"We Have A Failure To Communicate"

For the last 15 years the Mestex division of Mestek has been building direct digital controls ("DDC") into our equipment.  We started with some pretty simple control programs on some of our more basic units.  Even these simple programs allowed the equipment to operate more effectively...controlling temperature more closely, controlling energy consumption better, and giving users more options for scheduling their system operation.

The core functions of our control systems have not changed much over the years but the features that have been added, and are continuing to be added, to improve the information available from our equipment are almost mind-boggling. 

Take the relatively simple technology of evaporative cooling.  The Mestex Aztec indirect-direct evaporative cooling unit comes standard with a DDC control package that constantly monitors outside air conditions, unit supply air conditions, unit water quality, and cooled space conditions in order to control temperature, pressure, and humidity in the space.  But that is only part of the story.

While collecting all of the data we just described and deciding how to control the unit functions the DDC processor is also collecting, and making available, a wealth of other information.  The unit can provide real time electrical power consumption and demand, real time water consumption, and constantly updated information about the operating mode of the equipment (operating hours in full economizer mode, operating hours in full recirculation mode, and operating hours in mixed mode).  The unit is also accumulating and can display daily, monthly, and annual power and water use data.

This is obviously some pretty sophisticated information from a relatively simple machine.  The same algorithms used in this unit can be applied to most of the other Mestex products and provide a wealth of management information to end users.  The larger the end user organization and the more units deployed, the more valuable this information becomes. 

But...the information is only valuable if management can actually see it.  As more and more of our equipment installations are tied to building automation or building information systems we are encountering more and more interface issues.  The issues are not matters of communication protocols since our DDC packages are designed to speak virtually every communication language but issues of human communication protocols.

What we have found in many cases is that the information, and the interface to the equipment, is turned over to an IT person who is unfamiliar with HVAC equipment.  That person is probably also very concerned about network security and has probably created firewalls that make implementation challenging.  The HVAC equipment might be working perfectly but the person on the other end who is looking at data that he does not understand will frequently interpret that the equipment is not performing as required.

So, as is often the case in life, training and communication become essential to success.  As an HVAC company we usually expect the IT person to "simply understand".  I think, however, that we should work hard to learn about networking and IT issues so that we can at least speak the same language as the person on the other end of our equipment.

NEWS RELEASE

New data center construction expected to boom as demand triples

 

Mestex Open Access Project helps data center operators plan for “build as you grow” expansion

 

DALLAS, April 28, 2014 – The digital revolution is sapping the power grid, but a new approach to data center construction may help reverse the trend of ever-increasing energy consumption for powering and cooling these facilities. To help data center operators better understand their options, Mestex, the industry leader in evaporative cooling systems, is providing a free tool to demonstrate how infrastructure can be better deployed to manage competing demands for more capacity and greater energy efficiency.

 “Data centers are the enablers of this digital revolution,” said Mike Kaler, president of Mestex. “The increase in global digital demand and cloud computing is exponential. As demand rises, data centers that house digital information consume more electricity, half of it being used to cool the facility. We wanted to help people see how energy is being consumed and ways for managing infrastructure and costs.”

The company believes intelligent technology combined with a flexible, scalable and energy-saving approach is the best way to “build as you grow.” Adding plug-and-play cooling units – such as Mestex’s own Aztec Evaporative Cooling Units – as capacity increases is the most economical strategy for data centers to manage expansion or new construction while reducing total cost of ownership. Aztec systems are proven to lower power usage by 70% when compared to traditional air conditioning; the system’s digital controls, when integrated with other building automation systems, can extend that savings even further.

To help data center operators get a realistic picture of how their own expansion might play out, the company recently launched the Mestex Open Access Project to provide information technologists, facility managers and financial executives the ability to evaluate energy-saving concepts in a real-world environment. 

“We’ve opened access to our equipment, controls and data, because we want to encourage energy savings and demonstrate to data center decision makers that there are smart, effective ways to increase efficiency and optimize operations,” Kaler said.

The web-based interface offers visibility into the physical plant and air conditioning system of an operating data center being tested as a part of a project spearheaded by the National Science Foundation. The “open access” gives anyone with Internet access an unembellished look at how a data center is operating, in real time, 24/7.

The Open Access Project harnesses the power of Mestex’s direct digital control (DCC) system, which comes standard on all of its HVAC products and can be easily integrated with other HVAC vendors’ products and building automation systems to create an intelligent network that controls cooling for optimal efficiency, performance and longevity, as well as provides web-based system monitoring and management.

 

Note:

Mestex President Mike Kaler will be hosting a presentation on mission-critical cooling systems on Wednesday, April 30, at 10:30 a.m. at AFCOM Data Center World at the Mirage Casino-Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. The company is exhibiting (booth #1227) at the conference April 28 – May 2.

Links:

Aztec Cooling Units for IT applications

Mestex Open Access Project Live View  (To access, Internet Explorer 10 or above is required. Enter “guest” as user name and password.)

 

# # #

 

Mestex (www.Mestex.com), a division of Mestek, Inc., is a group of HVAC manufacturers with a focus on air handling and a passion for innovation. Mestex is the only HVAC manufacturer offering industry-standard direct digital controls on virtually all of its products, which include Applied Air, Alton, Aztec, Koldwave, Temprite and LJ Wing HVAC systems.

 

Media Contact:

Christina Divigard

Divigard & Associates

413 341 6780 or Christina@Divigard.com

 

 

The "Open Access Project"

In the data center and technology world there is an on-going "discussion" about "openness".  Facebook really kicked this into high gear with their "Open Compute Project" where they share design specifics for their data center product designs in order to encourage energy savings across the data center design community.  This bold move allows virtually anyone to take a peek into how Facebook manages the hardware side of their business and how their equipment operates in the real world environment.

Here at Mestex we have taken our own steps in the same direction.  Anyone, anywhere in the world, who has Internet access can see some of our HVAC product designs operating in the real world environment of heating and cooling our facilities in  Dallas, Texas.  Think about how many other HVAC product manufacturers provide such "open access" to their equipment in real time in the real world? 

By logging in as a guest user (adaptaire.appliedair.com and use "guest" for both username and password) anyone can see how our DOAS unit is operating to serve our engineering department, or how a direct fired unit is operating to heat one of our production buildings, or how an air turnover unit is performing to cool a large uninsulated warehouse building, or how an indirect/direct evaporative cooling unit is functioning to control temperatures in a research server room pod located outside our buildings.

No filters, no marketing BS, no "wordsmithing" of performance...just raw unadulterated data and graphics showing what the equipment is doing in real time and how it is performing against the setpoints and goals set for the equipment.   Does this take guts?  Of course it does, but if you have been in the HVAC business for as long as Mestex has, and you have the proven track record that we have, then why not share how equipment really functions and give people a chance to evaluate concepts in the real world?

Our control software continues to be refined and developed based upon user feedback and our own research projects so the information on the display changes from time to time.  It now includes electrical energy data...kw demand information and kwh consumption information for each piece of equipment on the display.  Again, to give viewers an idea of the true cost of operation for various types of equipment.

So, for real world information about data center equipment you can go to Facebook's "Open Compute Project" and for real world information about HVAC equipment you can go to Mestex's "Open Access Project".

Racing Into HVAC

People who know me well know that I am an avid fan of Formula 1 and MotoGP motorcycle racing.  In both of those racing series this year there is a team that is running away with the championship.  In the case of Formula 1 it is Infinity Red Bull Racing.  In the case of MotoGP it is Honda.  Unless you follow both sports and peel back the layers a little you might not realize how much technology sharing there is between the two premier classes.

 

How Controls Software Makes the Difference in Racing and in HVAC

At this point you are probably wondering where I am going with this.  After all, what does racing technology have to do with HVAC?  Well, the connection is the impact of "control software".

The Infinity Red Bull team uses Renault engines but they are not the only team that uses those same engines.  However, Red Bull has developed a "factory" version of the engine control software that limits wheel spin when exiting turns and, as a result, they are wining many races by large margins.

Honda's factory team is also not the only Honda MotoGP bike on the starting grid.  But the "factory" team has engine control software that also limits wheel spin as well as gyroscopic sensing derived from the Honda Asimo robot that allows the factory bike to apply power more quickly than the non-factory bikes.

In both of these cases the other teams using the same basic mechanical components and technologies are developing their own control software packages.  But, without the benefit of factory "inside knowledge" of how the mechanical and control elements mesh, the results are just not quite as good.

Over the last 14 years Mestex, Dallas, has been implementing factory developed digital controls on our equipment.  The control software in our products has been developed using years of field and testing experience that provides unique insights into how quickly our mechanical elements respond, how heat transfer is accomplished within our equipment, and how air moves through our cabinets.  All of that information is "baked in" to our control algorithms.

From time to time well-meaning controls contractors choose to override the factory controls, or circumvent them altogether by asking us to install their control packages, and more often than not the HVAC equipment simply does not perform as well as it could.  We try to provide as much flexibility in our controls for the contractor and end user as we believe the overall system can accommodate. 

When the "factory" controls are not used in an HVAC product the results can be the same as what we see in racing.  The product may continue to operate but it will most likely come up a bit short of the finish line.

GreenBuild Toronto

This past week I was able to participate in the GreenBuild conference in Toronto.  This was my first opportunity to attend and I have come away with a few impressions.

First, I was surprised at the sheer size of the exhibit area.  The Metro Toronto exhibit hall is quite large and split into two sections spanning the CN Rail lines in downtown Toronto.  Both sections were completely full with exhibits for everything from flooring to roofing and everything in between.  All exhibitors promoted the "green" or "sustainable" aspects of their products...even if those aspects might not have been obvious on first or even second thought.  In addition to the three Mestek HVAC product booths the exhibit area included product displays from most of the major north American HVAC manufacturers.

The HVAC equipment companies, as well as many of the lighting and appliance companies, shared one common thread.  That is the emphasis on the "man-machine interface"...how the user interacts with the equipment for control or information.  Touch screen displays were everywhere providing access to virtual control points and providing occupant feedback on temperatures and, most importantly, energy utilization.  The degree of sophistication of the displays varied but the message was the same...in order to conserve energy people must have some sense of how much they are using.  It goes back to the old saying that "you can't manage what you can't measure".  The use of energy metrics have been proven to change occupant behavior and the HVAC industry is stepping up to help with that effort.

Mestex started our efforts in that regard several years ago with our Adaptaire DDC control system and we currently provide basic control and trending information via the Internet.  More developments are underway to further enhance the user feedback and help focus their attention on conservation of our energy resources.

Mestex has been providing this open protocol system for almost 10 years and has successfully integrated with virtually every other major control protocol on the market.  This has allowed building owners to gain visibility into the various Mestex brand products through their own building automation system in order to provide a richer set of points for monitoring and control.

Latency Intolerance

Several things occurred almost simultaneously over the last week or so that spurred my thinking for this latest blog post.

The diagram at the right illustrates the network configuration for our DDC control system called Adaptaire.  We have launched a project to add some additional functionality to the software that has been around for almost 12 years now.  The function that we are adding is a real time "dashboard" that will give the building occupant feedback on how well the system is performing.  Because the "dashboard" is displaying information in real time, and might be transmitting that data over the Internet, one of the factors that we need to consider is the speed at which we "refresh" the data.

The second thing that spurred our thinking is our plan to migrate our current product selection software from a desktop environment to a web-based environment.  This means that the data entered and the answers received back from the selection software will be transmitted via the Internet.  Experiments with some very early versions of the software have highlighted "speed of response" issues that must be addressed as we move forward.

The third event that provoked this blog entry was a meeting with one of the chief design engineers for Integrated Design Group, a data center design firm responsible for projects worldwide.  In the course of the discussion this engineer made a prediction that the data center industry will move to more, and smaller, data centers.

The common thread in all of these items is the "need for speed" and that translates into reducing something called "latency".  "Latency" is the time it takes for your input, or our dashboard refresh signal, to actually reach its final destination.  As incredible as it might seem, even though these signals are moving down fiber-optic cables at the speed of light, it can take a "long" time for that signal to reach its end point.  First, remember that "long" in this industry is measured in nanoseconds.  Second, remember that most of the signals that are transmitted are actually transmitted at least twice because of error checking.  In addition, most of the time those signals pass through several routers and servers before reaching their destination and each of those "hops" also includes error checking and traffic control delays.

One solution, and the reason this engineer believes the future of the industry is more, and smaller, data centers is to locate the data centers as close as possible to the source of the signal or destination of the signal. This will reduce the number of "hops" and also reduce the physical distance between points...thus reducing "latency".

The "latency" issue is so important in industries like equity trading that data center companies are battling each other to locate their facility just one block closer to the Wall Street trading floor.

We are all becoming spoiled by the speed at which we can find information via the Internet, download music, watch on-line videos, etc....but the end result is that we are acquiring a new "disease" that I am calling "Latency Intolerance".