BEYOND (smart and affordaBle Evaluation of simultaneous faults in heating and cooling sYstems based ON compresseD vapor technology) is an EIC‑funded project (2024–2028) developing a next‑generation method to detect, diagnose, and evaluate soft faults, such as refrigerant leakage and heat‑exchanger fouling, in vapor‑compression–based heating and cooling systems.
Heating and cooling are essential but energy‑intensive sectors. Undetected soft faults can increase lifetime consumption by up to 30%. BEYOND tackles this challenge by delivering a scalable, low‑cost solution suitable for household heat pumps, vehicle air conditioners, and compact refrigeration units.
Why BEYOND Matters
- Soft faults are common yet rarely detected by existing systems.
- They silently increase emissions, operating costs, and energy demand.
- Europe’s 2050 targets require smarter, data‑driven monitoring for millions of small devices already deployed.
BEYOND introduces an integrated, knowledge‑based approach that supports early fault identification, impact assessment, and decision support without requiring expensive, invasive instrumentation.
Key Innovations
- Multi‑fault detection and quantification (up to three concurrent soft faults).
- Knowledge‑driven methodology built on established modeling standards.
- IoT‑enabled real‑time monitoring for continuous system evaluation.
- Cost‑effective deployment with minimal hardware upgrades.
Our Role: Big‑Data Management & Intelligence
Within BEYOND, our contribution focuses on designing and implementing the project’s big‑data management and processing architecture, including:
- Scalable data pipelines to handle high‑volume sensor and IoT streams from diverse heating/cooling devices.
- Efficient storage and retrieval mechanisms to support fault detection, trend analysis, and decision intelligence.
- Data‑driven analytics modules that transform raw telemetry into actionable insights for operators and manufacturers.
- Integration frameworks ensuring smooth interoperability between modeling tools, generation engines, and optimization modules.
This backbone enables BEYOND’s diagnostic and optimization capabilities to operate reliably, efficiently, and at scale.
Expected Impact
- Resilient system operation, even under degraded conditions.
- Energy and emission reduction through early and accurate fault detection.
- Economic accessibility for manufacturers, service providers, and end users.
- Scalability across Europe and beyond, supporting millions of heat pumps and mobile air‑conditioning units.
Links
- Official project website: https://www.beyondproject.eu/