Patents by Inventor Robert D. Turney
Robert D. Turney has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20190107825Abstract: A controller for equipment obtains utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by the equipment to serve energy loads. The controller generates an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the equipment over an optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the equipment at each of a plurality of time steps. The controller optimizes the objective function to determine a distribution of predicted energy loads across the equipment at each of the plurality of time steps. Load equality constraints on the objective function ensure that the distribution satisfies the predicted energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps. The controller operates the equipment to achieve the distribution of the predicted energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 10, 2018Publication date: April 11, 2019Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Kirk H. Drees, Matthew J. Asmus
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Publication number: 20190078801Abstract: A thermostat for a building zone includes at least one of a model predictive controller and an equipment controller. The model predictive controller is configured to obtain a cost function that accounts for a cost of operating HVAC equipment during each of a plurality of time steps, use a predictive model to predict a temperature of the building zone during each of the plurality of time steps, and generate temperature setpoints for the building zone for each of the plurality of time steps by optimizing the cost function subject to a constraint on the predicted temperature. The equipment controller is configured to receive the temperature setpoints generated by the model predictive controller and drive the temperature of the building zone toward the temperature setpoints during each of the plurality of time steps by operating the HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the building zone.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 9, 2018Publication date: March 14, 2019Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. ElBsat, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal, Brennan H. Fentzlaff
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Patent number: 10222083Abstract: A central plant includes an electrical energy storage subplant configured to store electrical energy, a plurality of generator subplants configured to consume one or more input resources, including discharged electrical energy, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine, for each time step within a time horizon, an optimal allocation of the input resources. The controller is configured to determine optimal allocation of the output resources for each of the subplants in order to optimize a total monetary value of operating the central plant over the time horizon.Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2016Date of Patent: March 5, 2019Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Kirk H. Drees, Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney
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Patent number: 10190793Abstract: A central plant that generates and provides resources to a building. The central plant includes an electrical energy storage subplant configured to store electrical energy purchased from a utility and to discharge the stored electrical energy. The central plant includes a plurality of generator subplants that consume one or more input resources. The central plant includes a controller configured to determine, for each time step within a time horizon, an optimal allocation of the input resources and the output resources for each of the subplants in order to optimize a total monetary value of operating the central plant over the time horizon. The total monetary value includes revenue from participating in incentive-based demand response programs as well as costs associated with resource consumption, equipment degradation, and losses in battery capacity.Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2016Date of Patent: January 29, 2019Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Kirk H. Drees, Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney
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Publication number: 20190025774Abstract: A controller for a building system receives training data including input data and output data. The output data indicate a state of the building system affected by the input data. The controller pre-processes the training data using a first set of pre-processing options to generate a first set of training data and pre-processes the training data using a second set of pre-processing options to generate a second set of training data. The controller performs a multi-stage optimization process to identify multiple different sets of model parameters of a dynamic model for the building system. The multi-stage optimization process includes a first stage in which the controller uses the first set of training data to identify a first set of model parameters and a second stage in which the controller uses the second set of training data to identify a second set of model parameters. The controller uses the dynamic model to operate the building system.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 27, 2018Publication date: January 24, 2019Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney
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Patent number: 10175681Abstract: An optimization system for a central plant includes a processing circuit configured to receive load prediction data indicating building energy loads and utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment of the central plant to serve the building energy loads. The optimization system includes a high level optimization module configured to generate an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant over an optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the central plant equipment. The high level optimization module is configured to optimize the objective function over the optimization period subject to load equality constraints and capacity constraints on the central plant equipment to determine an optimal distribution of the building energy loads over multiple groups of the central plant equipment.Type: GrantFiled: February 27, 2015Date of Patent: January 8, 2019Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Kirk H. Drees, Matthew J. Asmus
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Publication number: 20180372362Abstract: A central energy facility (CEF) includes a plurality of powered CEF components, a battery unit, and a predictive CEF controller. The powered CEF components include a chiller unit and a cooling tower. The battery unit is configured to store electric energy from an energy grid and discharge the stored electric energy for use in powering the powered CEF components. The predictive CEF controller is configured to optimize a predictive cost function to determine an optimal amount of electric energy to purchase from the energy grid and an optimal amount of electric energy to store in the battery unit or discharge from the battery unit for use in powering the powered CEF components at each time step of an optimization period.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2018Publication date: December 27, 2018Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
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Publication number: 20180356770Abstract: An energy optimization system for a building includes a processing circuit configured to provide a first bid including one or more first participation hours and a first load reduction amount for each of the one or more first participation hours to a computing system. The processing circuit is configured to operate one or more pieces of building equipment based on one or more first equipment loads and receive one or more awarded or rejected participation hours from the computing system responsive to the first bid. The processing circuit is configured to generate one or more second participation hours, a second load reduction amount for each of the one or more second participation hours, and one or more second equipment loads based on the one or more awarded or rejected participation hours and operate the one or more pieces of building equipment based on the one or more second equipment loads.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 8, 2018Publication date: December 13, 2018Inventors: Mohammad N. ElBsat, Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Asmus, James P. Kummer, Peter A. Craig, Robert D. Turney
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Patent number: 10146237Abstract: A thermostat includes an equipment controller and a model predictive controller. The equipment controller is configured to drive the temperature of a building zone to an optimal temperature setpoint by operating HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the building zone. The model predictive controller is configured to determine the optimal temperature setpoint by generating a cost function that accounts for a cost operating the HVAC equipment during each of a plurality of time steps in an optimization period, using a predictive model to predict the temperature of the building zone during each of the plurality of time steps, and optimizing the cost function subject to a constraint on the predicted temperature of the building zone to determine optimal temperature setpoints for each of the time steps.Type: GrantFiled: June 16, 2017Date of Patent: December 4, 2018Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. Elbsat, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal, Brennan H. Fentzlaff
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Publication number: 20180340704Abstract: An air handling unit (AHU) or rooftop unit (RTU) in a building HVAC system includes one or more powered components, a battery, and a predictive controller. The powered components include a fan configured to generate a supply airstream provided to one or more building zones. The battery is configured to store electric energy and discharge the stored electric energy for use in powering the powered components. The predictive controller is configured to optimize a predictive cost function to determine an optimal amount of electric energy to purchase from an energy grid and an optimal amount of electric energy to store in the battery or discharge from the battery for use in powering the powered components at each time step of an optimization period.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 26, 2018Publication date: November 29, 2018Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
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Publication number: 20180341255Abstract: A model predictive maintenance (MPM) system for building equipment includes an equipment controller configured to operate the building equipment to affect a variable state or condition in a building and an operational cost predictor configured to predict a cost of operating the building equipment over a duration of an optimization period. The MPM system includes a maintenance cost predictor configured to predict a cost of performing maintenance on the building equipment over the duration of the optimization period and an objective function optimizer configured to optimize an objective function to predict a total cost associated with the building equipment over the duration of the optimization period. The objective function includes the predicted cost of operating the building equipment and the predicted cost of performing maintenance on the building equipment.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 13, 2018Publication date: November 29, 2018Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Sudhi R. Sinha
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Publication number: 20180340702Abstract: An energy plant includes a plurality of subplants, a high level optimizer, a low level optimizer, and a controller. The plurality of subplants include a cogeneration subplant configured to generate steam and electricity and a chiller subplant electrically coupled to the cogeneration subplant and configured to consume the electricity generated by the cogeneration subplant. The high level optimizer is configured to determine recommended subplant loads for each of the plurality of subplants. The recommended subplant loads include a rate of steam production and a rate of electricity production of the cogeneration subplant and a rate of electricity consumption of the chiller subplant. The low level optimizer is configured to determine recommended equipment setpoints for equipment of the plurality of subplants based on the recommended subplant loads. The controller is configured to operate the equipment of the plurality of subplants based on the recommended equipment setpoints.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2018Publication date: November 29, 2018Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Tricia J. Valentine, Nicole A. Madison, Collin W. Eggert, Carol T. Tumey, Michael F. Jaeger, Peter A. Craig
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Publication number: 20180313557Abstract: A thermostat includes an equipment controller and a model predictive controller. The equipment controller is configured to drive the temperature of a building zone to an optimal temperature setpoint by operating HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the building zone. The model predictive controller is configured to determine the optimal temperature setpoint by generating a cost function that accounts for a cost operating the HVAC equipment during each of a plurality of time steps in an optimization period, using a predictive model to predict the temperature of the building zone during each of the plurality of time steps, and optimizing the cost function subject to a constraint on the predicted temperature of the building zone to determine optimal temperature setpoints for each of the time steps.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 16, 2017Publication date: November 1, 2018Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. EIBsat, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal, Brennan H. Fentzlaff
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Publication number: 20180313563Abstract: A building energy system includes HVAC equipment, green energy generation, a battery, and a predictive controller. The HVAC equipment provide heating or cooling for a building. The green energy generation collect green energy from a green energy source. The battery stores electric energy including at least a portion of the green energy provided by the green energy generation and grid energy purchased from an energy grid and discharges the stored electric energy for use in powering the HVAC equipment. The predictive controller generates a constraint that defines a total energy consumption of the HVAC equipment at each time step of an optimization period as a summation of multiple source-specific energy components and optimizes the predictive cost function subject to the constraint to determine values for each of the source-specific energy components at each time step of the optimization period.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 26, 2018Publication date: November 1, 2018Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
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Publication number: 20180306459Abstract: A predictive building control system includes equipment operable to provide heating or cooling to a building and a predictive controller. The predictive controller includes one or more optimization controllers configured to perform an optimization to generate setpoints for the equipment at each time step of an optimization period subject to one or more constraints, a constraint generator configured to use a neural network model to generate the one or more constraints, and an equipment controller configured to operate the equipment to achieve the setpoints generated by the one or more optimization controllers at each time step of the optimization period.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 13, 2018Publication date: October 25, 2018Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventor: Robert D. Turney
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Patent number: 10101731Abstract: Systems and methods for low level central plant optimization are provided. A controller for the central plant uses binary optimization to determine one or more feasible on/off configurations for equipment of the central plant that satisfy operating constraints and meet a thermal energy load setpoint. The controller determines optimum operating setpoints for each feasible on/off configuration and generates operating parameters including at least one of the feasible on/off configurations and the optimum operating setpoints. The operating parameters optimize an amount of energy consumed by the central plant equipment. The controller outputs the generated operating parameters via a communications interface for use in controlling the central plant equipment.Type: GrantFiled: February 27, 2015Date of Patent: October 16, 2018Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Matthew J. Asmus, Robert D. Turney
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Patent number: 10101730Abstract: An optimization system for a central plant includes a processing circuit configured to receive load prediction data indicating building energy loads and utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment of the central plant to serve the building energy loads. The optimization system includes a high level optimization module configured to generate an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant over the optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by multiple groups of the central plant equipment. The optimization system includes a load change penalty module configured to modify the objective function to account for a load change penalty resulting from a change in an amount of the building energy loads assigned to one or more of the groups of central plant equipment.Type: GrantFiled: February 27, 2015Date of Patent: October 16, 2018Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney
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Patent number: 10088814Abstract: A controller for a building system receives training data that includes input data and output data. The output data measures a state of the building system affected by both the input data and an extraneous disturbance. The controller performs a two-stage optimization process to identify system parameters and Kalman gain parameters of a dynamic model for the building system. During the first stage, the controller filters the training data to remove an effect of the extraneous disturbance from the output data and uses the filtered training data to identify the system parameters. During the second stage, the controller uses the non-filtered training data to identify the Kalman gain parameters. The controller uses the dynamic model with the identified system parameters and Kalman gain parameters to generate a setpoint for the building system. The building system uses the setpoint to affect the state measured by the output data.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2015Date of Patent: October 2, 2018Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney
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Systems and methods for extending the battery life of a wireless sensor in a building control system
Patent number: 10042340Abstract: A building control system includes a wireless measurement device and a controller. The wireless measurement device measures a plurality of values of an environmental variable and uses the plurality of measured values to predict one or more future values of the environmental variable. The wireless device periodically transmits, at a transmission interval, a message that includes a current value of the environmental variable and the one or more predicted values of the environmental variable. The controller receives the message from the wireless device and parses the message to extract the current value and the one or more predicted future values of the environmental variable. The controller periodically and sequentially applies, at a controller update interval shorter than the transmission interval, each of the extracted values as an input to a control algorithm that operates to control the environmental variable.Type: GrantFiled: January 6, 2016Date of Patent: August 7, 2018Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Heidi A. Hofschulz, Robert D. Turney, Timothy C. Gamroth, Matthew J. Ellis -
Publication number: 20180216842Abstract: An energy plant includes a plurality of subplants, a high level optimizer, a low level optimizer, and a controller. The plurality of subplants include a cogeneration subplant configured to generate steam and electricity and a chiller subplant electrically coupled to the cogeneration subplant and configured to consume the electricity generated by the cogeneration subplant. The high level optimizer is configured to determine recommended subplant loads for each of the plurality of subplants. The recommended subplant loads include a rate of steam production and a rate of electricity production of the cogeneration subplant and a rate of electricity consumption of the chiller subplant. The low level optimizer is configured to determine recommended equipment setpoints for equipment of the plurality of subplants based on the recommended subplant loads. The controller is configured to operate the equipment of the plurality of subplants based on the recommended equipment setpoints.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2018Publication date: August 2, 2018Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Tricia J. Valentine, Nicole A. Madison, Collin W. Eggert, Carol T. Tumey, Michael F. Jaeger, Peter A. Craig