Transfer Learning Prediction Performance of Chillers for Neural Network Models

Abstract

Building automation systems installed in large commercial buildings record sub-hourly measurements from hundreds of sensors. The use of such large datasets are challenging because of missing and erroneous data, which can prevent the development of accurate prediction models of the performance of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment. The use of the transfer learning (TL) method for building applications attracted researchers to solve the problems created by small and incomplete datasets. This paper verifies the hypothesis that the deep neural network models that are pre-trained for one chiller (called the source chiller) with a small dataset of measurements from July 2013 could be applied successfully, by using TL strategies, for the prediction of the operation performance of another chiller (called the target chiller) with different datasets that were recorded during the cooling season of 2016. Measurements from a university campus are used as a case study. The results show that the initial hypothesis of this paper is confirmed.