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The following webinar is now available for On-Demand Viewing:
Global market trends and requirements in home and building automation are driving the need to improve air quality and efficiency while helping to reducing global warming in HVAC systems. Until recently, there were very few sensors in a typical HVAC/R system but with the advent of powerful, low-cost microcontrollers, these systems have become much more sophisticated. With the proper use of sensing solutions providing feedback to these control systems, HVAC/R systems can run more efficiently, ensure cleaner air, reduce energy waste, and ensure a safer overall system.
Q&A Session:
What is the principle of operation of the sensors?
They are meant to be permanent. The other portions of the system would be replaced but in general not the sensors themselves
this is fairly pricey. If you want to embed the senors into each room.
With the current emphasis on indoor air quality, it seems likely this will continue to be a signifcant market trend. The sensors are permanent but the filter would need to be replaced periodically
When did Honeywell start this air quality project in regards to the monitor? If it was started before the global pandemic, was it fast tracked? Or did the project start after the pandemic started? And if it was started after the pandemic, can this be seen as a “culture vulture” project?
Honeywell has actively been developing sensors for Environmental and Air Quality applications for a number of years
Are HVAC filters able to filter viruses?
They help but there isn't any guarantee it is 100 % effective. Any filtration has the additional benefit of removing dust, pollen, mold spores, etc but the level of filtration depends on the filter used (such as HEPA filter). That's why a pressure sensor with a large turndown ratio is important. High resolution of the pressure sensor is critical because different customers use different filters and different pressure drops
What are consideration for a maker to select a platform to optimize air quality and energy consumption for smart home based on sensor in home and sensor for outside air quality and other factors like weather forecast, wind direction?
The sensors presented are for indoor use and would be impacted by weather conditions
I am designing a smart house, where each room as a room controller, which handles ventiation, open or close vents for fire, etc. So I would like to embed sensors in to each room . (thats why I say pricey.
Our newer products, such as the soon to be released ABP2.0, were designed and priced for these considerations based on market and customer research. The ABP2 series will be released in January. Ultra low pressure range sensors are also newly available.
Is the system able to determine unsafe levels of gases, including upper and lower explosive limits for the flammable and combustible gases?
Yes we offer sensors for the detection of flammable and combustible gases. For more details please contact Craig Gannon
What vision does Honeywell have to make their sensor range easier to migrate to in a design as well as standarising interfaces i.e. the electrical interface, the protocol used and the ability to self-test? This would enable designers to plug and play sensors using standard libraries and as sensors improve then upgrading the product would be simpler. Additionally wouldn't it be great if a service engineer could easily replace a cheap OEM generic sensor that fails early with a quality Honeywell sensor and give that quality guarantee to the end customer.
We have a plug and play mentality in design and changes can be made to the pressure range within a product series itself. Depending on the series, we have up to 56 different pressure ranges available to help improve the overall system accuracy (note: all errors are % full scale span). We also use I2C and SPI as standard protocol and have a diagnostic status on our digital output variants.
Can any current HVAC system really check for presence of virus like covid-19 in air? Is it possible to check for viral presence instantly (I mean any research on it)?
Currently, we do not have this capability and are not aware of it's availability elsewhere. It is certainly an interesting concept and one that would be ideal after the impacts of this year..
Retro-wiring a system into a house needs wiring runs which can be awkward to place. Does Honeywell have any vision to make more of their sensors as complete IoT units?
Yes, developing complete IOT solutions is part of what Honeywell are striving towards. Another step in that direction includes our newly released Honeywell Air Detective (https://sensing.honeywell.com/lp/honeywell-air-detective). It's a complete IOT solution providing near real-time air quality analysis of airborne particles such as allergens.
How fast can those sensors sample data? Are there options to log the datalist so as to train some models or do predictive analysis?
Our sensors with digital output have a typical sample rate of 0.46 milliseconds. The sensors only provide an output which would need to be captured by the microprocessor for logging or analysis.
I wanted to know the role which sensors and switches play in protection against very flammable and toxic refrigerants used in HVAC/R systems and automation of homes. I got the explanation through the webinar. Thank you.
We are pleased that the webinar provided the answers you came for. If you do have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Did buildings show a spike in particulate matter during the forest fires in California or Australia? Were additional filter changes made?
Although we do not have data on those particular events, we can confirm that forest fires will have a major impact on particulate levels and a spike would be seen. For more information on filter changes pertaining to these type of events, the Honeywell TRENDS division who manufacture HVAC systems may have more knowledge.
Are the CO2 sensors NDIR, or do they use a different technology?
Yes, NDIR technology is used
I want to recommend your product to my friends. Can I do it via facebook or instagram?
Thank you very much. Yes, there are website links included with this webinar which can be shared on social media. Honeywell also has social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which you can follow.
Given the response time of particulate matter sensors, where is the best place to locate them within an HVAC system to optimize feedback and control of filter systems?
The sensors should be placed in a low flow area, not directly in the high-flow air stream. This is related to how the internal fan pulls a certain volume of air through the sensor and is calibrated with the airflow from the internal fan.
Do you have any thoughts regarding other sensors that you think would be useful in the future? - probably answered by Craig talking about mould spore detection in residential home. The existing Honeywell sensors seem to cover a huge swathe of issues and the HAQ unit almost seems like a mini gas chromatography-mass spectrometer....now that would be cool, even if the surrounding sensor needs building separately to the sensor. The end user getting 'lines' at each wavelength and determining the makeup of the gas being tested.
Besides continued improvement to the sensors already used in the system, we do see trends in development around environmental and air quality sensors. Watch this space for future developments coming from Honeywell.
Some time ago I experimented with a gas sensor, but I was disappointed to find out that it was not very specific to what it claimed to detect. How specific are your sensors to what they claim to detect? (ie: do the CO2 sensors measure it directly and are completely unaffected by other molecules?)
There will an element of cross contamination, however based on our lab analysis accuracy is +-40ppm of CO2.
Is it possible to integrate an ozone generator into an HVAC system in order to automatically disinfect the rooms when they are free from humans?
Although it is not this team's area of expertise, it is our understanding that Ozone systems have drawbacks, such as making particulate matter stick to the lungs, so they are not preferred. Most experts prefer HEPA filters to that of using Ozone. We understand however, that many OZone systems do have the capability of being connected to duct work and are recommended for use when people are not present. For more indepth information about HVAC systems themselves, we can connect you to the Honeywell TRENDS teams.
Do optical properties of the particles (such as their opacity) affect their detection by your particulate matter sensor?
The measurement is based on measuring dispersed infrared light, so logically if a particle is of such a nature that is doesn't disperse the light, our photodetector would not be able to see it. However, we are unaware of any specific examples where this might be the case. Calibrated media are typically cigarette smoke, A1 dust, or a known distribution of potassium salt. Media that doesn't have the same nature or particle distribution as the calibration media, could give different results.
In the beginning you mentioned airlines, how about the auto industry? Automobiles are sealed better than they have ever been and air quality has never been more important than today, so does Honeywell offer anything for the auto industry?
The particle sensor (HPM) has been adapted for Automotive solutions and we have seen success within this application
Could a particulate sensor not only determine the qualnity of particulate but also the amounts that are organic vs. non-organic? We hear so much about microfibres it could be useful in determining what that dust is floating around the house !
The particle sensor mentioned in this presentation (HPM series) would not be able to do this but the just released Honeywell Air Detective differentiates three particle types: pollen, spores, and anything else that doesn't fall into those two categories. It uses a holographic image, sent to the cloud for processing to determine the nature of different particles. In future, it could potentially identify other particles, but the current focus is on various kinds of pollen and spores, some of which we can tell the origin. It's intended for HVAC and air quality professionals. More information can be found online at https://sensing.honeywell.com/lp/honeywell-air-detective
Could mechanical switches in switching from on to off and vice versa have instants when the output varies between on and off and is not stable? Is this behavior managed by the electronics of the switch management circuits?
No, chatter would not be an issue with traditional electromechanical switches. That typically comes from solid state based technology when the signal settles. One of the benefits of using an electromechanical switch is the clean snap action and no electronics settling or propagation delay.
Could you elaborate on the technologies of the sensors used within the HAQ, the reliability of the readings from these sensors and what studies have been done in order to correlate the IQ% reading with actual cognitive impairment? The datasheet unhelpfully claims that it reports a range of 0-100% with an accuracy of 1%, when I suspect it is a resolution of 1% with an unspecified accuracy. Furthermore, is the CO2 reading based on actual CO2 (i.e. an IR-based sensor) or a CO2-eq measurement (e.g. from a MOX style sensor)?
Sorry but the Honeywell IAQ is no longer available for general sale.
What is the sampling rate that the unit achieves for the stated 14-hour normal mode battery life in the datasheet?
Sorry but the Honeywell IAQ is no longer available for general sale.
Would it be rigorous enough to say, take this unit and leave it a workplace, take the readings from the device and use it as evidence of an unfit workplace (for example)?
Sorry but the Honeywell IAQ is no longer available for general sale.
What sort of Wi-Fi networks does it support? Does it include corporate (e.g. 802.1x EAP authentication) Wi-Fi? Presumably it works with Honeywell Cloud, but does it work (or can it be made to work) without internet connectivity? With internet connectivity, what is the approximate bandwidth consumed by the sensor over the course of a 24-hour period?
Sorry but the Honeywell IAQ is no longer available for general sale.
This is just random thoughts here: maybe an HVAC could have an automatic mode where periodically it enters a 'Covid hostile' phase without the maintainance team having to setup anything other than press a button - blowing cooler air than normally set? Modifying humidity to a less favorable level? Or periodically doing an internal HVAC clean - stopping airflow to blast filters with UV or closed cycle cleaning chemical? Such settings could be deterred until the office occupancy is low (i.e. nighttime) to minimise discomfort to staff, plus cycling temperatures up and down goes against energy efficiency.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Those are certainly interesting and seemingly attainable ideas. Although the sensors would be involved in making it happen, those seem like a settings that would need to be programmed by the HVAC system manufacturers or integrators themselves.