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DDC TECHNOLOGIES

NEW HORIZONS FOR HVAC CONTROL

How installation and operating costs of HVAC systems can be dramatically reduced by extending the opportunities afforded by controls integration
By THOMAS HARTMAN, PE, Principal, The Hartman Co., Marysville, Wash.
n last months article, we saw how the first costs and operating costs associated with modern DDC systems can be reduced by rethinking our selection and application of input and output devices. This month, I intend to carry the idea of new thinking a step further and show how installation and operating costs of HVAC systems can be even more dramatically reduced by further extending the opportunities afforded by controls integration. For example, to see the benefits of more rigorous design approaches and challenge our acceptance of traditional design practice, lets consider the operation of a variable flow chilled water loop. ing energy, the designer decides to incorporate a variable speed pump on the secondary loop. To decouple the constant chilled water flow requirement of the chiller evaporator from the variable flow through the loads, the designer decides upon a two-pump arrangement with a two-way modulating valve for each load and a variable speed drive to operate the secondary chilled water pump. The primary chilled water pump operates continuously with the chiller. For the secondary loop, traditional design manuals suggest sizing control valves for a full-flow pressure drop of at least 30 percent of the total system drop. This factor is often called valve authority, and rules of thumb dictate that it should be equal to or greater than the pressure drop through the load, which in this case is the cooling coils. As discussed in last months article, the substantial pressure drop through each valve is an effort to attain some measure of linearity between valve action and cooling effect delivered to the load. The high pressure drop also serves to isolate the operation of each valve/coil arrangement from others. Lets start by calculating the total head across the secondary pump at full flow, then calculate the pumping power required. Depending on the physical location and piping lengths, a 20 ft drop across the loads, 30 ft drop across the valves, and perhaps 40 ft head
Chiller

Constant speed primary pump

Variable speed secondary pump

Load 1

Load 2

Load 3

Load 4

1 Primary/secondary chilled water loop.

Chilled water loop

Fig. 1 is a schematic of a chilled water system employing variable flow on the secondary (load) circuit. The loads are cooling coils in a buildings various air systems. In this case, the designer is confronted with a chiller that serves an extensive piping array with multiple chilled water coilsa reasonably common occurrence. Assume all the cooling loads vary fairly uniformly with outdoor conditions and the coils operate at low load conditions much of the time, which is typical of HVAC cooling systems. To reduce pump-

drop across the secondary piping at full flow conditions would be typical for a design using published rules of thumb. Assuming a total full-flow requirement of all the load coils of 1000 gpm, we can calculate theoretical pumping horsepower at full flow as follows: Pump hp = [gpm 8.35 lb per gal pump head]/33,000 ft-lb per min-hp Pump hp = [1000 8.35 (30 + 20 + 40)]/33,000 = 22.8 hp A traditional design would involve one or more differential pressure transducers in the loop
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piping head loss is: 40 0.52 = 10 ft The horsepower requirement at 50 percent flow is: Pump hp = [(1000 0.5) 8.35 (50 + 10)]/33,000 = 7.5 hp The designer would then apply appropriate pump efficiencies and simulate or estimate the amount of time the pump and coils would spend at various conditions and calculate the power requirements as above. If the system operates long hours at low loads, the savings from a variable flow secondary loop will be substantial. ductions to maximize pump power savings, but adjusting the chilled water temperature upward offers savings too. The DDC system must be chosen so that it offers the use of advanced algorithms to adjust the chilled water temperature and secondary pump speed as load conditions change. Furthermore, the DDC system chosen should provide the ability to selftune modulating loops. The question remaining is how the system pressure and water temperature changes will affect the other valve/coil combinations on the cooling circuit. The assumption for this example is that all coils will experience similar loads, as is often the case with HVAC systems. However, the designer must be very careful to ensure this is actually the case. If one of the coils serves an interior computer room that has high constant year-round cooling loads or if coils serve different perimeter zones of a building subject to high solar gains, these unusual zones may have to be specially accommodated either by a booster pump or a separate chilled water circuit as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. In Fig. 3, a small booster pump is added to increase the differential pressure for Load 2, which the designer has determined will not fall as quickly as the others on the loop. In Fig. 4, two entirely separate loops have been configured to permit the separation of loads into groups that will have similar part-load patterns. The configuration in Fig. 4 may be a cost-effective configuration if the load groupings are in different locations and do not require extensive additional piping.

Chiller

Constant speed primary pump Variable speed secondary pump Control VFD

Load 1

Load 2

High-performance design
Load 3 DP Load 4

2 Primary/secondary chilled water loop with differential pressure sensor (DP) and controller.

as shown in Fig. 2 to ensure the pump maintains a 50 ft head across the valve(s) and coil(s). If all the coils spend large amounts of time operating at less than design capacity, the piping head loss would drop with the square of the water flow decrease. The pressure drop through the coil would similarly decrease, but the savings would be excluded because the controls keep a constant pressure across the valve/coilsthe pressure drop across the valves actually increases as the flow decreases. If reasonably even load profiles for all coils are assumed, the pipe head pressure drop will increase with the square of the flow. At 75 percent flow the piping head loss is: 40 0.752 = 22.5 ft Using this new pressure drop figure for the piping, we see that the theoretical horsepower requirement at 75 percent flow is: Pump hp = [(1000 0.75) 8.35 (50 + 22.5 )]/33,000 = 13.8 hp At 50 percent of design flow, the
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The simplified analysis above shows how substantial energy use reductions are possible by the application of variable flow to typical hydronic loops in HVAC systems. However, designers with a good understanding of high-performance DDC controls should ask themselves why they allow their designs to be limited by traditional design methodology. Design teams often lose track of the reasons for the rules of thumb they apply so regularly. When this happens, designers run the risk of applying outdated design techniquesan important reason many designs fail to meet expected levels of performance. As we saw in last months discussion, a control scheme that integrates chilled water temperature control with secondary chilled water loop control can provide effective cooling coil control with considerably reduced control valve pressure drop. In such a design, the DDC system operates the integrated system by increasing the chilled water temperature and decreasing the differential pressure of the loop as the loads on the coils decrease. Lets see how applying the design techniques discussed last month would affect this example.

Performance control program

Thinking back to last months article, consider how the chilled water loop of Fig. 1 might achieve improved energy performance when operated by an integrated control program. The designer may develop a high-performance control program for the loop with several basic elements as follows:
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Further improvements
Obviously, it is wise to keep the chilled water temperature adjustment at levels that permit flow re-

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Chiller Constant speed primary pump

The pump speed will be decreased and the chilled water temperature will be increased to ensure at least one of the control valves serving the loads served by the loop is fully opened at all times during operation. The system will further ensure that all loads are met at all times. Moving from a full-load to part-load situation, the pump speed will first be reduced down to 90 percent of maximum speed while the chilled water temperature remains constant. Thereafter, the chilled water temperature will be increased along with pump speed reductions at a relative reduction ratio that maintains a minimum valve opening of 20 percent. Note that the control program outline does not anticipate the need for a loop differential pressure input.

Evaluating improvements
As discussed last month, a highperformance control system permits the control valves to be selected for lower pressure drops when valve control is integrated

Chiller

Constant speed primary pump

Variable speed secondary pump

Load 1 Booster pump Load 2 Check valve Load 3

with chiller and pump control as above to handle the issues of linearity and controllability. Assume the same piping and coils are selected as in the earlier example, but the control valves are sized for a 5 ft pressure drop at design flow. Now the total head for the secondary loop at full load conditions is the sum of 20 ft drop across the loads, 5 ft drop across the valves, and 40 ft drop across the secondary piping. At the full flow of 1000 gpm, the theoretical fullload pumping horsepower can be calculated as: Pump hp = [gpm 8.35 lb per gal pump head]/33,000 ft-lb per min-hp Pump hp = [1000 8.35 (5 + 20 + 40)]/33,000 = 16.4 hp This compares to the 22.8 hp for the traditional loop design. Although this design requires larger valves to achieve a lower pressure drop at full flow, the pump, motor, and variable frequency drive components are all only about 70 percent as large as required for a traditional design, which means that the overall cost of the mechanical components of the design is likely to be the same or less than the initial design. At lower loads, the pumping energy calculations are more complicated because both the chilled water temperature and the loop pressure will be adjusted by the high-performance DDC system to meet the specific requirements of the various loads. Raising the chilled water temperature raises the chilled water flow required to meet the loads but also increases the efficiency of the cooling plant and results in additional energy use reductions. Reducing the total loop pressure as the load decreases will enhance the energy savings beyond the savings from flow reduction. Using the performance graphs for the valves in last months article, we can assume that at 75 percent average load the system operates at an
3 Primary/secondary chilled water loop with booster pump on one load.

Variable speed secondary Pump 2 Variable speed secondary Pump 1 Load 1

Load 2

Load 3

Load 4

4 Primary/secondary chilled water loop with two secondary loops.

Load 4

11.5 F approach. At this operating point the flow would be: 1000 (0.75 13/11.5) = 848 gpm The piping and coil head losses are, respectively: 40 (848/1000)2 = 28.8 ft 20 (848/1000)2 = 14.4 ft The assumed head loss through the valves depends on the control strategy and the piping arrangement to be employed. Generally, the head loss through the valves can be assumed to decrease at the same ratio as the piping and coil head losses, but this is not always the case. Conservatively, it is assumed for this example that the valve head loss remains at 5 ft. Based on these assumptions, the horsepower requirement at 75 percent flow is: Pump hp = [848 8.35 (5 + 14.4 + 28.8)]/33,000 = 10.3 hp This design clearly offers some additional part-load pumping savings over the original example, but more important is that it also offers savings from a 1.5 F increase in chilled water temperature. A chiller saving of 0.02 KW per ton-F energy reductions per degree increase in chilled water temperature yields an additional savings of more than 9 hp at the chiller for a total saving of more than 15 hp.
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Variable speed chiller

At 50 percent of design flow, it can be assumed that the system operates at a 10 F approach. At this operating point the flow would be: 1000 (0.5 13/10) = 650 gpm The piping and coil head losses are, respectively: 40 (650/1000)2 = 16.9 ft 20 (650/1000)2 = 8.5 ft To be conservative in advance of a certain piping layout, we assume the head loss of the valves remains constant at 5 ft. With these assumptions, the horsepower requirement at 50 percent flow is: Pump hp = [650 8.35 (5 + 8.5 + 16.9)]/33,000 = 5.0 hp As before, the part-load operation pumping savings are again overshadowed by the 3 F increase in chilled water temperature. A chiller saving of 0.02 KW per ton-F energy reductions per degree increase in chilled water temperature yields an additional saving of about 7 hp at the chiller for a total saving of approximately 18 hp. Clearly, the use of integrated control and low pressure drop valves results in substantial additional energy savings for this chilled water system.

Variable speed chilled water pump

Load 1

Load 2

Load 3

Load 4

5 Single-pump chilled water loop.

In Fig. 5, the chiller is a variable speed unit that offers a high turndown ratio and high coefficient of performance at low loads. The required rate of flow through the chiller obviously depends on the cooling load. This is a good design fit because the flow through the loads also varies with the loading. However, this does not mean that such a system will work adequately under all load conditions without specific attention to the chiller flow.

quence for a single-pump circuit provides a continuous calculation of cooling load requirements for each load. The cooling loop would be shut down until the sum of the calculated load requirements reaches a specific value that depends in part on the anticipated upcoming conditions. Once enabled, the cooling plant will operate as described above in the high-performance sequence except that the chilled water temperature would be raised any time the evaporator heat exchanger temperature differential reaches the maximum differential for the load conditions. Raising the chilled water temperature will require higher flows to satisfy loads and will automatically return the heat exchanger to optimal performance levels. It is clear that the simpler configuration of Fig. 5 reduces the first cost of the system and also provides some further reduction of operating costs over the Fig. 1 configuration.

Benefits of high performance

The above example is indicative of the opportunities available to those designers with the expertise necessary to apply high-performance DDC to HVAC systems. The expected results for mechanical designs that are carefully integrated with high-performance controls are: Smaller (and usually simpler) equipment sizes with accompanying savings that can reduce the system costs or be invested in higher quality, longer lasting components. Lower total system energy use than what is possible with nonintegrated design and control strategies. Control precision that is superior to that of traditional control approaches.

New horizons for designers

So far, our design thinking has dealt only with the controls aspect of a traditional chilled water loop layout. Now that we understand the possibilities of integrated operation, lets rethink the physical configuration of Fig. 1. The striking feature of Fig. 1 is the necessity of having two pumps. Why? We know that below certain velocities of flow through chiller heat exchangers, the heat transfer capacity drops off rapidly. The purpose of the primary pump is to ensure that condition never troubles our system. However, with an integrated system, we can tell when the water flow is too low for chiller conditions because evaporator and water temperatures can both be continuously monitored. So, instead of Fig. 1, lets consider the simpler piping configuration in Fig. 5.

Single-pump systems
Two basic requirements must be met to ensure effective and efficient operation of the Fig. 5 configuration. First, the system must not be operated unless the cooling requirement is above a minimum threshold load. Second, the water flow through the chiller evaporator heat exchanger must be sufficient to maintain less than a predetermined maximum temperature difference between the refrigerant and chilled water under all conditions. In most HVAC applications, these requirements can be met as long as the DDC system has the capacity to integrate the control of the chiller, pump, and valves and the capacity to operate these elements with high-performance control algorithms. The operating se-

DDC cost considerations

Control system costs can be a factor in the feasibility of a highperformance design, but generalizations should be avoided until the exact control point requirecontinued on page 85

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ments are fully considered. Numerous economies are possible by integrating the microprocessor control units of various standalone elements. Modern, highperformance DDC control options may cost less than nonintegrated electronic control based alternates. The designer needs to consider that integrated, high-performance control layouts can usually be configured with fewer instrumentation points than traditional control approaches. Communication bridges between components of different manufacture are now becoming available. Furthermore, the intelligence of high-performance DDC systems can increasingly be used to replace instrumentation. Lets consider the chilled water loop. The traditional control of the secondary pump requires one or more differential pressure sensors and a controller to operate the variable frequency drive that sets the pump speed. Also required are control points to operate each valve and operate the chiller. If the chiller and air handlers are packaged units with microprocessor control, the only costs incurred for the high-performance control is the capacity to integrate the operation of this equipment. A highperformance DDC configuration can be simpler because the system uses the existing monitoring and control instrumentation. With microprocessor control at each that can be integrated in its operation, no additional I/O instrumentation is required.

Summary and conclusion

To fully exploit the benefits of high-performance DDC systems, designers must engineer designs before solutions are selected. Rules of thumb have no place in a high-performance design process. The benefits in improved energy performance, and in many instances lower first costs, are compelling reasons for designers to acquire the tools and expertise required to apply high-performance design approaches more widely.