Overview of HVAC Systems

Topic: HVAC

Truong Nghiem ESE, University of Pennsylvania nghiem@seas.upenn.edu

January 25, 2011

Outline
Part I: HVAC Basics (Bin Yan) Part II: Conventional Control of HVAC Systems (Truong Nghiem)

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HVAC Overview

Part I HVAC Basics

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Part II Conventional Control of HVAC Systems

Overview Local Control Strategies Supervisory Control

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HVAC Local & Supervisory Control

VAV System:
Exhaust Air Return Air

ZONE Solar

Circulated Air

VAV Box
Cooling Coil Fresh Air Filter Supply Air
Reheat Coil

Ambient Air
Internal heat gain

Cooling Tower

CHWS/R

Chiller

NEIGHBOR ZONE
To Other Zones

Local control loops: thermostats, supply air controllers, etc. Supervisory control: set-points and modes for local control loops.

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HVAC Overview

Local Control Loops

Zone temperature control loop (thermostat)
supply air set-point Thermostat damper zone temperature Sensor reheat VAV Zone heat gain

Supply Air Temperature (SAT) control loop

Air ow CHW SAT set-point Controller Valve HVAC Coil

SAT

Sensor

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HVAC Overview

Local Control: On/O Control

Simplest and common control is on/o control. Upper threshold tu , lower threshold tl , dierential = tu tl . Switch o when t tu and on when t tl . Time lag may cause larger operating dierential. Suitable for thermostats (slow dynamics) but not for supply-air fan control.
System; Sensor; Actual dierential

tu Temperature
Design dierential

tl

time

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HVAC Overview

Local Control: P/PI/PID Control

t

u(t) = KP e(t) + KI
0

e(t)dt + KD

d y (t), dt

e(t) = SP y (t)

y (t): process value, u(t): control, SP: set-point, e(t): error. Popular linear feedback controllers. Often requires a driver to convert u(t) to actual action of the actuator (e.g., to drive a valve motor). Issues: Derivative part is sensitive to noise. Prevent derivative kick when SP changes: use y (t) for D. Prevent Integral wind-up: limit integral part, temporarily disable integral part when e(t) is large, change SP gradually, etc. Mechanical wear leads to control degradation: reduce frequency of control action u(t) using deadband.

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HVAC Overview

Local Control: P/PI/PID Control

Direct Digital Control (DDC): controllers are implemented in computers. Digital to analog drivers are required. Tuning PID controllers Tune KP , KI , KD for stability and performance (overshoot, rise time, steady-state error, etc.). Manual tuning: trial-and-error experiments, requires expecience. Ziegler-Nichols method. Automated tuning with software:
System identication to obtain plant/sensor/actuator model. Calculate PID parameters. Simulation.

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HVAC Overview

Local Control: More References

Control books and textbooks. HVAC design & control books. G. J. Levermore, Building Energy Management Systems: Applications to low-energy HVAC and natural ventilation control. E & FN Spon, 2 ed., 2000. B. Li and A. G. Alleyne, Optimal on-o control of an air conditioning and refrigeration system, in Proceedings of the 2010 American Control Conference, pp. 58925897, 2010.

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Supervisory Control
Building Management System (BMS) is a system that monitors, controls and optimizes most aspects of a building, including HVAC, lighting system, security system, etc. Supervisory control is a part of BMS: computes set-points for local control loops, sets modes, turns on/o devices, etc. Can be manual by human operators, automatic by computers, or combination. Strategies: operation schedules, logical rules, optimization & adaptation, intelligent control (e.g., neural networks, machine learning). Purposes:
Safety. Comfort. Eciency: reduces energy usage or energy cost, etc.

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How Is Electric Bill Calculated?

Billing period: often 1 month. Energy usage: amount of energy used during billing period (kWh). Energy demand: power demanded by the consumer (kW), averaged for every time interval of half an hour (or 15 minutes, or an hour). Peak periods: the hours during which energy demand by consumers is signicantly higher than average, e.g., noon to 6 PM on weekdays. Peak demand: the maximum power demand by consumer during peak periods. Bill = Basic charge + Usage charge + Demand charge.
Usage charge = Total energy usage Usage price. Demand charge = Peak demand Demand price.

Demand charge is signicant (40% of bill). Why demand charge? Because peak demand is expensive and dicult for utility companies.

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Demand Control
Demand control (demand limiting): to control peak demand and reduce demand cost. Strategies:
Load shedding: turn o devices or reduce their powers (e.g., turn o or dim lights). Load shifting: move part of load from peak periods to o-peak periods.
Pre-heat or pre-cool a building before peak periods. Store energy at night (low-price time) to use in daytime.

More sophisticated strategies, e.g., look-ahead control with prediction model (next lecture).

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Demand Control: Temperature Set-point Schedule

Consider a cooling system. Idea: pre-cool the building/zones before peak period by setting a low set-point, then raise the set-point during peak period (load shifting). Change temperature set-points according to a xed schedule (pre-computed for each month or season). Dierent schedules:
Jump/Step-up: reset set-point from low to high at the beginning of peak period. Linear: linearly increase set-point from low to high during peak period. Analytical: use an analytical building model to optimize (o-line) the set-point schedule. Can be approximated as exponential schedule.

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ing afternoon periods that are characteristic here the demand-limiting will be applied.
80F (26.7C) Setpoint temperature

Fig. Schematic illustration of SA metho Demand Control: Temperature Set-point2.Schedule

Linear-rise 78F (25.6C) 70F (21.1C) Precooling

Step-up

74F (23.3C)

On-peak Occupied period Time

(From [ho Lee & Braun, 2008]) Fig. 1. Example demand-limiting building setpoint temperature controls.

References: [ho Lee & Braun, 2004, ho Lee & Braun, 2006, ho Lee & Braun, 2008]

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Demand Control: Temperature Set-point Schedule

Simulation with Simulink and MLE+ (cosimulation with EnergyPlus).
31 2 1.8 1.6 1.4 28 1.2 27 1 26 0.8 25 0.6 24 0.4 0.2 0 6 x 10
4

30

29

23

22 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

10

12

14

16

18

Set-point schedule ( C)

HVAC power (W)

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References
ho Lee, Kyoung, & Braun, James E. 2004. Development and application of an inverse building model for demand response in small commercial buildings. In: Proceedings of SimBuild. ho Lee, Kyoung, & Braun, James E. 2006. Evaluation of Methods for Determining Demand-Limiting Setpoint Trajectories in Commercial Buildings Using Short-Term Data Analysis. Pages 107114 of: Proceedings of SimBuild. ho Lee, Kyoung, & Braun, James E. 2008. Development of methods for determining demand-limiting setpoint trajectories in buildings using short-term measurements. Building and Environment, 43(10), 1755 1768.

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Thank You!

Q&A