The Onboard/In-Field Fault Detection Diagnostics (FDD) Committee works with a broad representation of industry stakeholders to explore, help define, and promote useful research into FDD benefits and opportunities for commercializing FDD products through utility energy efficiency programs, through codes and standards approaches, and through HVAC workforce education and training channels.
The FDD Committee and the Commercial Quality Maintenance Committee (CQM) share interests regarding equipment performance; as such they are natural partners for active collaboration within the WHPA.
The FDD Committee, building on research already conducted and working with other WHPA bodies, will work in collaboration with the CPUC Energy Division and the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to provide useful and relevant input into:
- The CPUC HVAC research roadmap.
- The current program cycle research plan.
- The scope, methods, and data sources used in specific studies in the research plan, specifically focusing on assessing energy savings from Commercial QM, Residential QM, Commercial QI, and Residential QI. This effort will leverage much of the work being conducted through the existing WHPA Committee structure and will be measured by tracking comments submitted by WHPA members and incorporated into the research plans by the CPUC/IOUs.
Background:
HVAC equipment and related systems have finite operating lives, require regular maintenance. Such systems are naturally susceptible to performance problems that reduce the energy/environmental and operating efficiency, reduce equipment useful life, increase the cost of ownership of the equipment, and provide unstable occupant comfort.
Fault detection and diagnosis of a multitude of operating problems, in both residential and nonresidential HVAC systems, is critical to maintaining the legally required (federal and state energy codes/standards) energy performance efficiency the unit is expected to deliver to meet user, ratepayer, utility, and societal local and global climate-related environmental management goals.