Measured Performance and Design Guidelines for Large Commercial HVAC Systems

Erik Kolderup, Eley Associates
Mark Hydeman, Taylor Engineering
Michael Baker and R. Lynn Qualmann, SBW Consulting

Keywords

Abstract

This paper describes a publicly funded research project to determine the impact of design decisions on the performance of large commercial HVAC systems (NBI, 2001). This project is part of a larger research effort with another team looking at packaged equipment performance. The focus of this research is the air-side design and performance of built-up variable-air volume (VAV) systems with chilled water cooling. The performance of central chilled water and hot water systems is already covered by existing research (CoolTools, 1999). The ultimate goal of this project is to develop design guidelines. The intent is to provide guidance to designers in areas beyond the scope of present tools or guidelines.

Long-term system performance measurements from several recently constructed buildings are being used to characterize actual field performance of air-side systems. The real performance of components such as fans, cooling coils, VAV boxes, reheat coils, and ductwork will be measured, with that data being used to calibrate simulation models. The guidelines will be based on evaluation of design alternatives tested with these simulation models and tested, where feasible, in the actual buildings.

This paper describes the design issues to be analyzed and the process by which they will be assessed through measurement and simulation. We will also present some preliminary conclusions of our work. The design issues addressed by our research include: