New relationship brick:serves

[PeteHart]

@gtfierro

When modelling how energy is distributed between different targets the brick:feeds doesn’t feel correct, semantically

skos:definition "The subject is upstream of the object in the context of some sequential process; some media is passed between them"

Driven by regulations we often do Sankey diagrams (or similar) that starts with what source the energy comes from (electricity sources, district heating) how it goes through various systems and eventually into the spaces of the building

We consequently suggest to add new semantics, a relationship brick:serves to complement the more physical inspired feeds relationship.

Best Peter

[gtfierro]

Hi @PeteHart

We were a little skeptical of the utility of "serves" in the meeting, but perhaps the intent isn't as clear to me here. What does it mean to distribute energy between systems? These kinds of "serves" relationships can be very easy to abuse, especially without a specific use case.

If the intent is to model the relationship between systems and spaces (e.g. which chilled water loop cools the air for a space), then I think this is captured already by "feeds". Energy always exists in some media. If we want to be more detailed about that media, then would the existing 223P-based connection model work for your purposes?

[PeteHart]

Thanks @gtfierro

A typical setup for us is that district heating and cooling (water systems) are distributed in the house and as part of that heating or cooling batteries (perhaps correct term here is coils) are placed in the ventilation system for either heating or cooling air. So basically energy is transferred from water to air. But no media is fed between the water and air system. The water circulates in its system and the air blows into the spaces.

Typically we want to be able to create diagrams that describe the total energy balance for the property, ie all primary energy sources (district heating and cooling, electricity) and the targets, ie where is the energy directed to (all the machines that uses electricity, the tenants, heating through radiators and air, etc.)

Generally we find it difficult to model this using feeds relationship between equipments. For instance implying that understanding all spaces that are served by an AHU would require a model to have an equipment in all spaces that in turn is related to the AHU with a feeds relationship.

With a serves relationship one can abstract the equipment layer away for use cases where it's not needed.