Fujitsu General has combined our building multi air conditioning system (“VRF”) with heat recovery ventilation system*1 of Ventacity Systems Inc. (“Ventacity”) in US as a packaged HVAC solution and will start selling it in US market in January. We have also invested in Ventacity in November 2017 via our US subsidiary Fujitsu General America, Inc. to build a long-term partnership with them. Moreover, we will carry out Joint Development aiming at future utilization of cloud service and AI. We are exhibiting this system at AHR EXPO 2018, the largest comprehensive air conditioning, heating and ventilation equipment exhibition in North America, held in Chicago US from January 22 (local time).
This system, which consists of our VRF and Ventacity’s heat recovery ventilation system, maintains indoor air quality through optimized air conditioning with VRF and ventilation to create comfortable air-conditioned space. It enables automated interlocking control based on the information from IoT sensors (e.g. temperature, CO2 and motion sensors). It also enables remote monitoring of system condition and remote operation through Ventacity’s cloud service.
We are planning to offer this solution to schools, mid-size offices, and national chain stores such as drugstores, coffee shops, and restaurants, which appreciates remote monitor and operating functions. We will also offer this system to the states, where energy efficiency regulation and ventilation regulation gets stricter more and more, as an optimized HVAC solution and will capture replacement demands of both air conditioning and ventilation.
In addition to development of User Interface on smart device for remote monitoring and remote operation, the storage of operating history and programed timer setting, we will also develop fault diagnosis and prediction function together. Those new functions will be also added to field installed equipment through cloud which reduces extra work of users and contractors hence increases their convenience. Moreover, in future, we will enhance HVAC operation using AI technology based on big data from operating history and such.