A Novel, Low-Cost, Reduced-Sensor Approach for Providing Smart Renote Monitoring and Diagnostics for Packaged Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps

This report describes conceptually an approach to providing automated remote performance and conditioning monitoring and fault detection for air conditioners and heat pumps that shows great promise to reduce the capital and installation costs of such systems from over $1000 per unit to$200 to $400 per unit. The approach relies on non-intrusive electric load monitoring (NIELM) to enable separation of the power use signals of compressors and fans in the air conditioner or heat pump. Then combining information on the power uses and one or two air temperature measurements, changes in energy efficiency and occurrence of major faults would be detected. By decreasing the number of sensors used from between ten and twenty in current diagnostic monitoring systems to three for the envisaged system, the capital cost of the monitoring system hardware and the cost of labor for installation would be decreased significantly. After describing the problem being addressed and the concept for performance monitoring and fault detection in more detail, the report identifies specific conditions and faults that the proposed method would detect, discusses specific needs for successful use of the NIELM approach, and identifies the major elements in the path from concept to a commercialized monitoring and diagnostic system

Specification of Selected Performance Monitoring and Commissioning Verification Algorithms for CHP Systems

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is assisting the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Distributed Energy (DE) Program by developing advanced control algorithms that would lead to development of tools to enhance performance and reliability, and reduce emissions of distributed energy technologies, including combined heat and power technologies. This report documents phase 2 of the program, providing a detailed functional specification for algorithms for performance monitoring and commissioning verification, scheduled for development in FY 2006. The report identifies the systems for which algorithms will be developed, the specific functions of each algorithm, metrics which the algorithms will output, and inputs required by each algorithm

Advanced CHP Control Algorithms: Scope Specification

The primary objective of this multiyear project is to develop algorithms for combined heat and power systems to ensure optimal performance, increase reliability, and lead to the goal of clean, efficient, reliable and affordable next generation energy systems

Monitoring and Commissioning Verification Algorithms for CHP Systems

This document provides the algorithms for CHP system performance monitoring and commissioning verification (CxV). It starts by presenting system-level and component-level performance metrics, followed by descriptions of algorithms for performance monitoring and commissioning verification, using the metric presented earlier. Verification of commissioning is accomplished essentially by comparing actual measured performance to benchmarks for performance provided by the system integrator and/or component manufacturers. The results of these comparisons are then automatically interpreted to provide conclusions regarding whether the CHP system and its components have been properly commissioned and where problems are found, guidance is provided for corrections. A discussion of uncertainty handling is then provided, which is followed by a description of how simulations models can be used to generate data for testing the algorithms. A model is described for simulating a CHP system consisting of a micro-turbine, an exhaust-gas heat recovery unit that produces hot water, a absorption chiller and a cooling tower. The process for using this model for generating data for testing the algorithms for a selected set of faults is described. The next section applies the algorithms developed to CHP laboratory and field data to illustrate their use. The report then concludes with a discussion of the need for laboratory testing of the algorithms on a physical CHP systems and identification of the recommended next steps

Energy Savings and Economics of Advanced Control Strategies for Packaged Air-Conditioning Units with Gas Heat

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Program (BTP) evaluated a number of control strategies that can be implemented in a controller, to improve the operational efficiency of the packaged air conditioning units. The two primary objectives of this research project are: (1) determine the magnitude of energy savings achievable by retrofitting existing packaged air conditioning units with advanced control strategies not ordinarily used for packaged units and (2) estimating what the installed cost of a replacement control with the desired features should be in various regions of the U.S. This document reports results of the study

Integrating energy expertise into building design

Most commercial buildings designed to today will use more energy to operate, and cost more to design and construct than necessary. Significant energy savings cold be achieved with little or not increase in first cost if energy-efficient design technologies were used. Research into integration of building systems indicates that by considering energy performance early in the design process, energy savings between 30% and 50% of current energy consumption rates are technically and economically feasible. However, most building design teams do not adequately consider the energy impacts of design decisions to achieve these savings. The US Department of Energy has initiated a project, led by Pacific Northwest Laboratory, to develop advanced computer-based technologies that will help designers take advantage of these large potential energy savings. The objective of this work is to develop automated, intelligent, energy design assistance that can be integrated into computer aided design systems of the future. This paper examines the need for this technology by identifying the impediments to energy-efficient design, identifies essential and desirable features of such systems, presents the concept under development in this effort, illustrates how energy expertise might be incorporated into design, and discusses the importance of an integrated approach. 8 refs., 1 fig

Energy Savings for Occupancy-Based Control (OBC) of Variable-Air-Volume (VAV) Systems

This study evaluates the savings potential of occupancy based control (OBC) for large office buildings with VAV terminal boxes installed

Demonstration of the Whole-Building Diagnostician in a Single-Building Operator Environment

This report on documents the results of the single-building-operator, on-line, demonstration of the Whole-Building Diagnostician, conducted at the Symphony Towers building in San Diego, California. The on-line test was designed to evaluate the Outdoor-Air Economizer (OAE) diagnostic module’s capabilities to automatically and continually diagnose operational problems with air-handling units (AHUs). As part of this demonstration, all four AHUs at Symphony Towers were monitored. The measured data that were collected on a continuous basis included: 1) outdoor-air temperature, 2) return-air temperature, 3) mixed-air temperature, 4) supply-air temperature, 5) chilled-water valve position, 6) supply-fan status, 7) outdoor-air relative humidity, and 8) return-air relative humidity

An agent-based hardware-in-the-loop simulation framework for building controls

In general, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) building simulation has lower cost and fewer practical limitations (e.g., scheduling issues) than field tests in occupied buildings, while also overcoming limitations of simulations alone by capturing the full behavior of some physical systems, equipment, and components. However, the implementation of an HIL can be difficult due to the scarcity of appropriate tools. This paper presents an agent-based framework for HIL simulation. It can be used for investigation of controller performance via controller-in-the-loop simulations and also HIL for system synthesis. In the latter case, both controllers and major equipment participate in tests to ensure that dynamics of equipment operation are correctly captured in addition to controller performance. The HIL simulation framework presented allows such actual physical parts to be included in the framework while representing others for which behaviors are better known and modeled in simulation models. The mechanism implemented in the framework to synchronize simulations in software with real-time operation of physical equipment is described. As an example, use of the HIL simulation framework is illustrated through a brief study of speed control of the supply fan in the air handling unit of a variable-air-volume building heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system.</p

Self-Correcting HVAC Controls Project Final Report

This document represents the final project report for the Self-Correcting Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) Controls Project jointly funded by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program (BTP). The project, initiated in October 2008, focused on exploratory initial development of self-correcting controls for selected HVAC components in air handlers. This report, along with the companion report documenting the algorithms developed, Self-Correcting HVAC Controls: Algorithms for Sensors and Dampers in Air-Handling Units (Fernandez et al. 2009), document the work performed and results of this project