DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11 March 2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1-20 are rejected, grounds follow.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that instant application is a Continuation in Part of Applications 17/073,781 (now US patent # 11,789,415) and 17/073,801 (now US patent # 11,754,984) and has been accorded the benefit of the earliest priority date for those portions which find support in the earlier filed applications
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks Page 9, filed 27 February 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 5-9, 11, and 15-19 under 35 USC 103 in view of US Pg-Pub 2016/0313019 (Mengle) and US Pg-Pub 2014/0039686 (Corbin) (Claim 1 representative) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Examiner agrees that Mengle in view of Corbin does not appear to teach all of the limitations of the amended claims, particularly limitations relating to “using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function”; Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, Examiner notes that this amended limitation is a broader version of the limitations recited in parent claims 3 and 13 (“the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added… or removed… generate the time-varying setpoints… according to one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed”), accordingly after consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made over Mengle and Corbin, further in view of De Angelis, Francesco, et al. "Optimal home energy management under dynamic electrical and thermal constraints.". See below for detailed rejection.
Applicant's arguments, see Remarks page 12 et seq., with respect to the Double Patenting rejections over 11,789,415 in view of Corbin, and 11,754,984 in view of Corbin have been fully considered but are not persuasive. For substantially the same reasons outlined above with respect to the overlapping scope of the amended limitations and previously presented Claims 3 and 13, the Double Patenting rejections over 11,789,415 in view of Corbin and 11,754,984 in view of Corbin are maintained, see below for detailed rejection.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks Page 12 et seq., with respect to the double patenting rejection over 10,809,675 in view of Corbin have been fully considered and they are persuasive. Following consideration in light of the amendments to claims 1, 11, and 19, Examiner withdraws the rejection over 10,809,675 in view of Corbin. However, a new grounds of Double Patenting Rejection over 10,809,675 in view of Corbin and De Angelis is made, see below for detailed rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 5-9, 11, 13, and 15-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mengle, et al., US Pg-Pub 2016/0313019 in view of Corbin, US Pg-Pub 2014/0039686, further in view of De Angelis, Francesco, et al. "Optimal home energy management under dynamic electrical and thermal constraints." IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 9.3 (2012): 1518-1527. (citations to IFW reference copy 29 December 2025).
Regarding Claims 1, 11 and 19 Mengle teaches:
A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, (see e.g. [0016] “the controlled process is providing HVAC services to a campus of buildings”)
the HVAC system comprising: HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces; ([0015] “controlled system(s)/device(s) 104 may include any number of … air handling units (AHUs), variable air volume (VAV) box actuators, etc. that regulate temperature in one or [sic] buildings.”)
one or more controllers comprising one or more processing circuits (see figs. 2-6; [0019] “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an example processing circuit 200 that may be used with one or more embodiments described herein, e.g., as any of the devices 102-108 shown in FIG. 1 above.”)
configured to: generate targets for a variable (e.g. [0040] energy consumptions) of the one or more building spaces (fig. 6, e.g. “Building A, First Floor” “Building C, Third Floor” etc.) over a future time period ([0040] “outcome prediction model 247 may attempt to allocate energy consumptions optimally to different areas of a campus given an overall energy consumption constraint for the campus”) using a load prediction (fig. 6, Suggested Temp, Suggested Consumption; [0038] “predicted outcomes 406 may correspond to measurements from the controlled process that are predicted to occur, should a particular set of control parameter settings be used to control the process. Thus, for each predicted outcome 406, there may be an associated set of control parameter settings that are expected to cause the particular outcome.”)
generate […] setpoints for the HVAC equipment ([0044] “each of the predicted outcomes 406 in optimal subset 408 may be associated with a corresponding unique set of control parameter settings 508 (e.g., the settings that are expected to result in the predicted outcomes).”) for the future time period (ibid. predicted; see also [0060]) by performing a control process ([0028] “outcome prediction module 247 may generate sets of control parameter settings 245 that are predicted to optimize the control process given one or more objectives and taking into consideration constraints 243” ) using the targets […] for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment; ([0038] “…For example, a history of measurements 244 and control parameter settings 245 may indicate that, on average, it will require k-amount of kilowatts of energy consumption per hour to maintain the temperature in a particular building at 72.degree. F. instead of 73.degree. F., j-amount of kilowatts per hour to maintain the temperature at 71.degree. F. instead of 72.degree. F. to, etc.”)
and operate the HVAC equipment using the […] setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces. ([0031] “As shown, control module 246 may control a process based on both control parameter settings 245 and the resulting measurements 244 taken from the controlled process. In some cases, the process may be a singular process (e.g., controlling the temperature in a single room) or may be a process that includes any number of sub-processes (e.g., controlling the temperature in different rooms, floors, buildings, etc.).” energy targets are associated with different building zones, see fig. 6; settings resulting from the optimization may be applied automatically, see [0053] “suggested control parameters 508f may be applied automatically.”)
Mengle differs from the claimed invention in that:
Mengle does not appear to clearly articulate the load prediction is made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;
Nor that the setpoints are time-varying.
Nor that the targets are used in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function;
Nor does Mengle clearly articulate a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment;
However Corbin teaches an HVAC control algorithm which incorporate weather information ([0023] “the facility retrieves a weather forecast, which may include forecasted temperatures and weather conditions for a predetermined number of hours, days, etc.”) into an energy consumption scheduling system for HVAC ([0024] “In block 360, the module identifies the schedule with the preferred energy consumption (e.g., the schedule resulting in the lowest cost based on the retrieved cost information or the schedule resulting in the lowest overall consumption of energy).”) because weather and thermal capacitance are environmental factors which impact load-requirements for the HVAC system ( [0008] “A facility implementing systems and/or methods for achieving energy consumption or production and cost goals … assesses the environment in which those components operate, such as the thermal capacitance of a building in which a HVAC system operates, current and forecasted weather conditions, and energy costs.”)
Corbin also teaches generating a model (see e.g. [0013]) relating a target variable (energy consumption) to operational setpoints ([0013] “The simulation model specifies the amount of energy used by the energy system to transition between various states--such as transitions between different thermostat set points, change levels, etc.--using different components of the energy system under different operating conditions. For example, an HVAC system may be configurable to heat a building using a different combination of components (e.g., fans and blowers) and different settings for those components, such as operating a central heating unit and/or blower at full capacity while heating a building, operating the central heating unit at 50% while operating fans and blowers at 75%, and so on, each combination of settings offering different levels of energy consumption.”) and uses the model to generate time-varying setpoints (e.g. a schedule of setpoints, see Corbin [0014] “Using the simulation model and the determined user preferences, the facility can simulate a number of different schedules for the energy system… the facility performs an optimization technique on the simulation model … to identify an optimal schedule.”; [0024] “For example, the schedule may specify that a central heating unit of an HVAC system is to be turned on at 80% of capacity at 6:00 am with blowers operating at 75% and then turned off at 8:00 pm and then turned on again at 70% capacity at 4:45 pm before being turned off at 11:00 pm”)
Mengle and Corbin are analogous because they are from the same field of endeavor as the claimed invention and other references of predictive HVAC control systems; and contain overlapping structural and functional similarities; each controls an HVAC system based on a control prediction horizon; each calculates an expected energy consumption of the HVAC system based on the predicted control.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have modified the teachings of Mengle to incorporate information on the environment in which the HVAC components operate, including thermal capacitance and weather conditions into a model relating a target variable to operational setpoints for equipment and use the model to predict optimal setpoints based on the target over a future time period; as suggested by Corbin.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have been motivated to make this modification in order to account for conditions that may impact the use of the HVAC system, as suggested by Corbin ([0012] “external conditions that may impact the use of the energy system, such as weather conditions/forecasts and energy pricing information.”) and in order to optimize the setpoint schedule response to changes in condition such as weather forecasts, occupant overrides, or demand response events, as suggested by Corbin ([0024] “the optimize process occurs frequently throughout the day to incorporate new and/or changed information into the optimization, such as occupant overrides, updated forecasts (e.g., weather and cost), schedule changes, etc. Furthermore, this process may occur on demand according to information provided by an energy provider, such as demand response events.”)
And De Angelis teaches an Energy Management technique for a building (see page 1519, introduction: “domestic and residential scenarios”, and 1524, bottom of right column “…building scope, in which more apartments share the same renewable resources”) including HVAC equipment (such as a heat pump, see page 1519 notation, and Page 1521, e.g. “where [formula] (17) is the heating or cooling energy deriving from heat pump”) where one of the optimization targets comprising amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed for a plurality of time steps (see Page 1521, section F. “Thermal Model and Constraints”, particularly: “Thus, according to the
thermal comfort chosen by the customer, the thermal constraints
are as follows: θi ≥ θmin, θi ≤ θmax, etc. for each time step i in the summation (see e.g. eq. 21); which generates set points (target temperatures, which may vary over time, see fig. 2 and 3) by using the thermal energy targets as a constraint (Page 1521, column 1 generally, describing how to go from a heat balance model to a particular constraint for the MILP optimization algorithm.)
(Examiner notes for clarity of the record that the MILP optimization algorithm of DeAngelis is also regarded as an objective function.)
De Angelis is analogous art because it is from the same field of endeavor as the claimed invention and other references of predictive HVAC control systems; and contains overlapping structural and functional similarities; each controls an HVAC system based on a control prediction horizon; each calculates an expected energy consumption of the HVAC system based on the predicted control.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have modified the teachings of Mengle and Corbin to include modeling using a constraint based on the amount of energy to be added or removed to the controlled space, as suggested by De Angelis;
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have been motivated to make this modification in order to resolve both electrical and thermal constraints concurrently in the same optimization problem, as suggested by De Angelis (Page 1518 “in this work, both the electrical and thermal aspects are solved concurrently within the same optimization algorithm.”)
Regarding Claims 11 and 19, these claims recite substantively the same subject matter, except embodied as a method and a non-transitory computer readable media, respectively. Mutatis mutandis these claims are likewise obvious over Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis for the same reasons articulated with respect to claim 1.
Regarding Claims 3 and 13, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claims 1 and 11 respectively,
DeAngelis further teaches:
the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy (“see page 1521, section F. “The heat balance model of a house is based on the following formulas…”) to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment (1521 ibid. “…where (17) is the heating or cooling energy deriving from heat pump and (18) is the lost energy.”) at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; (see Page 1521, section F. “Thermal Model and Constraints”, particularly: each time step i in the summation (see e.g. eq. 21))”)
the one or more controllers are configured to generate the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment (target temperatures, which may vary over time, see fig. 2 and 3) for the future time period according to one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment (see Page 1521, section F. “Thermal Model and Constraints”, particularly: “Thus, according to the thermal comfort chosen by the customer, the thermal constraints are as follows: θi ≥ θmin, θi ≤ θmax, etc. for each time step i in the summation (see e.g. eq. 21); at each of the plurality of time steps in the future time period. (see also Page 1521, column 1 generally, describing how to go from a heat balance model to a particular constraint for the MILP optimization algorithm. “Finally, our system is modelled, and minimizing the cost function means minimizing the costs and optimizing the available energy: the combined energy and task scheduling is obtained according to the electrical and thermal requirements.”)
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have modified the teachings of Mengle and Corbin to include modeling using a constraint based on the amount of energy to be added or removed to the controlled space, as suggested by De Angelis;
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have been motivated to make this modification in order to resolve both electrical and thermal constraints concurrently in the same optimization problem, as suggested by De Angelis (Page 1518 “in this work, both the electrical and thermal aspects are solved concurrently within the same optimization algorithm.”)
Regarding Claims 5 and 15, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claims 1 and 11 respectively;
Mengle further teaches:
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between: the targets for the one or more building spaces; ([0040] “outcome prediction module 247 may attempt to allocate energy consumptions optimally to different areas of a campus given an overall energy consumption constraint for the campus, while also taking into consideration the fact that the effectiveness of each allocation may differ across the various areas of the campus”) and airside power consumption ([0038] “k-amount of kilowatts of energy consumption per hour”) predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces. ([0038] “For example, a history of measurements 244 and control parameter settings 245 may indicate that, on average, it will require k-amount of kilowatts of energy consumption per hour to maintain the temperature in a particular building at 72.degree. F. instead of 73.degree. F., j-amount of kilowatts per hour to maintain the temperature at 71.degree. F. instead of 72.degree. F. to, etc.” see also fig. 6 suggested control parameters 508f which include suggested power consumptions for each area).
Regarding Claims 6 and 16, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent Claims 1 and 11 respectively,
Corbin further teaches:
generate temperature profiles for the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets; (In block 350, the module performs simulations … the module identifies the schedule with the preferred energy consumption (e.g., the schedule resulting in the lowest cost based on the retrieved cost information or the schedule resulting in the lowest overall consumption of energy).
and generate the time-varying setpoints ([0024] “For example, the facility may communicate a schedule of set points to a thermostat for implementation.”) for the HVAC equipment such that the HVAC equipment operate to drive actual temperatures of the one or more building spaces toward the temperature profiles. ([0024] “In block 370, the facility provides the identified schedule to the system for implementation”)
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have modified the teachings of Mengle to determine an optimized schedule of setpoints for a user’s preferences; as suggested by Corbin.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have been motivated to make this modification in order to optimize the setpoint schedule response to changes in condition such as weather forecasts, occupant overrides, or demand response events, as suggested by Corbin ([0024] “the optimize process occurs frequently throughout the day to incorporate new and/or changed information into the optimization, such as occupant overrides, updated forecasts (e.g., weather and cost), schedule changes, etc. Furthermore, this process may occur on demand according to information provided by an energy provider, such as demand response events.”)
Regarding Claims 7 and 17, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claims 1 and 11 respectively,
Mengle further teaches:
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces; (Mengle [0016] “the controlled process is providing HVAC services to a campus of buildings” and fig. 6, e.g. “Building A, First Floor” “Building C, Third Floor” etc.)
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, ([0015] “controlled system(s)/device(s) 104 may include any number of chillers, air handling units (AHUs), variable air volume (VAV) box actuators, etc. that regulate temperature in one or [sic] buildings.”)
each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; ([0031] “As shown, control module 246 may control a process based on both control parameter settings 245 and the resulting measurements 244 taken from the controlled process. In some cases, the process may be a singular process (e.g., controlling the temperature in a single room)
and the one or more controllers are configured to generate a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems (Mengle teaches that energy targets are associated with different building zones, see fig. 6; Suggested setting 508f, particularly “Area”; e.g. “Building A, First Floor”)
And Corbin further teaches:
and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space ([0011] “determine attributes of the energy system and environment, such as an envelope resistance, thermal capacitance, thermal resistance, and heating capacity of a building in which the HVAC system operates.”) to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem. ([0008] “The facility identifies various components of an energy system, such as a heating, ventilation, and air condition (HVAC) system, load-control switch, hot water heater, electric vehicle, electric appliance, solar system, etc. and assesses the environment in which those components operate, such as the thermal capacitance of a building in which a HVAC system operates, current and forecasted weather conditions, and energy costs. Based on the identified components and assessments, the facility generates a simulation model that can be used to simulate different time-based series or schedules of adjustments to the energy system and how those adjustments will effect[sic] energy consumption.“)
Regarding Claim 8, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claim 7,
Mengle further teaches:
wherein the plurality of HVAC subsystems and the plurality of building spaces are located in separate buildings thermally decoupled from one another such that no direct heat exchange occurs between building spaces served by separate HVAC subsystems. ([0016] “The control loops may also be dependent or independent, in various embodiments. For example, if the controlled process is providing HVAC services to a campus of buildings, the control loops that provide control over each building may be independent of one another.” see also fig. 6, areas are in distinct buildings such as e.g. “Building A”, “Building C” etc.)
Regarding Claims 9 and 18, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claims 1 and 11 respectively,
Mengle further teaches:
one or more airside units configured to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using a heated or chilled fluid provided as an input to the one or more airside units; ([0015] “controlled system(s)/device(s) 104 may include… air handling units (AHUs), variable air volume (VAV) box actuators,”)
and at least one of an outdoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) unit or a waterside system configured to provide the heated or chilled fluid to the one or more airside units. ([0015] “controlled system(s)/device(s) 104 may include any number of chillers”)
Claim(s) 4 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mengle in view of Corbin and DeAngelis, further in view of Hu, et al., US Pg-Pub 2014/0208776.
Regarding Claims 4 and 14, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claims 1 and 11 respectively,
Mengle further teaches:
wherein the HVAC equipment comprise one or more [Air Handling Units] ([0015] “controlled system(s)/device(s) 104 may include any number of … air handling units (AHUs), variable air volume (VAV) box actuators, etc. that regulate temperature in one or [sic] buildings.”)
and the setpoints comprise at least one of: … or temperature setpoints for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the one or more [Air Handling Units]. (ibid. [0038] “…For example, a history of measurements 244 and control parameter settings 245 may indicate that, on average, it will require k-amount of kilowatts of energy consumption per hour to maintain the temperature in a particular building at 72.degree. F.)
Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis differs from the claimed invention in that:
The HVAC equipment taught by the references does not include indoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) units
However, Hu teaches that Indoor variable refrigerant (VRF) units ([0035] “selectively connecting the first variable refrigerant flow outdoor unit with each of the first variable speed indoor unit.” [0014] “The HVAC system 100 is also a multi-split system at least insofar as the indoor units 102,102' are both connected in selective fluid communication with the same outdoor unit 104 so that refrigerant may be selectively routed between the outdoor unit and each of the indoor units 102,102'.” ) are suitable for supplying heating and/or cooling functionality in HVAC systems. ([0014] “As shown, the HVAC system 100 is a so-called heat pump system that may be selectively operated to implement one or more substantially closed thermodynamic refrigeration cycles to provide a cooling functionality and/or a heating functionality.”)
Hu is analogous art because it is from the same field of endeavor of HVAC equipment.
Accordingly, Examiner finds 1) the prior art contained a device (method, product, etc.) which differed from the claimed device by the substitution of some components (step, element, etc.) with other components – the HVAC system of Mengle, which differed by the substitution of a VRF system, including an indoor VRF unit; for the chiller and AHU system of Mengle; 2) the substituted components and their functions were known in the art – as exemplified by the system of Hu which teaches the application of a VRF system, including an indoor VRF unit, for comfort cooling; 3) one of ordinary skill in the art could have substituted one known element for another, and the results would have been predictable at least because Hu teaches that VRF units may be used for comfort cooling in zone based applications; (Hu [0014] “As shown, the HVAC system 100 is a so-called heat pump system that may be selectively operated to implement one or more substantially closed thermodynamic refrigeration cycles to provide a cooling functionality and/or a heating functionality.”) and accordingly, the substitution would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application (see MPEP 2143.I.B)
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mengle in view of Corbin and DeAngelis, further in view of Marik et al., US Pg-Pub 2014/0277760
Regarding Claim 10, Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis teaches all of the limitations of parent claim 9,
Mengle in view of Corbin, further in view of DeAngelis differs from the claimed invention in that:
Neither reference appears to clearly articulate determining an amount of thermal energy to be delivered to each of the one or more airside units at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period;
nor an amount of thermal energy to be produced by at least one of the outdoor VRF unit or the waterside system at each of the plurality of time steps in the time period.
However, Marik teaches an HVAC control algorithm which determines amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed from building spaces ([0056] “Optimization module 224 can adjust the amount of energy supplied to a zone of the HVAC system based on whether the zone is in a comfort state. For example, optimization module 224 can maintain or decrease the amount of energy supplied to the zone if the zone is in the comfort state, and optimization module 224 can increase the amount of energy supplied to the zone if the zone is not in the comfort state, as previously described in connection with FIG. 1.”) for a series of forecast time periods ([0070] “evaluating a model structure can include calculating a predicted value for a number of variables in a model associated with the model structure over a period of time. The predicted value for each of the number of variables can be compared to an observed value for each of the number of variables over the period of time.”) and uses the determined energy requirements to determine operational set points for chillers including the amount of energy required for the component. ([0037] “Supervisory controller 106 can determine the lowest possible amount of energy needed to place the zones in the comfort state based on, for example, the set points (e.g., actions) of HVAC system 102 (e.g., of the components of HVAC system 102, such as AHU supply and/or extract speed, chilled water pump speed, AHU supply air temperature, and/or hot and/or chilled water flow temperature, among others), the states (e.g., characteristics) of HVAC system 102 (e.g., of the components of HVAC system 102, such as heating and/or cooling demands of the zones, AHU supply and/or return fan speed, hot and/or chilled water pump speed, AHU supply air temperature, hot and/or chilled water temperature, hot and/or chilled water return temperature, and/or AHU air return temperature, among others)”)
Marik is analogous because it is are from the same field of endeavor as the claimed invention and other references of predictive HVAC control systems; and contains overlapping structural and functional similarities; each controls an HVAC system based on a control prediction horizon; each calculates an expected energy consumption of the HVAC system based on the predicted control.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have modified the teachings of Mengle and Corbin to include setting control targets for the amount of energy to be added or removed from zones of the building; as suggested by Marik.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application could have been motivated to make this modification in order to prioritize optimizing the schedules for zones having the largest demands, as suggested by Marik ([0034] “That is, supervisory controller 106 can determine whether only the zones of HVAC system 102 having the largest demands are in a comfort state. For instance, supervisory controller 106 may not receive zone demand signals from zones of HVAC system 102 having the smallest demands, the zones of HVAC system 102 where the threat of discomfort is not present, or the zones of HVAC system 102 that constantly have extreme and/or outlier demands, or determine whether any of these zones are in a comfort state.”)
Double Patenting
In the interest of Clarity, Examiner notes that there are three independent double patenting rejections, over each of 11,789,415; 11,754,984; (in view of Corbin) and 10,809,675 (variously in view of Corbin and DeAngelis).
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-17 of U.S. Patent No. 11,789,415 in view of Corbin et al., US Pg-Pub 2014/0039686. Because, as illustrated in the table below, the reference patent in view of Corbin teaches or fairly suggests the claims at issue in the instant application:
Instant Application
Reference 11,789,415
1. A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, the HVAC system comprising:
1. A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, the HVAC system comprising:
HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces;
HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces;
one or more controllers comprising one or more processing circuits configured to:
one or more controllers comprising one or more processing circuits configured to:
generate targets for a variable for the one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;
generate energy targets for the one or more building spaces ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable; time period may be future, see claim 2)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generate time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment for the future time period by performing a control process using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment
generate setpoints for the HVAC equipment using the energy targets for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment; (the targets vary by time, see claim 2, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (targets may energy amounts to be added or removed; used as constraints, see Claim 3.)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operate the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
operate the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
2. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 1) ...using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;…
3. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
2. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein
the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
the energy targets comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
the one or more controllers are configured to generate the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment for the future time period according to one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment.
the one or more controllers are configured to use the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment as a constraint when generating the setpoints for the HVAC equipment.
4. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise one or more indoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) units and the setpoints comprise at least one of:
3. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise one or more indoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) units and the setpoints comprise at least one of:
refrigerant flow setpoints for the one or more indoor VRF units; or
refrigerant flow setpoints for the one or more indoor VRF units; or
temperature setpoints for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the one or more indoor VRF units.
temperature setpoints for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the one or more indoor VRF units.
5. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
4. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the energy targets using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces; and
airside power consumption predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces.
airside power consumption predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces.
6. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to:
5. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to:
generate temperature profiles for the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets; and
generate temperature profiles for the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets; and
generate the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment such that the HVAC equipment operate to drive actual temperatures of the one or more building spaces toward the temperature profiles.
generate the setpoints for the HVAC equipment such that the HVAC equipment operate to drive actual temperatures of the one or more building spaces toward the temperature profiles.
7. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
6. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
the one or more controllers are configured to generate a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
the one or more controllers are configured to generate a plurality of energy targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
8. The HVAC system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of HVAC subsystems and the plurality of building spaces are located in separate buildings thermally decoupled from one another such that no direct heat exchange occurs between building spaces served by separate HVAC subsystems.
7. The HVAC system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of HVAC subsystems and the plurality of building spaces are located in separate buildings thermally decoupled from one another such that no direct heat exchange occurs between building spaces served by separate HVAC subsystems.
9. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise:
8. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise:
one or more airside units configured to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using a heated or chilled fluid provided as an input to the one or more airside units; and
one or more airside units configured to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using a heated or chilled fluid provided as an input to the one or more airside units; and
at least one of an outdoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) unit or a waterside system configured to provide the heated or chilled fluid to the one or more airside units.
at least one of an outdoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) unit or a waterside system configured to provide the heated or chilled fluid to the one or more airside units.
10. The HVAC system of claim 9, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets for the one or more building spaces by determining:
9. The HVAC system of claim 8, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the energy targets for the one or more building spaces by determining:
an amount of thermal energy to be delivered to each of the one or more airside units at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
an amount of thermal energy to be delivered to each of the one or more airside units at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
an amount of thermal energy to be produced by at least one of the outdoor VRF unit or the waterside system at each of the plurality of time steps in the time period.
an amount of thermal energy to be produced by at least one of the outdoor VRF unit or the waterside system at each of the plurality of time steps in the time period.
11. A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
10. A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
generating targets of a variable for one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces;
generating energy targets for the one or more building spaces ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable; time period may be future, see claim 2) in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generating, by performing a control process, time-varying setpoints for the future time period for HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function for the one or more building spaces
generating setpoints for the HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the energy targets for the one or more building spaces; (the targets vary by time, see claim 2, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (targets may energy amounts to be added or removed; used as constraints, see Claim 3.)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operating the HVAC equipment using the time-varying setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the targets are generated using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 10) ...using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;…
13. The method of claim 11, wherein:
11. The method of claim 10, wherein:
the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
the energy targets comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
generating the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment comprises generating one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment at each of the plurality of time steps in the future time period and generating the time-varying setpoints according to the one or more constraints.
the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment are used as a constraint when generating the setpoints for the HVAC equipment.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise one or more indoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) units and the setpoints comprise at least one of:
12. The method of claim 10, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise one or more indoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) units and the setpoints comprise at least one of:
refrigerant flow setpoints for the one or more indoor VRF units; or
refrigerant flow setpoints for the one or more indoor VRF units; or
temperature setpoints for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the one or more indoor VRF units.
temperature setpoints for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the one or more indoor VRF units.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the targets are generated using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
13. The method of claim 10, wherein the energy targets are generated using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces; and
airside power consumption predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces.
airside power consumption predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces.
16. The method of claim 11, comprising:
14. The method of claim 10, comprising:
generating temperature profiles for the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets; and
generating temperature profiles for the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets; and
generating the setpoints for the HVAC equipment such that the HVAC equipment operate to drive actual temperatures of the one or more building spaces toward the temperature profiles.
generating the setpoints for the HVAC equipment such that the HVAC equipment operate to drive actual temperatures of the one or more building spaces toward the temperature profiles.
17. The method of claim 11, wherein:
15. The method of claim 11, wherein:
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
the targets comprise a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
the energy targets comprise a plurality of energy targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise:
16. The method of claim 11, wherein the HVAC equipment comprise:
one or more airside units configured to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using a heated or chilled fluid provided as an input to the one or more airside units; and
one or more airside units configured to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using a heated or chilled fluid provided as an input to the one or more airside units; and
at least one of an outdoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) unit or a waterside system configured to provide the heated or chilled fluid to the one or more airside units.
at least one of an outdoor variable refrigerant flow (VRF) unit or a waterside system configured to provide the heated or chilled fluid to the one or more airside units.
19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
generating targets of a variable for one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces;
generate energy targets for the one or more building spaces ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable; time period may be future, see claim 2)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generating, by performing a control process, time-varying setpoints over the future time period for HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function for the one or more building spaces;
generating setpoints for the HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the energy targets for the one or more building spaces; (the targets vary by time, see claim 2, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (targets may energy amounts to be added or removed; used as constraints, see Claim 3.)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the targets are generated using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 17) ...using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;…
Claims 1-3, 5, 7, 11-13, 15, 17, and 19-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-5, 9-14, and 18 of U.S. Patent No. 11,754,984 in view of Corbin et al., US Pg-Pub 2014/0039686. Because, as illustrated in the table below, the reference patent in view of Corbin teaches or fairly suggests the claims at issue in the instant application:
Instant Application
Reference 11,754,984
1. A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, the HVAC system comprising:
1. A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, the HVAC system comprising:
HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces;
airside HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces; and
one or more controllers comprising one or more processing circuits configured to:
one or more controllers configured to:
generate targets for a variable of the one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;
generate energy targets for the one or more building spaces ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable; time period may be future, see claim 2)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generate time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment for the future time period by performing a control process using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment
generate setpoints for the airside HVAC equipment using the airside energy targets; (the targets vary by time, see claim 2, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (targets may be energy amounts to add or remove, see claim 4, used in an objective function, see claim 6)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operate the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
control the airside HVAC equipment to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces in accordance with the setpoints.
2. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 1) ...using a heat transfer model that defines a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the airside energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the airside energy targets for the one or more building spaces
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the airside HVAC equipment;…
3. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
3. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
each of the airside energy targets corresponds to a different time step of a time period and is used to control the airside HVAC equipment during the corresponding time step of the time period.
the one or more controllers are configured to generate the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment for the future time period according to one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment.
(in view of Claim 4.): The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the airside energy targets indicate an amount of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the airside HVAC equipment.
5. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
5. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the airside energy targets using an airside power consumption model that defines a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
...and the airside energy targets.
airside power consumption predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces.
...airside power consumption…
7. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
9. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building zones; and
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
(obvious in view of 11,754,984, Claim 2: … the airside HVAC equipment are distributed across a plurality of airside subsystems, each airside subsystem configured to provide heating or cooling to a different building space ….)
the one or more controllers are configured to generate a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
the one or more controllers are configured to generate a zone energy target for each of the plurality of building zones, each zone energy target indicating an amount of thermal energy to be added to one of the plurality of building zones or removed from one of the plurality of building zones.
11. A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
10. A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
generating targets of a variable for one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces;
generating energy targets for the one or more building spaces ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable; time period may be future, see claim 2)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
generating, by performing a control process, time-varying setpoints for the future time period for HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function for the one or more building spaces
generating setpoints for the airside HVAC equipment based on the airside energy targets; (the targets vary by time, see claim 2, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (targets may be energy amounts to add or remove, see claim 4, used in an objective function, see claim 6)
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
controlling the airside HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces in accordance with the setpoints.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the targets are generated using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 10) ...using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;…
13. The method of claim 11, wherein:
12. The method of claim 10, wherein:
the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
each of the airside energy targets corresponds to a different time step of a time period and is used to control the airside HVAC equipment during the corresponding time step of the time period.
generating the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment comprises generating one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment at each of the plurality of time steps in the future time period and generating the time-varying setpoints according to the one or more constraints
(in view of Claim 13:) The method of claim 10, wherein the airside energy targets indicate an amount of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the airside HVAC equipment.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the targets are generated using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
14. The method of claim 10, wherein the airside energy targets are generated using an airside power consumption model that defines a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
...and the airside energy targets.
airside power consumption predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces.
...airside power consumption …
17. The method of claim 11, wherein:
18. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building zones;
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building zones;
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
(obvious in view of 11,754,984, Claim 11: … the airside HVAC equipment are distributed across a plurality of airside subsystems, each airside subsystem configured to provide heating or cooling to a different building space ….)
the targets comprise a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
the method comprising generating a zone energy target for each of the plurality of building zones, each zone energy target indicating an amount of thermal energy to be added to one of the plurality of building zones or removed from one of the plurality of building zones
19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
(although not recited as including non-transitory media, obvious over 11,754,984 claim 10:) A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
generating targets of a variable for one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces;
generating energy targets for the one or more building spaces ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable; time period may be future, see claim 2)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generating, by performing a control process, time-varying setpoints over the future time period for HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function for the one or more building spaces;
generating setpoints for the airside HVAC equipment based on the airside energy targets; (the targets vary by time, see claim 2, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (targets may be energy amounts to add or remove, see claim 4, used in an objective function, see claim 6)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
controlling the airside HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces in accordance with the setpoints.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the targets are generated using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 10) ...using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the energy targets for the one or more building spaces,
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;…
Claims 1-3, 5, 7-8, 11-13, 15, 17, and 19-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-4, 9, 10, 12, and 16 of U.S. Patent No. 10,809,675 in view of Corbin et al., US Pg-Pub 2014/0039686 and in view of DeAngelis, Francesco, et al. "Optimal home energy management under dynamic electrical and thermal constraints." IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 9.3 (2012): 1518-1527. Because, as illustrated in the table below, the reference patent in view of Corbin and DeAngelis teaches or fairly suggests the claims at issue in the instant application:
Instant Application
Reference 10,809,675
1. A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, the HVAC system comprising:
1. A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, the HVAC system comprising:
HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces;
an airside system having a plurality of airside subsystems, each airside subsystem comprising airside HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces;
one or more controllers comprising one or more processing circuits configured to:
a high-level controller configured to
generate targets for a variable the one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment;
generate a plurality of airside subsystem energy targets... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generate time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment for the future time period by performing a control process using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment
(claim 7) [each low-level airside controller configured to]... generate airside temperature setpoints for the corresponding airside subsystem using the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;... (the targets vary by time, see claim 9, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (in view of DeAngelis page 1521 where thermal energy targets are used in a constraint for an objective function to determine operational setpoints.)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operate the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
each low-level airside controller corresponding to one of the airside subsystems and configured to control the airside HVAC equipment of the corresponding airside subsystem in accordance with the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem.
2. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 1) each heat transfer model corresponding to one of the plurality of airside subsystems and defining a relationship between:
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and the thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding airside subsystem;
3. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein: the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
2. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein each airside subsystem energy target indicates an amount of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment of the corresponding airside subsystem
the one or more controllers are configured to generate the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment for the future time period according to one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment.
(obvious in view of DeAngelis page 1521 where thermal energy targets are used in constraints for an objective function to determine operational setpoints.)
5. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
3. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the high-level controller is configured to generate the plurality of airside subsystem energy targets using an airside power consumption model that defines a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
…and the airside subsystem energy targets.
airside power consumption predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces.
...airside power consumption...
7. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein:
9. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
a first airside subsystem of the plurality of airside subsystems comprises a plurality of building zones;
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
(claim 1) ...an airside system having a plurality of airside subsystems, each airside subsystem comprising airside HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces;…
the one or more controllers are configured to generate a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
a first low-level airside controller of the plurality of low-level airside controllers is configured to generate a zone energy target for each of the plurality of building zones in the first airside subsystem, each zone energy target indicating an amount of thermal energy to be added to one of the plurality of building zones or removed from one of the plurality of building zones at a plurality of time steps in a time period.
8. The HVAC system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of HVAC subsystems and the plurality of building spaces are located in separate buildings thermally decoupled from one another such that no direct heat exchange occurs between building spaces served by separate HVAC subsystems.
4. The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of airside subsystems are located in separate buildings thermally decoupled from each other such that no direct heat exchange occurs between the plurality of airside subsystems.
11. A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
10. A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
generating targets of a variable for one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces;
generating a plurality of airside subsystem energy targets at a high-level controller ... (i.e. ‘energy’ is the variable;)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generating, by performing a control process, time-varying setpoints for the future time period for HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function for the one or more building spaces
(Claim 16) … generating, by each of the plurality of low-level airside controllers, airside temperature setpoints for the corresponding airside subsystem using the airside subsystem energy targets for the corresponding airside subsystem; …(the targets vary by time, see claim 9, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (in view of DeAngelis page 1521 where thermal energy targets are used in a constraint for an objective function to determine operational setpoints.)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
controlling, by each of the plurality of low-level airside controllers, the airside HVAC equipment of the corresponding airside subsystem in accordance with the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the targets are generated using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 10) ...each heat transfer model corresponding to one of the plurality of airside subsystems and defining a relationship between:
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and the thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding airside subsystem;
13. The method of claim 11, wherein: the targets for the variable comprise amounts of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment at each of a plurality of time steps in a time period; and
11. The method of claim 10, wherein each airside subsystem energy target indicates an amount of thermal energy to be added to the one or more building spaces or removed from the one or more building spaces by the HVAC equipment of the corresponding airside subsystem.
generating the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment comprises generating one or more constraints comprising the amounts of thermal energy to be added or removed by the HVAC equipment at each of the plurality of time steps in the future time period and generating the time-varying setpoints according to the one or more constraints.
(obvious in view of DeAngelis page 1521 where thermal energy targets are used in constraints for an objective function to determine operational setpoints.)
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the targets are generated using an airside power consumption model defining a relationship between:
12. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of airside subsystem energy targets are generated using an airside power consumption model that defines a relationship between
the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
... and the airside subsystem energy targets.
airside power consumption predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces.
...airside power consumption...
17. The method of claim 11, wherein:
(obvious in view of claim 9:) The HVAC system of claim 1, wherein
the one or more building spaces comprise a plurality of building spaces;
a first airside subsystem of the plurality of airside subsystems comprises a plurality of building zones;
the HVAC equipment comprise a plurality of HVAC subsystems, each HVAC subsystem corresponding to a building space of the plurality of building spaces and configured to provide heating or cooling to the corresponding building space; and
(claim 1) ...a plurality of low-level airside controllers, each low-level airside controller corresponding to one of the airside subsystems;…
the targets comprise a plurality of targets, each energy target corresponding to a HVAC subsystem of the plurality of HVAC subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the building space to which the heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding HVAC subsystem.
a first low-level airside controller of the plurality of low-level airside controllers is configured to generate a zone energy target for each of the plurality of building zones in the first airside subsystem, each zone energy target indicating an amount of thermal energy to be added to one of the plurality of building zones or removed from one of the plurality of building zones at a plurality of time steps in a time period.
19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
(although not recited as including non-transitory media, obvious over 10,809,675 claim 10:) A method for operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, method comprising:
generating targets of a variable for one or more building spaces over a future time period using a load prediction made using weather information related to weather outside the one or more building spaces;
generating a plurality of airside subsystem energy targets at a high-level controller ... (i.e. energy is the variable)in view of: Corbin [0008] teaching current and forecasted weather conditions are relevant to assessment of the operational environment for simulating energy consumption impacts.
generating, by performing a control process, time-varying setpoints over the future time period for HVAC equipment that provide heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces using the targets in a constraint or in a difference between the targets for the variable and predicted values for the variable in an objective function for the one or more building spaces;
(Claim 16) … generating, by each of the plurality of low-level airside controllers, airside temperature setpoints for the corresponding airside subsystem using the airside subsystem energy targets for the corresponding airside subsystem; … (the targets vary by time, see claim 9, therefore it would at least be obvious to have the setpoints also vary by time.) (in view of DeAngelis page 1521 where thermal energy targets are used in a constraint for an objective function to determine operational setpoints.)
and a model defining a relationship between the variable and the time-varying setpoints for the HVAC equipment
Obvious in view of: Corbin [0013] teaching generating a model relating amount of energy used by the system to transition between thermostat set points, e.g.
operating the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
controlling, by each of the plurality of low-level airside controllers, the airside HVAC equipment of the corresponding airside subsystem in accordance with the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the targets are generated using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
(claim 10) ...each heat transfer model corresponding to one of the plurality of airside subsystems and defining a relationship between:
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem;
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
and the thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding airside subsystem;
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: While Mengle, Corbin, Marik, De Angelis, and Hu teach many of the features of the claimed invention as outlined above; and Ettl et al., US Pg-Pub 2016/014693 teaches an HVAC control system which includes heat transfer models for forecasting future building temperatures; and Uno et al., US Pg-Pub 2016/010947 teaches an HVAC control system which models energy balances of controlled spaces; none of the references, alone or in reasonable combination, teach or fairly suggest all of the limitations of the claimed invention, particularly:
(Claim 2)
the one or more controllers are configured to generate the targets using a heat transfer model defining a relationship between:
the targets for the one or more building spaces;
a temperature of the one or more building spaces predicted to result from the targets for the one or more building spaces; and
a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment.
(Excerpted)
…in combination with the remaining limitations and features of the claimed invention.
Dependent Claims 12 and 20 recite substantively the same subject matter identified with respect to claim 2 above. Accordingly, mutatis mutandis, these claims are likewise persuasive for the above noted reason(s).
However, Claims 2, 12, and 20 are rejected over US 11,789,415; US 11,754,984; and US 10,809,675 for double patenting, as set forth above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSHUA T SANDERS whose telephone number is (571)272-5591. The examiner can normally be reached Generally Monday through Friday.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mohammad Ali can be reached at 571-272-4105. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/J.T.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2119
/MOHAMMAD ALI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2119
Prosecution Insights