Performers:
-- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – Richland, WA
-- Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Oak Ridge, TN
FY18 DOE Funding: $890,000
Project Term: October 1, 2016 – September 30, 2019
Funding Type: Lab Award
Project Objective
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in collaboration with ORNL will explore and develop an adaptive supervisory control approach for ensuring optimal systems behavior in response to changing building operation conditions (e.g., outdoor air temperature and equipment performance degradation) for larger commercial buildings that typically have existing building automation systems (BAS). This approach will aim to eliminate the need for seasonal manual tuning of building operation and ensure continuous automated maximization of system performance while simultaneously addressing both the variability of system loads and the uncertainty of equipment health and performance degradation.
The focus of this project is on air distribution management systems for multi-zone commercial buildings served by built-up HVAC systems. Specifically, air handling units (AHUs) with variable air volume (VAV) box systems, which serve >30% of the total floor area of U.S. commercial buildings, will be targeted in developing a foundation for application of adaptive control using data from existing BAS. The team will use simulation to evaluate the energy savings associated with the control solution relative to the energy performance of a field representative baseline, with a target of >15% reduction in energy use.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: Erika Gupta
Principal Investigators: Draguna Vrabie, PNNL and Teja Kuruganti, ORNL