Overview of HVAC Systems

Topic: HVAC

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

January 24, 2011

Outline

I Part I: HVAC Basics (Bin Yan)

I Part II: Conventional Control of HVAC Systems (Truong Nghiem)

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 2

 Part I

HVAC Basics

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 3

 Part II

Conventional Control of HVAC Systems

Overview
Local Control Strategies
Supervisory Control

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 4

HVAC Local & Supervisory Control

VAV System:
Exhaust Air Return Air
ZONE
Solar

Circulated Air
Ambient
VAV Box Air
Cooling Coil Supply Air Reheat Coil
Filter Internal heat gain
Fresh Air

CHWS/R
Cooling NEIGHBOR
Tower Chiller ZONE

To Other Zones

I Local control loops: thermostats, supply air controllers, etc.

I Supervisory control: set-points and modes for local control loops.

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 5

Local Control Loops

Zone temperature control loop (thermostat)

supply air heat gain
set-point reheat
Thermostat VAV Zone
damper

zone temperature
Sensor

Supply Air Temperature (SAT) control loop

Air flow CHW
SAT set-point
Controller Valve HVAC Coil

SAT
Sensor

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 6

Local Control: On/Off Control

Simplest and common control is on/off control.

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

tu
Temperature

Design
differential

tl

time

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 7

Local Control: P/PI/PID Control
Z t
d
u(t) = KP e(t) + KI e(t)dt + KD y (t), e(t) = SP y (t)
0 dt

I y (t): process value, u(t): control, SP: set-point, e(t): error.

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

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 8

Local Control: P/PI/PID Control

Direct Digital Control (DDC): controllers are implemented in computers.

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

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 9

Local Control: More References

I Control books and textbooks.

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

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 10

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/off devices, etc.
I Can be manual by human operators, automatic by computers, or
combination.
I Strategies: operation schedules, logical rules, optimization &
adaptation, intelligent control (e.g., neural networks, machine
learning).
I Purposes:
I Safety.
I Comfort.
I Efficiency: reduces energy usage or energy cost, etc.

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 11

How Is Electric Bill Calculated?

I Billing period: often 1 month.

I Energy usage: amount of energy used during billing period (kWh).
I Energy demand: power demanded by the consumer (kW), averaged
for every time interval of half an hour (or 15 minutes, or an hour).
I Peak periods: the hours during which energy demand by consumers
is significantly higher than average, e.g., noon to 6 PM on weekdays.
I Peak demand: the maximum power demand by consumer during
peak periods.
I Bill = Basic charge + Usage charge + Demand charge.
I Usage charge = Total energy usage Usage price.
I Demand charge = Peak demand Demand price.
I Demand charge is significant (40% of bill).
I Why demand charge? Because peak demand is expensive and
difficult for utility companies.

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 12

Demand Control

I Demand control (demand limiting): to control peak demand and

reduce demand cost.
I Strategies:
I Load shedding: turn off devices or reduce their powers (e.g., turn off
or dim lights).
I Load shifting: move part of load from peak periods to off-peak
periods.
I Pre-heat or pre-cool a building before peak periods.
I Store energy at night (low-price time) to use in daytime.
I More sophisticated strategies, e.g., look-ahead control with
prediction model (next lecture).

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 13

Demand Control: Temperature Set-point Schedule

Consider a cooling system.

I 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).
I Change temperature set-points according to a fixed schedule
(pre-computed for each month or season).
I Different schedules:
I Jump/Step-up: reset set-point from low to high at the beginning of
peak period.
I Linear: linearly increase set-point from low to high during peak
period.
I Analytical: use an analytical building model to optimize (off-line) the
set-point schedule. Can be approximated as exponential schedule.

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 14

 ing afternoon periods that are characteristic
Demand Control: Temperature Set-point
Fig. 2.Schedule
here the demand-limiting will be applied. Schematic illustration of SA metho

80F
(26.7C)
temperature

Step-up
Linear-rise
Setpoint

78F
(25.6C) 74F
(23.3C)
70F (21.1C)

Precooling On-peak

Occupied period Time

(From [ho controls.

Fig. 1. Example demand-limiting building setpoint temperature Lee & Braun, 2008])

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

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 15

Demand Control: Temperature Set-point Schedule

Simulation with Simulink and MLE+ (cosimulation with EnergyPlus).

4
x 10
31 2

30 1.8

1.6
29

1.4
28
1.2
27
1
26
0.8
25
0.6

24
0.4

23 0.2

22 0
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Set-point schedule ( C) HVAC power (W)

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 16

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.

T. Nghiem HVAC Overview 17

Thank You!

Q&A