METHOD OF MEASURING THE HEALTH OF A HOUSE

Abstract

Disclosed are methods for measuring building health index using some mandatory and set of optionally configured parameters and utilizing building monitoring system having a connection to sensors in or pertaining to a building, and including central computing environment and one or more display devices showing the measurement. A building utilizing this method may be installed with one or more sensors, and which may be communicating to a locally installed communication device or a centrally installed computing environment that can collect the measurements over a period.

Claims

1. A method for measuring building health index comprising gathering data from at least one or more sensors, which sensors are installed at least inside of a building and configured to measure at least one or more parameters recorded by at least one or more sensors; where one or more of such sensors read the value of the parameters and send the value over a network communication system to an intelligent building monitoring system; wherein the parameters comprise at least temperature, CO.sub.2 and differential pressure; wherein the intelligent building monitoring system uses the measurements over a measurement window in one indoor room and record a number of instances the value of the parameters have been inside or outside allowed pre-configured limit of the room from where the measurement was taken; wherein the allowed range of the parameter may be configured to the intelligent building monitoring system; wherein the data is pre-processed by the intelligent building monitoring system and refined for index calculation and then aggregated over a period of time to present the final index calculation.

2. The method of claim 1, configured to measure at least room temperature, CO.sub.2 and differential pressure; wherein each of the sensor can be configured to record additional parameters that can be measured by the sensor and configured in the building management system to be used for indoor air quality measurements.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more sensors can be installed outside of at least one of the rooms in a building or outside one of such buildings from where the measurements are collected.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein context of building is determined by the building monitoring system by determining at least the layout, the type of room, the part of the building the room is, the type of the building, the accurate location of sensor in the room, and the level of the room from the ground level.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein some or all of the sensors inside of the building are configured to store the measurements inside the internal volatile memory of the sensors.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising recording technical factor influencing air quality; wherein these technical factors may be configured to be recorded in the building monitoring system including at least one technical factor selected from the group but not limited to, type of room, part of the building the room is, type of building, accurate location of sensor in the room, and level of the room from the ground level.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein any of the computational device or a computer where the health index is presented or used for further processing may be installed inside the building or plurality of buildings wherein there may be one or more display devices for presentation of the measurements or the health index.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least part of the sensors are arranged to send recorded measurements to a remote computer device installed in the building which collects the measurement and sends the measurements over a wireless communication system to the central intelligent building monitoring system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein measurements of multiple buildings over a time period are used to display an aggregation of building health index of all the measured buildings in a city, or a state or a country over at least one or plurality of display devices.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein building health index and other individual measured parameters may provide information of how the building health is developing and the intelligent building monitoring system may use the index to suggest change in the ventilation, pressure, temperature settings or flow or add/remove/modify one or more of the technical functions installed in the building to reach desired health index.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein building health index may be displayed on a plurality of the display devices or a computer, over a longer measurement period, where the measurement period may be an aggregation over days or weeks or months or year in order to display building health index over a longer period.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein measurements of multiple buildings over a time period are used to display an aggregation of building health index of all the measured buildings in a city, or a state or a country over at least one or plurality of display devices.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein measurements of multiple buildings over a time period are used to display an aggregation of building health index of all the measured buildings in a city, or a state or a country over at least one or plurality of display devices.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] Next, some exemplary embodiments of the present invention are reviewed more closely with reference to the attached drawings, wherein

[0022] FIG. 1: illustrates the system architecture of the building monitoring system.

[0023] FIG. 2: illustrates the architecture of the building.

[0024] FIG. 3: illustrates the method for measuring building health index.

[0025] FIG. 4: illustrates the system architecture of the building monitoring system installed inside one building, which may be also installed in a plurality of buildings.

[0026] FIG. 5: illustrates another deployment of the building monitoring system where the sensors send the measurements to first a local computational device which sends the collected measurements to the intelligent building monitoring system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0027] Indoor air quality is one of the top environmental health threats. There are several factors that determine the air quality and the air quality along with properties of the building determine building health index.

[0028] The parameters that provide a measure of building health index are: [0029] Differential Pressure: Pressure is defined as the normal force per unit area of a surface. Pressure difference is a pressure difference between two spaces, for example indoor-outdoor, or indoor-indoor. Buildings are designed to maintain proper pressure difference. [0030] Room temperature: It is defined as the range of indoor air temperatures, that is configured for indoor settings. [0031] Carbon-di-oxide: Carbon-di-oxide (CO2) is a byproduct of combustion, as well as a result of the metabolic process in living organisms. Because carbon dioxide is a result of human metabolism, concentrations within a building often are used to indicate whether adequate fresh air is being supplied to the space.

[0032] Other parameters that may be optionally configured to the system for later measurements are: [0033] Humidity: Humidity represents the amount of water or moisture in the air. [0034] Radon: Radon is a radioactive gas that is generated naturally in the soil and enters the house from the ground. Radon is one of the leading causes of lung cancer in many developed countries. Its concentration in buildings varies regionally and even locally. [0035] TVOC: is defined as the total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) in indoor air. Correctly working building ventilation should ventilate compounds out of the building. High concentrations within a building might indicate failure in ventilation system or risk of high TVOC sources inside the building. High TVOC levels might cause sensory effects like sensory irritation, dryness, weak inflammatory irritation in eyes, nose, airways and skin. [0036] Particulate matter: is the sum of all solid and liquid particles suspended in air. These particles vary greatly in size, composition, and origin. Particles are released in for example burning processes, traffic and industrial processes. When inhaled, some Particles can cause severe damage to the lungs and other organs. Correctly working building ventilation should filter Particles from the outside air. Concentrations within a building might indicate failure in ventilation system.

[0037] In addition, the building monitoring system can derive the active time: Depending on the room purpose, active time is defined differently. For example, when the room is occupied by humans, active time can be calculated from amount of CO2 in the air. If the room is used as a cold storage, active time can be defined from temperature.

[0038] The sensors shall measure and collect the measurements for at least Carbon-di-oxide, room temperature and pressure differential and optionally any other additional parameters configured to be measured by the building monitoring system.

[0039] The system architecture of the building monitoring system in FIG. 1 comprises a building [101], a communication system [102], a central computational center, such as a server, terminal or other such computing entity, acting as an intelligent building monitoring system [103], a plurality of display devices where the health index is presented [104], and a computer where the health index is presented or used for further processing [105].

[0040] The detailed architecture of the building in FIG. 2 comprises plurality of rooms [200], in which each room can be one or more partitions including interior wall [202] or façade structure [204], the ceilings comprising interior side [206] and exterior side [208], where in the rooms may have sensor [210] installed at the interior side of one wall [204] to measure at least pressure differential through the façade structure, sensor [212] installed on another wall [204] in the building to measure one of the parameters configured to be measured by the building monitoring system, room sensor [214] installed in another wall [202] to measure same or a different parameter configured to be measured by the building monitoring system, sensor [216] installed in another wall [202] of the building to measure at least pressure differential between outside and inside walls of a room, sensor [218] installed to measure at least pressure differential between the outside [220] and inside floor of the room in the building.

[0041] FIG. 3 illustrates the method in which at least one or more sensors may be installed inside a room of a building, where each of the sensors as shown in FIG. 2 may measure at least Carbon di-oxide, differential pressure and temperature, wherein the sensors may measure and store the values over a measurement period locally in the volatile memory in the sensors, and send it through a wireless communication system; wherein the data is pre-processed by the intelligent building monitoring system and refined for index calculation and then aggregated over a period of time to present the final index calculation and display over a plurality of the devices.

[0042] FIG. 4 illustrates another deployment of building monitoring system where the computation device, a plurality of display devices where the health index is presented [404] a computer where the health index is presented or used for further processing [405] may be installed inside the building or plurality of buildings [405], which is monitored remotely by such building monitoring system.

[0043] FIG. 5 illustrates another deployment of building monitoring system where there may be one or a plurality of local gateways [506], which gateways [506] may receive measurements from the sensors installed in the building through a communication system and send it the building monitoring system for further processing.

[0044] The building monitoring system may be configured to know the context including at least one of the listed building locations, room type, active time of room when there are inhabitants or building specific technical details including either the ventilation type, covered area, heating type or some of them.

[0045] The building monitoring system may also use data from the users of the building when there are inhabitants, as an input parameter for usage when measuring the building health index. The input data from users could be about their feelings about temperature, humidity or other air quality related attributes that could be sensed qualitatively. The data from the users may be collected in a pre-defined format, configured by the building monitoring system.

[0046] The system preferably measures at least Pressure differential, temperature, CO2 at periodic intervals which is configured by the building monitoring system to the sensors, where CO2 measurements may also be used to determine the occupancy level of the building while other optional parameters e.g. particulate matters measurements may be additionally configured to be measured by the building monitoring system to check the air quality.

[0047] The system may determine and know the acceptable range of the parameters in relation to the external factors and calibration provided. Using that, it shall validate the measurements to find the time when one or more of the measurements are within or outside the acceptable range over a measurement period. For example co2 is in acceptable range when the measurements are below threshold value 950 ppm during the active time of the room or location. Threshold value may vary depending on the type of the location or room. Interpolation is done between measurement points to get accurate durations of acceptable ranges. Each of these validated ranges tell how long a period of time the measurements have been in the acceptable range and how long a period of time they have been outside the acceptable range.

[0048] A large set of such measurements over a longer period shall, give the information to the system to tell how the indoor air quality in the room of one or more buildings from where measurements were collected, is working as such. To find the building health index or one or more rooms in the building, the system may use methods like adding a weighted score to parameters in the range of 1-10 and use it to provide building health index.

[0049] Additionally, since the CO2 measurement is available, the system may be able to use the data from occupancy rate and acceptable range calibrated to the system to find if in certain time or period the system reaches alarming level and the ventilation mechanism or other tools to improve the building health index need to fine-tune.

[0050] The building health index and other individual measured parameters may provide information of how the building health is developing, how is the air quality and the intelligent building monitoring system may use the index to suggest change in the ventilation, pressure, temperature settings or flow or add/remove/modify one or more of the technical functions installed in the building to reach desired health index. The measurements and the building health index may be used for other purposes.

[0051] The method for measuring building health index comprises sensing the parameters from one or plurality of rooms from one or plurality of buildings [300], wherein each measured parameter is measured continuously or periodically by the sensors, and then the measured parameters are gathered by the building monitoring system [302] and pre-processed from raw measurement to get validated measurements of different parameters, wherein the resulting measurements [304], which may comprise refining the measurements by taking external factors influencing the measurements into account [306] and then aggregated to provide the individual index of each of the measured and validated measurements of the parameters [308], wherein each of the parameters individual index over similar measurement period could be aggregated with assigned weighted score, configured by the building monitoring system [310] resulting in building health index [312].

[0052] It is to be noted that the methods as described below, have shown steps being carried out in an order. However, it would be clear to a person skilled in the art that the order of the evaluation is immaterial with respect to the operation of the method. The ordering of steps as described herein is intended to not be limiting.

[0053] The scope of the invention is determined by the attached claims together with the equivalents thereof. The skilled persons will again appreciate the fact that the disclosed embodiments were constructed for illustrative purposes only, and the innovative fulcrum reviewed herein will cover further embodiments, embodiment combinations, variations and equivalents that better suit each particular use case of the invention.