development of integrated economizer diagnostics, which has been spurred by new California Title 24 requirements. Additional diagnostic requirements and/or incentives, such as for refrigerant charge or air flow FDD, would undoubtedly speed development and deployment. However, there needs to be FDD performance compliance mechanisms to guarantee minimum FDD performance. ASHRAE is currently involved in the development of standardized methods of test for FDD that could ultimately lead to approaches for FDD performance compliance. A Center for HVAC Diagnostics was proposed and discussed. In addition to developing the tools and approaches needed for development and assessment of FDD approaches, the center could:
- collect, assimilate and share information, common tools and non-proprietary FDD technology components;
- help develop a stronger market for HVAC products with FDD technology through better collaboration and integration;
- develop a better understanding of customer opportunities including direct feedback from participating organizations (e.g. national retail)
- leveraging public resources to address common issues that helps all associated organizations accomplish their goals quick and cheaper
- promote awareness of emerging technology companies that could be potential partners or acquisition targets
- provide independent 3rd party product testing/evaluations and field test assessments (appropriate targeted funding required)
The formation of a center at Purdue will be explored in the coming months with potential partners.