Remote Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance on AWS

Title

Remote Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance on AWS

Content

Daikin is a leading innovator and worldwide provider of advanced, high-quality air conditioning, heating, and refrigeration solutions for residential, commercial and industrial applications. As a global leader in HVAC&R applications, they strive to leverage insights and innovations to create better indoor environments across North America. Independent studies state that HVAC systems contribute around 40 percent of the energy consumption in a typical commercial facility. The efficient operation and proper maintenance of HVAC systems are priorities for facility managers. In most cases, HVAC maintenance is reactive: when a failure occurs, a technician has to identify what led to the failure and carry out the maintenance accordingly. In this approach, detecting the failure and sending a notification to the maintenance team takes time. Identifying the root cause of the problem can require significant effort and extend the system's downtime. Daikin realized they needed to enable their customers to monitor their HVAC systems more effectively to predict and reduce downtime. Daikin HERO Cloud Services is a remote monitoring platform for Daikin HVAC systems. The HERO Simple Edge device connects to the outdoor unit and has a built-in SIM card to provide wireless connectivity. The HERO Simple Edge device communicates with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud service, AWS IoT Core, and sends real-time telemetry data to AWS. Daikin's remote monitoring approach transforms HVAC maintenance from reactive to predictive, enabling advance notice of trouble when abnormalities such as abnormal stopping, unexpected repairs, dirty heat exchangers, refrigerant leaks, or fan/compressor issues are detected early through year-round 24-hour online diagnostics. This enables engineers to be rapidly mobilized when trouble starts, with prompt action possible through advanced indication of cause from the control center. The system also supports energy savings by controlling excessive loads from grimy devices and reducing wasteful power consumption, while extending service life of products by detecting abnormalities before they cause excessive stress.