Re-tuning workbook
A hands-on course in building re-tuning, run on open data with CAMBER. It follows the free
Building Re-tuning training from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL): read a
chapter or a guide there, then open a real or simulated building in camber lab
and find the problems it teaches you to look for.
Status (0.97, provisional). All 20 exercises in the map below are written: five on the air side, five on terminal units and ventilation, six on the central plant, and four on data quality, M&V and the capstone. Start with the worked example, Economizer: a stuck outdoor-air damper and missed free cooling.
How it works
- Read PNNL, then practise here. Each exercise names the PNNL chapter or guide to read first, in its Learn more section. The workbook links to PNNL's documents and never copies them; the links come from CAMBER's reference registry.
- Open data only. Core exercises use open-licence datasets from the
catalog. A research-only dataset appears only as a marked optional extra.
Where no open dataset shows a fault, an exercise uses a
synthetic dataset that CAMBER generates on your computer,
labelled synthetic wherever it appears (0.103:
plant-lockout). - Two ways in. Every exercise gives the steps both in the lab (a local web page:
camber lab, then Fetch & ingest, trends, report) and on the command line. - Tuned configs. Where the dataset's default config doesn't fit an exercise, the exercise
ships its own:
camber datasets config <dataset> --exercise <exercise-id> --store lab_store --out cfg.json. - Answers are checked. The instructor's key is on a separate instructor page. Every answer on it is pinned by CAMBER's test suite, on a small synthetic stand-in for each dataset and, optionally, on the real data, so the key cannot silently drift from what CAMBER shows.
Getting started. Install CAMBER, then:
camber lab
Open the URL camber lab prints (http://127.0.0.1:8765/lab?token=...: the token is a
new secret each run), tick a dataset and press Fetch & ingest. A dataset used by
an exercise has an exercise link in its row. From a source checkout, the lab serves the page
itself, so it opens offline; otherwise the link goes to this site. New to the lab?
Using the lab walks through a first session step by step, and its
classroom section covers pre-fetching the datasets for an
offline room.
Curriculum map
The tables map each PNNL chapter or guide to its exercises and datasets. Exercise ids are stable:
they name the page (<id>.md) and the tuned config (--exercise <id>).
Air side
| PNNL reading | Exercise | Datasets |
|---|---|---|
| Ch. 5, AHU Discharge-Air Temperature Control | air-sat-reset: supply-air temperature reset |
lbnl-sdahu, lbnl-ddahu, irish-ahu |
| Ch. 5, AHU Static Pressure Control | air-static-pressure: a fixed static setpoint and the damper census |
lbnl-sdahu, ornl-frp-vav |
| Ch. 5, AHU Heating and Cooling Control | air-heat-cool: a leaking valve, and coils that fight |
lbnl-sdahu, lbnl-ddahu, irish-ahu |
| Ch. 6, Air-Side Economizer Operation | air-economizer: a stuck outdoor-air damper and missed free cooling |
lbnl-sdahu, irish-ahu |
| Ch. 5, Occupancy Scheduling | air-scheduling: 24/7 operation, night setback and after-hours fan energy |
ornl-frp-ops |
Terminal units and ventilation
| PNNL reading | Exercise | Datasets |
|---|---|---|
| Ch. 7, Zone Heating and Cooling Control | zone-reheat-overcooling: reheat penalty and overcooling |
lbnl-fpu |
| Ch. 7 | zone-bad-box: one bad box in a fleet |
ornl-frp-vav |
| Ch. 7, Zone Heating and Cooling Control | zone-reheat-saturated: a zone below setpoint with its reheat maxed out |
lbnl-fpu, ornl-frp-vav |
| Ch. 5, AHU Minimum Outdoor-Air Operation | zone-dcv: is outdoor air following occupancy? |
finnish-dcv, b4b-windesheim, sdu-ou44 |
| Ch. 5, AHU Minimum Outdoor-Air Operation | zone-min-oa: minimum outdoor air and 62.1 system ventilation |
lbnl-b59 |
Central plant
| PNNL reading | Exercise | Datasets |
|---|---|---|
| Ch. 8, Central Utility Plant Cooling Control | plant-chiller-efficiency: chiller efficiency, a calibrated ceiling and fouling |
lbnl-chiller |
| Ch. 8 | plant-cooling-tower: approach, fan effort and a leaking tower bypass |
lbnl-chiller |
| Ch. 8, Central Utility Plant Cooling Control | plant-chw-reset-pumping: chilled-water reset, low delta-T and pumping |
lbnl-chiller |
| Ch. 8, Central Utility Plant Heating Control | plant-boiler: hot-water reset, summer lockout, pumping and a fouling gap |
lbnl-boiler |
| Ch. 8, Central Utility Plant Heating Control | plant-lockout: a boiler and a pump left on in warm weather, and choosing the lockout |
synthetic-hw-plant-lockout (synthetic) |
| Ch. 8 | plant-sensor-vs-equipment: sensor faults vs equipment faults |
lbnl-chiller |
Data quality, energy charting, M&V and the capstone
| PNNL reading | Exercise | Datasets |
|---|---|---|
| Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Trending Requirements | data-trend-quality: are the trends good enough? |
lbnl-b59, irish-ahu, nuig-ahu101 |
| Ch. 4, Occupancy Scheduling | data-energy-charting: load profiles and weather dependence |
bdg2, valladolid-uva |
| Ch. 4, Ch. 10 | mv-baselines: change-point baselines and M&V |
valladolid-uva, cofactor-drammen, bdg2 (synthetic bills) |
| Economizer, Ch. 9, Ch. 10 | capstone: the RCx report, a walk-down list, a re-tuning plan, verification |
lbnl-sdahu, ornl-frp-ops |
Going further: tune the thresholds yourself
Several exercises tune a rule to its dataset's unit, such as a design minimum outside air or a
fixed high limit. When you apply the same rules to your own building, re-tune them the same way.
camber rules params RULE shows each threshold's default, where the default comes from, and how
to calibrate it. Tuning thresholds with your own data walks through calibrating
on a known-good period, keeping the scoring data separate from the calibration data, and
recording the calibration in a YAML config comment. Its worked examples use the catalog datasets
from these exercises.
For instructors
The instructor page holds the answer keys, discussion points and common mistakes. Keep it away from learners until they have tried the exercise.