Our planet’s getting warmer, skyrocketing the number of days we need to turn on—or turn up–the air-conditioning function in HVAC systems. In fact, the global average temperature in June, July, and August 2023 was the hottest in Earth’s history. With outside temperatures climbing, it’s increasingly vital to keep homes, hospitals, office buildings, industrial facilities, and other indoor spaces cool. Although failures and downtime are unacceptable in HVAC systems for safety reasons, some studies show that 25% of HVAC systems will encounter problems in the first eight years of ownership.
Instead of waiting until the system goes down to call repair—an inefficient and potentially dangerous way to manage your HVAC system—why not stop failures before they occur? This may seem like a far-off ideal, but Renesas has made it a reality with RealityCheck™ HVAC.
Why do HVAC systems fail, and how is RealityCheck HVAC the answer?
Why Do Systems Fail?
HVAC systems are structurally vulnerable by definition. As complex electromechanical structures comprised of numerous moving parts, the average commercial and residential HVAC system has a lifetime of fifteen to twenty years. In part, that’s because components such as filters, coils, motors, and electrical systems run almost constantly without stopping. Beyond that, more extreme weather conditions are stressing HVAC systems at unprecedented levels.
With often-continuous and more stressful operations over such a long lifetime, HVAC failure is an unfortunate inevitability. At some point, a filter will get clogged, the refrigerant will leak, or a capacitor will blow.
What is RealityCheck HVAC?
While we don’t have the ability to prevent normal wear and tear on an HVAC system, we can prevent failures proactively. This is the focus of Renesas RealityCheck HVAC.
RealityCheck HVAC is an endpoint AI-enabled solution for creating smart, self-diagnosing HVAC and refrigerant systems. The solution combines machine learning (ML) and edge processing in Renesas microcontrollers (MCUs)—such as the RA6T2 Family and RX26T Family—which use vibration, temperature, and electrical signals from motors to allow HVAC systems to natively predict a wide range of anomalies, faults, and operating conditions.
By combining machine learning and edge processing, Renesas MCUs allow your HVAC system to operate more efficiently while reducing environmental impact and improving overall user satisfaction.
With RealityCheck HVAC, OEMs can now create sustainable self-aware HVAC systems that incorporate extremely efficient ML models running on industry-leading Renesas MCUs. To speed the design-for-implementation process, RealityCheck HVAC provides a wide set of reference models that have been pre-trained to recognize common conditions of interest such as refrigerant leaks. It can also predict signatures leading to critical component failures such as compressor issues.
RealityCheck further supports OEM-level customization. OEMs can use it to train and deploy a variety of ML models to recognize additional signatures for their own unique purpose-built smart HVAC systems, including specific HVAC components such as motors, filters, compressors, and more.
Through this flexible approach, RealityCheck HVAC provides the fastest way to bring these solutions to market, minimizing the need for intense research and development, and application-specific expertise.
Stop Failures Before They Happen
RealityCheck HVAC is a game-changer because it enables predictive maintenance. Running system data through an ML model, RealityCheck can predict imminent problems in the system. With this knowledge, the Renesas MCU can notify the larger system of the impending issue, allowing for intervention and maintenance to stop failures before they even occur.
Think of RealityCheck HVAC as analogous to the “check engine” light indicator in your car. Your car will still keep running even if the engine needs to be serviced, but that indicator light informs you that if you don’t do something soon, your car might have some serious problems.
In a similar fashion, RealityCheck HVAC lets users know that a failure is about to happen, and if maintenance doesn’t take place, a catastrophic failure could occur.
Imagine that it's the peak of summer, and your factory’s HVAC system is working at full speed. But after numerous years of neglect, the filter has become badly clogged. With RealityCheck HVAC, your system can predict when the clogged filter is about to cause a complete system failure. That way, your maintenance team can replace it immediately, preventing full-system failure and unwanted downtime.
What’s more, HVAC manufacturers have complete control over how they apply RealityCheck HVAC. Whether it's a lower-end system—where only a warning light is necessary—or a higher-end system—where service technicians are automatically contacted—RealityCheck HVAC has you covered.
Keeping Systems Working When You Need Them Most
As temperatures soar, and weather gets more extreme, we need our HVAC systems more than ever. By combining the power of on-edge intelligence with Renesas’ versatile, field-proven MCUs, RealityCheck HVAC ensures that your systems stay operational when you need them the most.
Do you want to harness the power of ML to prevent HVAC failures? Visit RealityCheck HVAC Solutions Suite for more information.