PNNL Finds Commercial Buildings Could Cut HVAC Costs by 57% with Energy-Efficiency Controls
AZoCleantech.com, May 26, 2014“We’ve long known that heating and cooling are among the biggest energy consumers in buildings, largely because most buildings don’t use sophisticated controls,” said the study’s lead researcher, engineer Srinivas Katipamula of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “But our tests of controls installed at real, working commercial buildings clearly demonstrate how much more energy efficient air-conditioning systems can be.”
This research was supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy and the Bonneville Power Administration.
Sitting on the roofs of many commercial buildings are shiny metal boxes containing heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (also known as HVAC) units. These are pre-made in a factory and have all their components inside a box, leading the industry to call them “packaged” HVAC units. Another kind of commercial HVAC, called air handling units, have long used sophisticated controls to ensure they work as efficiently as possible. But packaged units are often allowed to run for hours on end, even if they aren’t needed, and receive little maintenance.