Going Beyond Fault Detection and Diagnostics

Implementing fault detection in your building can have many benefits. For example, more than 30% of the energy consumed by commercial buildings in the US is derived from HVAC systems. A large portion of that energy is wasted due to a lack of efficiency. The identification of faults within HVAC systems can reduce energy consumption by 5-15%. That’s a huge amount of savings just from optimizing one component of your building.

However, many buildings have very rigid, rule-based fault detection systems in place. This is problematic because a simple system such as this is only able to identify issues within specific sets of conditions. This places limitations on what types of issues can be identified and the extent to which maintenance can be performed.

The utilization of an intelligent fault detection system can significantly impact not only your energy consumption but also your ROI by identifying anomalies and challenges that affect the health and lifetime of individual components and entire systems. By ensuring that your fault detection and diagnostics are backed by an intelligent solution, you’ll be sure to unlock the full potential of your savings, maintenance, and occupant comfort.

How Do Fault Detection & Diagnostics Systems Work?

The methodology for how fault detection works at a baseline involves a process in which data points are monitored for inconsistencies and anomalies. Typically, these come from a set of factors such as temperature, pressure, etc, if we are monitoring an HVAC system, for example.

The problem is that many of these fault detection systems can only detect basic faults along their rule-based parameters. This means that the fault-detection system is going to miss many opportunities for improvement and the possibility of false readings. The problems that these issues present can be exacerbated by the dependence on manual intervention which could lead to system downtime.

However, there is a way to take the positive aspects of a typical fault detection and diagnostics system and enhance its capabilities with an intelligent building management system (BMS).

How OnPoint Goes Beyond the Basics of Fault Detection

By enhancing fault detection with an advanced BMS with machine learning capabilities, onPoint is able to take your fault detection and diagnostics to the next level by expanding the capabilities of your system beyond the basics.

Whereas basic fault detection systems fail to offer meaningful guidance outside of identifying anomalies within their parameters, onPoint is able to identify issues outside of those parameters while also creating a path of resolution.

onPoint is a powerful platform that delivers the ability to track usage across your entire system to identify areas of opportunity early and accurately.

• Continuously Track Energy Usage: Because onPoint continuously monitors energy usage in real-time, it identifies faults and fluctuations as soon as they occur. On top of that, it provides recommendations on how to enhance energy efficiency, ensuring that your operation is not wasting energy.
• Proactive Maintenance: onPoint’s advanced fault detection allows it to call out where repairs may be needed ahead of time. This enables preventative and predictive maintenance that keeps costs down and systems running longer, smoother, and consistently.
• Prevent False Alarms: False alarms can cause problems to exacerbate by causing unnecessary effort being expended into assessing them but also because they can obfuscate real issues. Smart analytics from onPoint ensure that false alarms are filtered out to ensure that actual issues aren’t overlooked and that maintenance staff isn’t barraged by false readings that don’t actually require their attention.
• Enhance Equipment: Since onPoint’s intelligent insights afford both predictive and proactive maintenance, the useful life of equipment and systems is enhanced. This means that your equipment lasts longer, saving you money.

onPoint delivers a powerful alternative to traditional fault detection and diagnostics systems. By utilizing advanced machine learning technology in a cloud-based platform, onPoint transforms your system into one that is ready to maximize your ROI and system performance through the power of automation.

Buildings IOT offers the state-of-the-art services and products facilities managers need to optimize energy efficiency. Contact our team of experts to learn more about what we can do for you.