Toward 2030 Intiative

Since 2015, the HUB Towards 2030 program has challenged the HUB design team to consider emerging technologies when designing technology products. Previously our design team would create products to meet market expectations; the Toward 2030 program requires the HUB product design team to develop products that are platform ready for a range of technologies certain to be standard in 2030 and beyond. As a result, our 2023 product release includes technologies and features including but not limited to technician and occupant user-machine interface, automated networking, safe and secure cloud access, “feels like” comfort settings, monitoring and reporting for energy cultural change, enhanced sensor technology and artificial intelligence. This year’s update provides an overview of recent innovations to HUB supply partners on new technologies, products and services in the context of the journey we are all on towards 2030. For more detailed information, scan the QR code below and request a person-to-person presentation.

What HUB Automation is good at

Building management and control systems are complex networks of hardware and software that combine building services on a single user interface. Many manufacturers of BMS products continue to utilise platforms conceived and designed before the release of the first iPhone. With Moore’s Law projecting a doubling of processing power every two years, it is unsurprising that products conceived, designed and in production before the first iPhone are restrictive in network design, clunky in implementation, problematic to service and short-sighted in future-proofing.
Our research, design and development team focus efforts proportional to energy consumption. Unlike many automation providers, our engineering and product design team have a sophisticated understanding of all heating and cooling system types. HUB products range from conventional chilled/hot water to systems that combine direct expansion, vapour compression, variable refrigerant, and variable airflow. Psychrometric calculations are made in critical environments by our engineering team during the design process to ensure that our control strategy does not impact system longevity, comfort or air quality.
HUB is the ideal choice for multiple thermal zones with dynamic heat loads, such as in medical consultancies, critical humidity environments like supermarkets, and fresh-air control for productivity in offices and campuses. 
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Schools

Victoria

Our solution for Victorian Schools has a single switchboard per room that is small enough to mount on an FCU. The Room Controller has CO2 inputs and outputs for fans, MVCD’s, VSD’s and louvres. The Block Controller includes a high level unit interface to the air conditioning unit, fault /alert notifications including unit manufacturers fault codes. A local web based graphical user interface, cloud diagnostics and remote control, faster installation, faster commissioning and lower life cycle costs. The custom user interface provides peace-of-mind feedback about internal conditions with a range of tamperproof options for different room types.

New South Wales

Our solution for New South Wales Schools has a single switchboard per room that is small enough to mount on an FCU. The Room Controller has CO2 inputs and outputs for fans, MVCD’s, VSD’s and louvres. The Block Controller includes a high level unit interface to the air conditioning unit, fault /alert notifications including unit manufacturers fault codes. Options include OUT-of-the-BOX BMCS or for larger schools Custom BMCS. The custom in room user interface allows occupants to be informed of ideal conditions for natural ventilation, when to run the cooling or heating, and when to close the windows and doors due to poor outside air quality. Our NSW solution is easily configured to meet an environmental construction or energy monitoring standard.

Queensland

Our solution for Queensland Schools has a single switchboard per block that is small enough to mount on an FCU. The Block Controller includes a high level unit interface (HLI) to the air conditioning unit, fault /alert notifications including unit manufacturers fault codes. Each room has a high candela capacitive touch impact proof air-conditioning run switch. School maintenance personnel can access settings from the local network saving the walk time room to room. Servicing technicians can diagnose faults remotely reducing access time to class rooms and the technicians time on campus. A range of outputs and inputs can be added including fresh air fans and occupancy sensors. 

Commercial Offices

Thermal comfort in an office setting is influenced by multiple factors including temperature, humidity, radiant temperature, air speed, clothing preference and metabolic rate. Tools such as PMV and CFD provide guidance for a system design that addresses the first four factors but in practice meeting the expectations for thermal comfort in individuals or groups is not possible without a degree of capacity modulation. Small rooms have low heat loads, making solutions that are energy responsible whilst meeting comfort expectations difficult to achieve. Rooms with dynamic occupancy such as training and meeting areas add rapid shifts in humidity and air quality to the problem of meeting comfort expectations. HUB solves these problems with a range of products that includes precise demand control across all types of load profiles within an office, allowing system designers to utilise all technologies to meet the use case. HUB is the only control system that effectively manages variable air volume control effectively with Split DX, VRV, VRF systems.

Medical Consultancies

Medical centres have a unique set of obstacles for comfort and air quality design. Return air paths are restricted as transfer of background noise and conversations is a significant concern in consultancy rooms. Furthermore, consultancy rooms are small in size and shift between 0 and 4 occupants multiple times per hour. HUB’s medical practice solution can provide temperature and lighting control, different set-points for medical practitioner only, or medical practitioner with a patient occupancy. Integration with the patient management system is also available.

Supermarkets

Using variable capacity VRV / VRF systems in supermarkets can cause significant condensation issues. Refrigerated cabinets create very low cooling loads, resulting in VRV and VRF systems reducing the refrigerant mass flow rate to a point where the heat exchanger temperature is higher than the dew point of the conditioned space. The result is condensation on cabinets, water on the floors and customer slip risk. The HUB SAC systems monitor the heat exchanger temperature, the room temperature, room humidity and provide a dew point setting that ensures that the surface temperature of the refrigerated cabinets is always above the dew point of the indoor environment.

Energy Management and Load Shaping

HUB has a range of products and services that assist system designers with monitoring and controlling energy use. HUB provides an energy toolkit for supermarkets, offices, clubs and schools that maps out an audit process for existing buildings, and a range of EMS options for new builds. HUB’s energy modules include monitoring only, monitoring and reporting, monitoring, reporting and acting, and renewable optimisation. Dashboards are structured for all stakeholders so that information can be presented as a graphical trend, through to detailed transaction history.

High Rise Residential

High-rise residential projects often are the highest cost per sqm of any build. Space for plant and equipment is limited resulting in most buildings adopting chilled water, water cooled condenser or VRF units. Up until the release of HUB’s HR series, system designers were forced to utilise commercial control systems. HUB provides a range of high-rise residential controls that include features such as smart device apps, automated fault reporting, cloud monitoring / control, and remote diagnostics for technicians. HUB products are designed to improve the user experience, extend the life of the system and reduce the number of times technicians and contractors need to enter the living space.

HUB Industry firsts

Some of the proprietary technologies excluisive to HUB Automation and it's supply partners.

OUT of the BOX BMCS

The best value proposition of all BMS products, the Out-of-the-Box product by HUB Automation automates networking and high-level interface integration to eliminate site specific engineering charges. The Out-of-the-Box open source platform means that building owners, building managers and maintenance teams are not locked in to a single vendor for the life of the building. The Out-of-the-Box product can be used as part of a larger system, or automatically connect to other HUB devices to create a complete BMCS.
Features include
  • Local graphical user interface (Head End Graphics).
  • Automated fault alarm harvesting of AC units and notification.
  • Automated TCP/IP LAN network node connection and addressing.
  • Automated RS485 LAN network, manual addressing.
  • Safe and secure best practice remote connectivity.
  • Safe and secure remote diagnostics for service technicians.

Improving the performance of VRV & VRF

HeatPump - Mode Master Correction

HeatRecovery - DeadBand Correction
HeatPump VRV/VRF systems lack the ability to automatically change the system mode between Heat and Cool. Being able to set a system to Auto system mode is taken for granted in evne the most basic of heating and cooling systems. HUB supercharges the performance of VRV/VRF HeatPump systems but removing the Mode Master Strategy adopted by unit manufcaturers and replacing it with a universal suffrage strategy where all thermal zone contribute to system mode determination.
Heat Recovery VRV/VRF has a significant area betwen heat and cool where no corrective action takes place (DeadBand). While this strategy saves energy it can cause dissatisfaction within a group. Technologies uch as CFD and PMV attempt to provide low levels of dissatisfaction but without the ability for a comfort system to shift between heating and cooling modes without the temperature of the space drifting two degrees celcius these technologies are wasted.

Predictive Mean Vote (PMV) and Dynamic Mean Vote (DMV)

Pioneered by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHREA), the aim of the predictive mean vote (PMV) is to utilise Fanger’s heat balance equation for the calculation of the ideal neutral thermal sensation (comfort). PMV is calculated based on four measurable quantities (air velocity, air temperature, mean radiant temperature and relative humidity). PMV is a valuable design tool when designing control systems for thermal zones with multiple occupants. A BMCS can provide additional flexibility to large teams seeking the ideal thermal comfort settings within a large room. By adopting the McIntyre index, a multipoint sensation feedback loop can be implemented to allow groups of occupants to find the mean comfort setting.
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The ability for occupants of the space to adjust the temperature target in large open offices, after the completion of the final air-balance, is the most common request received by service companies. The Dynamic Man Vote (DMV) station allows large groups to register individual preference, while informing users that some compromise on personal comfort will be necessary within a group setting. The DMV algorithm aggregates responses over time allowing the set-point to shift within preset parameters. Over time if no votes are registered, the set-point incrementally shifts back to the discreet thermal zone anchor set-point.

High Efficiency Filtration with off the shelf fan power (VRV + VAV + IAQ)

Direct expansion, vapour compression air conditioning systems have a narrow operating envelope. Unit manufacturers limit the indoor fan speed to the top 20% of the airflow limiting use of variable air volume for compartmentalised loads. Unit manufacturers prefer using VRV/VRF for smaller loads, however, often the indoor units are not available in lower than two kW output capacity, or the project budget does not provide for individual indoor units for each thermal zone or room. HUB has solved the problem and provide a VAV control system that monitors all system parameters, keeps all DX systems within their operating envelope, and achieves variable indoor airflow. HUB’s split cycle product is currently the only commercial DX variable indoor airflow system that does not require dump, spill, or sacrificial rooms.
Features:
  • Pressure independent VAV (true VAV)
  • Variable airflow with off the shelf DX indoor units.
  • Split cycle operation: cooling, heating, air-wash.
  • High efficiency filtration with off the shelf indoor unit fan power.
  • CO2 monitoring and control.
  • Optional PM10, PM2.5, PM1, PM0.5, TVOC, humidity control.
  • Optional bushfire mode.
  • VAV Diffuser options available.