KODE OSS starts your equipment at the latest possible moment to save runtime and energy while optimizing for comfort. OSS starts each device at the optimal time so that the zone temp is in range of the cooling and heating setpoint range at your target time. Every building is different and we use the OSS Adapter to tune our machine-learning optimization to your building's data. 

In this article, you can expect to learn:

• Default roles with OSS configuration permissions

• The main purpose of the OSS adapter

• Device, point, and schedules requirements to run OSS

• The basics of navigation

• How to add an adapter

• How to edit an adapter

Default roles with OSS configuration permissions

The user roles that have default permissions to configure OSS are:

• Super Admin

• System Admin

• System Integrator

• Engineering Manager

Device, point, and schedules requirements to run OSS

OSS supports multiple HVAC system architectures and the primary purpose of the adapter is to specify which devices should be included in the optimization and what points/parameters should be used to control the equipment. This can vary from building to building and adapting is very straightforward.

Some of the most common HVAC system architectures to activate OSS on are:

• VAV - AHU

• VAV - AHU - AHU

• FCU

• AHU

Our base machine-learning model requires the following points:

• Zone Air Temperature

• Zone Air Temperature Cooling Setpoint

• Zone Air Temperature Heating Setpoint

• Run Status

• Occupied Mode

Note: Ideally, for OSS to work, there should be at least 15-20 devices with at least 15 days of good data (occupied mode and run status, have been switching ON and OFF regularly).

Schedules 

The schedules feature allows you to manage the functioning schedules of various devices that are connected in a building. From here Schedules can:

• View, modify, delete numeric, boolean, string or enum schedules as required. 

• Create Special Events. Using a calendar style interface, schedule single dates, date ranges or weekly schedules. 

Go to the Schedules feature from the left-hand navigation bar. At the top right click on the icon “New Schedule”. A window named “ Create New Schedule” will open. 

From here the Schedules can be created. Please refer here for more details regarding the Schedule navigation article.

Schedules provide the ability to set up automated scheduling for devices in order to maximize efficiency, reduce energy costs, and save money while allowing the users to monitor and modify settings in KODE OS making it easier to make changes without having to enter the building. The relationship between Schedule and OSS is a very important part of the BMS. OSS works with your BMS to choose the most efficient start and stop times for each day based on your Schedule configuration. The schedule is considered one of the most crucial points of the OSS Adapter since without it the devices(batches) can not be linked together and be automatically turned on/off.

Let's take an Example: In an office building in Detroit, the occupancy hours are from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday to Friday. The BMS starts the HVAC system via a schedule at 6:00 am to ensure that space conditions are achieved before occupants arrive.

After the introduction of OSS, we adjust the start time of the schedules from 6:00 am to 8:30 am. 8:30 am becomes the target satisfaction time and OSS will ensure the equipment is started before 8:30 am as needed. This reduction in operating hours per day represented a reduction in the operation of the HVAC system of a considerable number of percent which led to energy saving for that building as well. 

Note: If the devices are not part of any Schedule configuration they will be inadequate for the OSS Adapter requirement. 

Below are some best practices for setting up schedules in your BMS.

Do Not!

Schedules should not be set up in a way that when the Air Handling Unit AHU_1 turns on also it enables the VAV

1.  that are connected to it (VAV_1, VAV_2….VAV_N). This will be OSS Adapter job.

2. When a Schedule is connected to another Schedule and controls the device.

3. This is an Enum Scheduler that has a Point\ Mapper\Switch which controls the devices.

Do!

All the logic configurations in Jace that turn on the devices should be turned off, besides Schedulers that control both the base device and the reference device, otherwise, OSS can not control the devices.

OSS Adapter Navigation

Go to your company's KODE OS building then navigate to the OSS icon from the left main bar, and click on it.

Upon selecting the OSS tab you can see the Optimizations that are in place already (if applicable) with all the details.

On this page, you have the ability to select your OSS operation mode. There are three Operation Modes available: 

Comfort - The goal of Comfort is to have all zones on setpoints by the time occupancy starts. The focus is on occupant comfort.

Balanced – The goal is to have the third quartile of the zones on setpoint by the time occupancy starts. The focus is on occupant comfort as well as energy savings.

Energy Savings – The goal is to have the medium of the zones on setpoint by the time occupancy starts. The focus is on energy savings.

Adding Adapters

Click on the Adapters button on the upper right as highlighted in the screenshot, which will open the page with more details. 

To add a new Adapter, click on Add OSS Adapter, there are two options:

• Create a new Adapter

• Add from the existing (Templated Adapters) 

Adding a new Adapter

After clicking on Add new Adapter the page with these details will be displayed.

The process of creating a new Adapter is categorized as follows:

            1) Select Devices > 2) Add Points > 3) Review and verify

1) On the Select Devices page we have the Details with the Name, Description, Base Device, and Reference Device of the adapter:

See the below screenshot for more detail:

• Name of the Adapter: FCU with Effective Setpoints (the name can be customized to your liking, depending on the function).

• Description: Default FCU adapter with Effective Setpoints.

• Base Device: fcu_1 (devices can be added here, a kind reminder: devices are exclusive for one adapter).

• At the base Device, select the devices by choosing their Canonical Types. Also, select the Entities of your device and click save.

Reference Device:  Is filled depending on the type of device that is chosen for the OSS Adapter. 

For example, VAVs are referenced to an AHU and in order for OSS to work properly we need data points from both device types.  

If a chosen device is not connected to any other device we can ignore the Reference Device option. 

• If a device is connected to another device then we can use the Reference Device feature.

2) On the second page Add Points, as per the name, points should be added to the Base Device for each of the fields presented. Upon selecting Choose Points, you can select the Points for the sensors and add them. 

Here you have five options:

• Zone Air Temperature Sensor

• Zone Air Temperature Cooling Setpoint

• Zone Air Temperature Heating Setpoint

• Run Status

• Occupied Mode(should be writable)
  
  If a Reference Device is selected in step one then another two options will be added for the Reference Device:

• Run status

• Occupied mode  

Let's take an example when creating an adapter for VAV-AHU devices with Zone Air Temperature Setpoint. With Base Device a VAV and the Reference Device an AHU. 

At the Add Point tab, we will have seven fields of points to fill in.

Base Device:

• At Zone Air Temperature Sensor select zone air temperature sensor.

• At Zone Air Temperature Cooling Setpoint select zone air temperature setpoint.

• At Zone Air Temperature Heating Setpoint select zone air temperature setpoint.

• At Run status select occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.

• At Occupied mode elect occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.

Reference Device:

• Run status select occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.

• Occupied mode elect occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.
  
  

Let's take another example when creating an adapter for VAV-AHU with Effective Setpoints. This will be an Adapter for devices that use Effective Cooling/Heating Temperature Setpoints. With Base Device a VAV and the Reference Device an AHU. 

At the Add Point tab, we will have seven fields of points to fill in.

Base Device:

• At Zone Air Temperature Sensor select zone air temperature sensor.

• At Zone Air Temperature Cooling Setpoint select effective cooling zone air temperature setpoint.

• At Zone Air Temperature Heating Setpoint select effective heating zone air temperature setpoint.

• At Run status select occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.

• At Occupied mode elect occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.

Reference Device:

• Run status select occupied mode or any other point that will give the device status, for ON status choose Occupied, and for OFF choose Unoccupied. 

• Occupied mode elect occupied mode and for ON status choose Occupied, for OFF choose Unoccupied.

If a device has more than one point of the same field, select the Aggregation function. The Aggregate function performs a calculation on a set of values and returns a single value. At Zone Air Temperature Cooling Setpoint and Zone Air Temperature Heating Setpoint, besides that we have an Aggregation function there is also an upper band and a lower band which represent the time when the device will start cooling or heating.

If the Zone Air Temperature Setpoint for example is 23 Celsius, the Avg function is plus 1 for the Cooling Setpoint, and the Avg function is minus 1  for the Heating Setpoint, then the upper bound will be 24 Celsius and the lower bound will be 22 Celsius.

At the Run Status and Occupied Mode enums can be mapped, this maps the values coming from these points to occupied and unoccupied. 

There is a requirement to have at least one occupied_mode as a writable point on either the Optimizing or Reference device, having two or more occupied_mode points is acceptable too.

To Edit the point selected click on the icon, once clicking, it will open the tab with the points from where you can modify and add more points, or edit the point aggregation.

3) The last page is Review and Verify

This page is split into two tabs: Completed Devices and Devices With Issues.

The first tab, Completed Devices shows all the devices which meet OSS requirements fully, this means they have all of the required points, they have schedules in place and referenced to devices, and OC mode points are writable.

For the process to be completed we must select the devices which we want to include on the Adapter and click Save.

Navigate back to Operation Mode and see in the Bottom right the icon for OSS activation.

Click on Activate and wait for some minutes until the OSS will be active. After that, the OSS Adapter will turn on for the devices that we have selected.

The second tab Devices With Issue shows devices that do not meet OSS requirements fully. From this page, you can click on devices directly and continue to make necessary adjustments.

After filling in the data in the Select Devices, Add Points and saving them on the Review and Verify page the adapter process will be completed. See below an example of an OSS Adapter.

Adding an existing Adapter

Click on Add from Existing, and a window will open with the Adapters from the library. Here you may select a specific template and click on Add From Existing to save.

Our team has created adapter templates for every supported use case. In the below screenshot, you can find a list of templates that are provided by default.

After adding the Adapter from the existing templates, steps 1 and 2 of the adapter creation process will be prefilled from the templates. Also, keep in mind that you will have to create new OSS Adapters for each building.

Existing templates are editable. After choosing the specific template, the process of creating the adapter will start from the beginning, only with the first and second steps prefilled. In the first and second steps (Selecting Devices and Add Points) changes can be made and then saved in the third step (Review and Verify).

Edit and Delete OSS Adapter

To Delete OSS Adapter, click on the three dots on the upper right and select the trash icon
From there the confirm page for deletion will be open:

To Edit OSS Adapter, click on the three dots icon at the far right of the Adapter name > from the drop-down menu select the Edit icon. From there you will be directed to the Edit OSS Adapter page from where you can modify it.  

OSS Dashboard Metrics and Charts

The OSS dashboard provides an overview of the metrics used to value the performance of all devices.

You can determine the period of time that the report will cover. We are choosing the last week and selecting the scheduler view.

Below are some tips to review the metrics at a glance:

Comfort

• Comfort index tells you how close you were to your setpoint goals at the target time. 

• Comfort lost indicates you were late to reach a setpoint even though you might have been close.

• Zones on Setpoint tells you % of zones that were exactly inside setpoint range. Devices that were off 0.1 degrees are counted as being off setpoint.

Runtime Lost

• Runtime lost indicates equipment that reached setpoint too early and therefore ran for extra runtime.

Outliers

• Outliers indicate which zones took more than 3 hours to reach setpoints. This equipment should be reviewed.

OSS Score

• OSS Score allows you to monitor how well OSS algorithm is balancing comfort while saving device runtime 

These metrics provide indicators for how OSS has performance at glance to dive deeper into the performance walk through the charts below.

OSS Score Trend Chart

Our first chart is the OSS Score Trend which can be used to understand how the key metrics of comfort lost and runtime lost vary overtime.

If you wish to select a specific trend to display, you can hide trends through clicking on their legend, and the y-axis will scale according to the trends you select.

Comfort Index Chart

The Comfort Index chart helps you understand where in your building (by area or by schedule) you have comfort issues or optimal comfort. The comfort lost bars will tell you which equipment is reaching setpoint the latest, but should be kept in mind with the overall comfort index which communicates how close you were to setpoint if not exactly in the range. Hovering over a specific bar will display the details of the device's performance related to comfort.

The following chart shows how many zones were outside the target setpoint range at the occupancy start time. It also shows how many devices failed to reach setpoint after being on for at least 3 hours (outliers). These areas should be investigated in more detail using the bubble chart below. 

Temperature Recovery Chart

Use the bubble chart to review specific equipment and how long it took it to reach setpoint according to the temperature difference it had to overcome. Optimal buildings will see most devices in the bottom left corner. If a zone is 0 min, a possible explanation is that a setpoint was changed between when the OSS prediction was made and when OSS started the device.

Savings Chart

If your interest is runtime savings before and/or after OSS, use the savings chart below. There are two different scales for runtime lost and savings both in minutes. You should be able to  select which one is of interest by clicking on the legend. The runtime lost is ordered from scheduler/are with lowest runtime lost to highest.

All together these graphs can quickly identify devices that score low on comfort level, devices that can improve in runtime savings. 

Device Start Time

This table shows device start times, offering insights based on your specific filters—the scheduler or designated areas. Hover over your area of interest to discover the first device start time, median time, and last device start time.

Device Details Table

To get the full picture for either one device or more, the Device Details table groups all the metrics used in the above chart for each device to ease the troubleshooting process: scheduler, area, metric scores. You can order the devices by any score in ascending or descending order. Clicking on a header will order the devices. By default, the OSS dashboard displays devices ordered by the Scheduler.

Clicking on the devices will open a new tab with the device’s trend.

Select the trend lines to review the points of interest. In this case we are looking to follow zone temperature and its lower and upper limits setpoints (occ cooling and occ heating temp setpoints).

You can analyze individual device trends. This is particularly useful for understanding outliers and other equipment issues.