The aims of the work described in this report are to further the development of particular FDD (Fault Detection and Diagnosis) techniques by systematic testing under realistic conditions and to demonstrate to practitioners the capabilities of existing FDD tools.

The performance of many HVAC systems is limited more by poor installation, commissioning and maintenance than by poor design. Computer-based control systems have the capability to collect and store sensor and control signals that could be analyzed in order to detect and diagnose faults. In current practice, only limited use is made of this information because manual analysis is time consuming and requires a certain level of expertise, whereas automatic methods have not yet been developed to the point where they can be implemented commercially.

The development and adoption of effective automatic fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) techniques would bring significant benefits to owners, occupants, operators and society in the form of reduced maintenance costs, improved comfort, reduced utility costs and reduced impact on the environment.