Reference · built on requestOperator by FibricEnergy & demand

Optimal Start

Picks each morning's HVAC start time from overnight zone temperatures, the forecast, and the occupancy schedule, and proposes it.

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About

A building that starts its air handlers at a fixed hour heats or cools empty rooms on mild days and misses the target on cold ones. California's Title 24 asks systems with zone-level DDC for optimum start controls whose algorithm is, at minimum, a function of the gap between space temperature and occupied setpoint, the outdoor air temperature, and the time before scheduled occupancy.

Optimal Start reads those three inputs each night: zone temperatures and setpoints over BACnet/IP or from a Niagara station, the NWS hourly forecast for the site, and the first badge-in of the day from your access control schedule. It works out how long each air handler needs and proposes the start time as a schedule change in the building platform. You approve it, and a receipt records the readings behind it.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from Optimal Start and what it could propose, based on the vendor's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • Zone temperature, occupied and unoccupied setpoints, and occupancy state per controller, read over BACnet/IP or from a Niagara station
  • Air handler and boiler or chiller run state, and the equipment time schedule the building platform holds today
  • The NWS hourly forecast for each site, so overnight and morning outdoor temperatures are known before the run
  • The latest NWS station observation, which can lag by up to 20 minutes, as a check on the building's own outdoor-air sensor
  • Access schedules and the first credential use of each weekday from your access control platform, as the occupancy start
  • How long each zone took to reach setpoint on past mornings, kept per air handler as the warm-up record

Proposed actions

  • Target capability: propose the next morning's start time for each air handler as a schedule change on the building platform
  • Target capability: propose an earlier start when the forecast low and overnight zone temperatures show the usual warm-up will fall short
  • Target capability: propose a later start, or none, on days the access schedule shows the space unoccupied
  • Target capability: propose a review when a zone misses its occupied setpoint at occupancy despite the proposed start
  • Target capability: propose releasing a schedule override once occupancy begins, so the station's own schedule resumes

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Stop starting the plant at a fixed hour

    Read zone temperatures and the occupancy schedule over BACnet/IP, pull the NWS hourly forecast, and get a proposed start time per air handler each evening. Approve it and the building platform's schedule changes.

    With BACnet / IP, Weather & Severe Alerts

  • Tie the morning start to the first badge

    Where a floor's hours follow its people, read the access schedule and each weekday's first credential use from Brivo or Kisi, and let the proposed start on the Niagara station move with it.

    With Brivo Access, Kisi, Tridium Niagara

  • Catch zones that never make setpoint

    When a zone still misses its occupied setpoint after an approved early start, the operator proposes a check in Fiix with the mornings and readings that show it.

    With Tridium Niagara, Fiix

Requirements

  • A BACnet/IP connector or a Niagara station connector with read access to zone temperatures, setpoints, and equipment schedules
  • An agreed schedule object or write priority per air handler, so an approved start time lands where the station expects it
  • The NWS weather signal with each site's latitude and longitude
  • An access control connector, or a written occupancy schedule per building, as the source of the occupancy start
Authentication
Reads points through the read allow-list of your BACnet/IP or Niagara connector, writes schedules only as approved proposals through that connector, reads NWS data with no key, and reads access schedules through the account your access control connector holds.

Limits

  • It proposes a start time per air handler. Systems that must run continuously, which Title 24 exempts from optimum start, get nothing from it.
  • Warm-up estimates come from the building's own past mornings. A new site has no record and begins with a conservative time you set.
  • It reads the forecast for the nearest NWS grid point. Rooftop conditions and microclimates can differ from it.
  • It does not change setpoints, and it never starts or stops equipment itself. An approved schedule change is the only write.

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Fibric builds the operator under a managed deployment when you request it. Your quote covers the build, capabilities, usage, and support.

Request Optimal Start ↗

Questions and answers

What do you approve each day?
One proposed start time per air handler, shown with the overnight zone temperatures, the forecast low, the occupancy start it used, and the schedule object it will change. You can move the time, approve it as proposed, or dismiss it. Nothing changes until you do.
What record does it keep?
A receipt for each proposal: the readings and forecast it used, the estimate it made, the schedule value before and after, who approved it, and the point to restore. Dismissed proposals keep their receipts too.
Does it ever start equipment on its own?
It does not. It writes only an approved schedule change through your building connector's allow-list, at the priority you agreed. It does not command fans, pumps, or setpoints, and it leaves the station's schedule alone outside that change.
Ask about Optimal Start

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This operator is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. Third-party names and logos identify the systems an integration connects to; they are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy