Johnson Controls Develops AI Quality Control System to Promote Data Management in Building Automation

Johnson Controls International PLC (JCI) is a multinational company specializing in developing digital and mechanical solutions for buildings. The company’s product offerings include heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, HVAC controls, energy-management systems, integrated facility management services, security systems, fire detection systems, and fire suppression solutions. 

Recently, the company announced its new control system that brings artificial intelligence (AI)-driven air quality control to industrial, commercial, and residential buildings. Building operators can use JCI’s OpenBlue Performance Advisor Application to optimize sustainability and health metrics in buildings.

 

The OpenBlue Performance Advisor Application

The new application from JCI expands upon the capabilities of the company’s OpenBlue Enterprise Manager solution. The new app is designed to help building operators across various settings optimize building operations and performance while minimizing energy consumption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

In the process of heating and cooling buildings, heat is released into the atmosphere. The more a building uses energy, the more it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. 

 

The OpenBlue Performance Advisor app. Image used courtesy of Johnson Controls 

 

The OpenBlue Performance Advisor app uses AI to predict a given building’s performance and provides recommendations that aim to support operational goals. Machine learning (ML) provides users with on-demand recommendations that help contribute to occupant comfort, improved space utilization, predictive asset maintenance, and energy optimization. A projected spend can be used in the new app to provide visibility concerning balancing costs with optimizing building operations. 

 

More Access to Building Data 

The new app allows operators to gain a comprehensive overview of building data. Data concerning different aspects of building performance can be worked with simultaneously from a central dashboard. 

 

A diagram showing how customers and engineer can use this app. Image used courtesy of Johnson Controls

 

The Performance Advisor app uses site-specific external data and proprietary algorithms to project the impact of operations decisions concerning energy, indoor air quality (IAQ), and occupant comfort. Operators can then take action or let the Performance Advisor do so automatically. 

For example, the app can connect performance data for an air handling unit (AHU), building data, weather forecasts, and utility rates to a virtual space buildout. It can then simulate and analyze the effects of varied AHU supply temperatures, economizer threshold temperatures, and outside airflows. 

The dashboard provides three options for optimizing either energy efficiency or infectious disease risk. These options can be invaluable for businesses looking to safeguard workers against infection while allowing them to work in a safe environment and boost productivity.

 

The Performance Advisor App 

The Performance Advisor app could help increase technician and engineer efficiency by 40%, decrease staffing levels (e.g., one operator for a half-million square feet instead of three), and optimize space use by 10%. 

Maintenance spending could be cut by 20%, hot/ cold calls could be reduced by up to 80%, infection risk by up to 60%. Environmental social governance (ESG) goals could also be achieved with the potential to reduce energy spending by up to 30% and carbon emissions. 

Johnson Controls is hopeful that this new control system with the performance app will help engineers better manage their air quality and other metrics in industrial facilities.