Aaon Fan Engineering White Paper

Aaon has pushed the envelope of packaged rooftop unit design by providing a wide selection of fan types in their systems, including forward curved housed centrifugals, backward inclined un-housed centrifugals (plenum fans) and axial fans. And, for their larger units, they have generally moved towards direct-driven plenum fans for supply air in arrays as best fits the application. This move has not been random, but is based upon solid engineering reasoning based on the inherent stability and efficiency of these types of fans. The newly published Aaon white paper, Value in the Air provides a thorough justification for this emphasis on direct-drive plenum fans. But in doing so, it also provides an excellent primer on general fan engineering topics including overloading vs. non-overloading fan curves, fan stability in single and dual fan applications, fan control for VAV systems, and the overall energy impact of fans on our HVAC systems. It is an excellent resource and one that engineers should review to enhance their understanding of fan systems.

Greening Small Rooftop Units: Digital Scrolls

Digital scroll compressors offer many benefits to compressorized HVAC equipment, as I have discussed in previous articles. Some of these advantages are obvious, and need little computational support--like the modulating capacity control.

Others, however, could use some numerical support to quantify the advantages they confer. The efficiency advantage these compressors confer is one of these sorts of advantages. While it is easy to conceptually understand how this technology can improve efficiency of compressorized units, how much of an advantage this is depends on a myriad of factors, including the capacity of the unit, the operating schedule of the system, the climactic conditions the system experiences and the application of the system.

The energy advantage will change depending on whether the system operates seven days a week or five, whether the system has multiple or single compressors, whether the system is in Atlanta or Seattle, whether the system is VAV or constant volume and whether the system has hot-gas bypass or not.

Aaon realized that the complexity of this calculation made it difficult to quantify the advantage of this advanced feature. To make it easier to see the energy advantage, Aaon added a simple energy calculation tool to the Engineering Toolkit that they provide with their ECAT32 selection software.



After using the simple drop-down windows to select geographic location (by city), Aaon model number, 5 or 7 day schedule, 12 or 24 hour operation, Constant or VAV fan control you then can select the variable and constant capacity units to compare against each other. Options available include assigning hot gas bypass or not to the lead and/or lag compressors and variable speed or cycling fan control to the condenser fans. Once these options have been selected for both units, you simply hit the "calculate" button and the energy performance summary is generated.



This gives you the energy improvement conferred by the digital scroll as a percentage, and also in a comparative EER the constant capacity compressor system would have to be rated at in order for the energy performance of the two systems to be equal.

Further graphs allow you to examine the bin hours at a given OADB for the geographic location and operating schedule you specified,



and the relative energy performances of both systems at a given OADB.



A little playing around with the system allows a user to quickly find where the energy benefits are greatest. In general, the digital scroll confers the most benefit to single-compressor systems, and systems that require HGBP for constant-capacity compressors, such as VAV systems. The system also highlights the point that HGBP is a very expensive way to to capacity control, since the compressor draws full amps whenever it is running. It is the unique modulating capacity of digital scrolls that really makes a difference in these sorts of applications.

Heat your showers for FREE

Earlier in this series of articles, I discussed using the waste heat in available on-site water-based sources to heat water. Essentially, you just add a water-to-water heat pump system that allows you to move a lot of heat to a useful function with the expenditure of just a little energy.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could do this sort of transfer of heat from a waste source to a useful function without requiring the addition of a compressorized system?

Well, in existing refrigeration systems, there already exists a source of heat that is usually of a temperature that can provide useful heating for a domestic hot water application without need for additional compressors: The compressor superheat.



In a refrigeration process, where cooling is the desired function of the compressorized system, this compressor superheat is essentially waste heat, and serves no useful purpose. It is simply thrown away to the environment through whatever heat rejection process the system employs. But this compressor superheat was put into the system by the energy used to run the compressor, and therefore was paid for once by the operator of the equipment. Instead of paying for it again in the operation of the heat rejection fan or cooling tower, why not instead use it for something, saving the heat rejection costs and reaping a real benefit?

It was this sort of thinking that prompted Florida Heat Pump to develop their HRP Heat Recovery Package (pdf). This is an add-on heat exchanger that transfers the compressor superheat directly into a domestic hot-water source--using double-walled heat exchangers to protect the potable system.



The heat from the desuperheater system provides supplemental heat to the domestic hot water system any time the compressor operates--in heating or in cooling. This can greatly reduce the amount of electric or gas heat required for water heating--even completely displacing this direct heating during many times of the year, depending on the building loads and use of the space.

(Note, however, that the compressor superheat is lost to the heat pump space heating process and therefore the space heating capacity of the heat pump will be reduced by the capacity of the desuperheater. As long as this is taken into account in the sizing of the heat pump, this presents no problem to operation.)

But water-source heat pumps represent only a small part of the compressorized systems that are exisiting or installed every year. It seems there is an opportunity for taking advantage of this same heat source on many other systems and on existing equipment, too.

That is where the Heat Harvester Heat Recovery System can be used to great effect. This heat recovery system is a stand-alone desuperheating device that is pre-designed for various compressor system capacities and is available for retrofit on existing or new systems.

How much heating potential is there? Well, Heat Harvester has provided an interesting analysis of the desuperheat capacities of compressorized systems:

Size of Air Conditioning System tons	Gallons of Hot Water per Hour	Gallons of Hot Water per Day
3	15-to-25	180-to-300
5	25-to-40	300-to-480
10	50-to-80	600-to-960
20	100-to-160	1200-to-1800
30	150-to-240	1800-to-2880

These systems can be economically installed into just about any compressorized systems using positive displacement compressors: Scroll and Screw air-cooled chillers, Rooftop packaged units, Condensing units, CRAC units, you name it. Since the Heat Harvester heat recovery system consists of a package with a heat exchanger and a pump, the installation basically involves a little refrigerant and water piping. And in a cooling-only application, all of the heat recovered would have otherwise been lost to the environment.

Ultimate Florida Heat Pump Cheat Sheet

One of the difficulties our customers have with Florida Heat Pump is that their product offering is so wide, that it can sometimes get confusing: Which models have ECM motors? Which have scroll compressors and which have recip? What sound packages are available for a given model, etc...

So, in the interest of clarity and ease of use, we've pulled together all of this information into one convenient place: The Ultimate Florida Heat Pump Cheat Sheet

Presentations from JB 2008 Open House

Due to a slew of interest, we have made the following presentation slides available for review.


All of the links below go to pdf files of the presentation, except for the Aggressive Building Energy Performance presentation which goes to the NBI website where similar presentations can be found.

• Aggressive Building Energy Performance: Getting to 50 and Beyond. Mark Frankel, New Buildings Institute
• PSE/SCL Energy incentive updates
• Introduction to Variable-Refrigerant Flow Systems. Kim Olson, Sanyo
• Introduction to Active Chilled Beams. Rand Conger, Johnson-Barrow

Click on the underlined words to link to the documents.

Thanks again for your interest and your participation!

More photos from the event can be found here.

Energy Code and Relief air in Rooftop Units

In a warm building served by rooftop units in a cold ambient condition, air wants to do an unfortunate thing. Warm, less dense air tends to rise through the colder, denser air. If unchecked, this causes an air migration up through the ductwork, to the RTU and out into the environment, while cold air is infiltrated into the building to make up the vacated volume. This causes a loss of heating energy detrimental to the energy performance of the building.


If the rooftop unit is operating, this stack effect is usually more than overcome by the pressures developed by the fans. But when the unit is off, often the only thing preventing warm air from working its way up through the ductwork is the action of the unit dampers. Most units installed under the Seattle Energy code have an automatic OA damper associated with the economizer that can be driven closed. But the relief air path is a different story. Often, this air path is controlled with a simple gravity damper configured to relieve air when the building is under positive pressure, but to prevent air from entering while under negative pressure.

The problem with this arrangement is that it does nothing to prevent a stack effect from occurring when the unit is not operating. The damper will act to let warm air out, which is exactly what is what we would hope to avoid. To address thisl, the 2006 Seattle Energy code has a section that requires a positive-closing damper on all air openings on building air systems:

1412.4.1 Dampers: Outside air intakes, exhaust outlets and relief outlets serving conditioned spaces shall be equipped with motorized dampers which close automatically when the system is off or upon power failure. Stair shaft and elevator shaft smoke relief openings shall be equipped with normally open (fails open upon loss of power) dampers. These dampers shall remain closed until activated by the fire alarm system or other approved smoke detection system.

EXCEPTIONS:

1. Systems serving areas which require continuous operation.
2. Combustion air intakes.
3. Gravity (non-motorized) dampers are acceptable in systems with a design outdoor air intake or exhaust capacity of 300 cfm or less buildings less than 3 stories in height.
4. Gravity (non-motorized dampers are acceptable in exhaust and relief outlets in the first story and levels below the first story of buildings three or more stories in height. Reserved
5. Type 1 grease hoods exhaust.

Dampers installed to comply with this section, including dampers integral to HVAC equipment, shall have a maximum leakage rate when tested in accordance with AMCA Standard 500 of:

1. Motorized dampers: 10 cfm/ft² of damper area at 1.0 in. w.g.
2. Non-motorized dampers: 20 cfm/ft² of damper area at 1.0 in. w.g., except that for non-motorized dampers smaller than 24 inches in either dimension: 40 cfm/ft² of damper area at 1.0 in. w.g.

Dampers used as a component of packaged HVAC equipment shall comply with the damper leakage requirements, unless it is the lowest leakage available as a factory option. Drawings shall indicate compliance with this section.

This has caused some disruption in the rootop packaged unit market, because the option of providing automatically closing motorized dampers on all air openings on these sorts of units is not one that is easily available from most manufacturers.

Johnson-Barrow has worked with Aaon to provide an engineered option on most configurations of the Aaon RM and RN rooftop packaged line to meet this requirement.

So if you have a project where a packaged RTU is the right solution, there is a code-compliant option likely available from Aaon.

Open House: Where, When and How

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16th!

Details:


Where: 2001 22nd Ave S, Seattle WA, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

The open house will be located just down the street from the JB offices, about 5 blocks south of I-90, just off of Rainier Avenue in Seattle.

(click for active map, or click HERE)

Directions: Directions from your location can be found by clicking on on the active map above, then right-clicking on the open house location, selecting "Directions to" and typing in your starting address in the box provided! Parking is available.

Transit: Plan your trip Here (Use "2001 22nd Ave S" as the destination)

What:


Schedule of Presentations:

• 10:30 AM: Non-Chemical Water Treatment Case Studies. John Junk, Fluid-Tek
  
• 12:30 PM: Aggressive Building Energy Performance: Getting to 50 and Beyond. Mark Frankel, New Buildings Institute
• 1:45 PM: PSE/SCL Energy incentive updates
• 2:30 PM: Introduction to Variable-Refrigerant Flow Systems. Kim Olson, Sanyo
• 3:30 PM: Introduction to Active Chilled Beams. Rand Conger, Johnson-Barrow

Lunch provided at 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM

Refreshments provided 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM


Featured Products on site for your inpsection:

Climate Craft Matrix Air Handler

Evapco AT cooling tower with Super Low Sound Fan

Evapco Pulse~Pure non-chemical water treatment

Sanyo Mini-Splits

Dadanco Active Chilled Beams

Cerus Starters

And even MORE!

How:

Come throughout the day. Visit for as long or as short as you like

If you do plan to come, we would appreciate some feedback on when you think you will be here.

Please visit HERE to give us a quick RSVP. Thanks! (We'll still let you in if you don't)

Save the Date: October 16 JB Open House

Johnson Barrow is pleased to announce an Open House, Thursday, October 16. Come 'kick the tires' of our products and attend talks on high-efficiency technology and design. We'll also provide lunch at noon and adult refreshments in the evening!

ClimateCraft Air Handler

Highlights:

• Featured Presentation: Mark Frankel from the New Buildings Institute; "Aggressive Building Energy Performance: Getting to 50 and Beyond" 12:30 pm
• Updates on local Utility rebate programs.
• A full scale Demo unit of the Climate Craft MATRIX air handler
• Evapco Pulse~Pure non-chemical water treatment device.
• New product introduction: Sanyo ECO-i VRF systems
• New product introduction: Dadanco active chilled beams

More details to follow. Watch your inbox!

Introduction to VRF systems

Recently, there has been an Asian invasion of America.




Asian variable-speed heat split heat pump systems, that is.

While most engineers and contractors are familiar with the now-common ductless mini-split systems, these systems have a bigger cousin which can match multiple outdoor condensers with multiple indoor fan coils using variable speed compressor technology to greatly improve efficiency and add significant zoning flexibility to building designs.




Davis Watkins, Vice President of Applied Systems, Sanyo HVAC Solutions, recently wrote an introductory article for HVAC insider describing these systems, their applications and installation. He also debunks several myths about these systems that have caused concern in the past. It is well worth a read to understand how these systems provide better comfort control with great energy savings. A copy is locate here: Ductless Split System Technology: From Bonus Rooms to Commercial Buildings

Personally, I think one very strong argument for these systems can be summed up in a single graph:



This is a chart of the heating performance of the Sanyo ECO-i VRF system at low ambient conditions. Note that at as low as -4 deg F, the ECO-i VRF system still provideds 60% of the rated heating capacity without supplemental strip heat. Keep in mind that in a heat pump system the rated heating capacity is usually about 30% or so greater than the rated cooling capacity. In other words, you will get nearly 12 tons of heating out of a 12 ton cooling unit even in sub-zero weather!

If you are interested in reducing your carbon footprint, moving to a fully electric heat pump system makes sense in a primarily hydroelectric utility market--and even more so if you don't have to size your electrical service to provide redundant electric strip heat! Or, for that matter, pay for the energy required to provide that strip heat.

Another feature that highly recommends these systems is the capability to provide heat recovery while operating in simultaneous heating and cooling mode. A three-way Sanyo ECO-i system can operate much like a water-source heat pump system, re-using heat rejected from warm interior zones at perimeter zones that require heating. This inherent energy recapture ability allows the compressor in the outdoor unit to only have to work hard enough to transfer the difference in capacity between the two modes. If, on a given system, you have 7 tons of heating load and 4 tons of cooling load (11 tons, total) the compressor actually only sees 3 tons of load!



These advantages are above and beyond the already impressive efficiencies gained by the use of variable-speed compressors, and transferring heat and cooling energy with efficient refrigerant transfer instead of much less efficient air transfer. And, of course, these systems can offer great architectural advantages too: Lower floor to ceiling height, smaller spaces with independent comfort zones, very easy reconfiguration, etc.

It's no wonder these systems are gaining traction in a big way in the North American market.

Greg Nickels vows to DOUBLE Seattle Conservation Programs

A recent article in the Seattle times indicates that the City of Seattle is getting serious about conservation:

Overlooking the Seahawks' field, Seattle City Light officials and Mayor Greg Nickels announced a $185 million plan Wednesday to double the city's energy conservation over five years -- an amount equal to the annual energy use of 180,000 Seattle homes.

The program, which targets residential and commercial electricity use, could save customers $310 million over that time.

"We are putting our conservation program on steroids," Nickels said.

The plan is available online at http://www.seattle.gov/light/conserve/docs/Conservation_5_Year_Action_Plan.pdf, and focuses on Lighting, HVAC, Industrial Processes and Data Centers.



Learn more about what this means to you and your business at http://www.seattle.gov/light/conserve/

Information on rebates, including spreadsheets to calculate rebates for common measures (VFD's, chillers, heat pumps, etc) is available at http://www.seattle.gov/light/Conserve/Business/cv4_ess.asp

Don't miss out on a great opportunity to fund your project and lower your operating costs at the same time!

Fan Engineering: Spark Resistance Ratings

Every once in a while we will see a specification for "explosion proof" fans. While this may be a desirable characteristic, "explosion proof" is not a specifiable option, and usually is included because of confusion with electrical component (i.e. motors, disconnects) specifications.



Instead, fans are generally classified by "spark resistance". AMCA has created a standard that defines three different levels of spark resistance, classes A, B and C.

These classes, listed in decreasing order of assurance, are generally concerned with the prevention of sparks caused by the rubbing together of spark-producing metallic components (generally ferrous materials). These classes only address spark risks due to an explosive airstream, and do not address explosive conditions outside the fan. A summary of the different levels of protection is found in this helpful engineering paper from Twin City Fans.

Type C: The fan is designed so that if the impeller or shaft comes loose and shifts during operation, two ferrous parts will not come into contact.

Type B: In general, this requires a nonferrous impeller and a nonferrous rubbing ring around the shaft hole. Also, extra locking systems are required to prevent the fan impeller, shaft, and bearings from shifting.

Type A: This requires a nonferrous airstream. Also, the extra locking systems are required as in Type B.

As with any engineering decision, the correct level of spark resistance to specify depends strongly upon the particulars of the project: The gasses or substances expected, the concentration of these contaminants, the location of the air-moving device, etc.

Smarter Starters

As anyone who has specified or supplied them on projects knows, motor starters can be a big headache. And despite the growth in the use of VFD's in today's energy conscious designs, motor starters still are used on about 60-70% of the motors provided in the industry. Typical problems can range from the very basic to the more involved. Some of the problems our customers report are:

• Incorrect overload protection provided or heaters incorrectly sized
• Incorrect control signal available on the site
• Not enough BAS points to provide needed damper or valve interlocks

For the most part, starters are old technology. Cerus Industrial re-examined starters and found that a lot of benefit can be gained from re-working these components to take advantage of today's technology.

Cerus BAS Starter

Protecting The Motor

Besides starting the motor, the main function of a motor starter is to provide a measure of protection to the motor in case of an electrical malfunction. Typically, this protection is provided by means of an overload protection in the starter that trips power in case the motor pulls more amps than it is safely rated for. Traditionally, this has been provided by means of small heater elements that are rated for the motor FLA. These are interchangeable and different motor operating conditions will require different heaters.

In practice, these heaters can be problematic--Essentially, they must be sized correctly for the operating amps of the motor, and this may or may not be known at the time they are purchased. Many things can change a motor duty point from the design to the installation: product substitution, air or water balancing, changes to the design, etc. And since these heaters have very small operating ranges, even a small change in any of these criteria can result in a heater change. In fact, replacing starter heaters are one of the most commonly reported change orders.


Adjustable thermal overloads have been developed to allow a greater amp range for a starter overload protection, but the biggest ranges available are provided via solid state overloads. Solid state overloads typically provide about a 5:1 amperage adjustment (from 1A to 5A, or 4.4A to 22A in two typical sizes). This essentially allows a single overload device to protect any motor that would reasonably be started by a given contactor, meaning that starters equipped with solid state overloads will always have the right overload protection for the motor they are starting. And solid state overloads add phase loss protection, giving your equipment even better security.

Cerus has standardized on solid state overloads for their HVAC starter line, to greatly simplify the process of selecting the correct starter and to avoid last-minute trips to the electrical supply house to get the right overload protection.


Communications

Almost all available starters use 120v relays to communicate with building controls. However, almost all available building operating systems use 24v power for their signals. This means that in order to provide a control signal to the starter from the BAS, interposing relays are required to convert the 24v signal to a 120v signal. These relays are usually field wired, and therefore add complexity and field labor costs to the installation of motor starters.

Cerus has greatly simplified the interface between the BAS and their starters.


All of their standard starters have a terminal strip that can accept a 120vac, 24vac or 24vdc signal directly. The terminal is self-calibrating, and will adjust to whatever signal is provided automatically, greatly simplifying field wiring. In addition, this terminal strip has a terminal that will accept a dry contact, if that is the preferred method of control.

But even greater communication flexibility is provided in Cerus' new line of BACnet enabled starters. Integrating BACnet allows direct communication with the BAS system via a single network connection. The BAS system can provide start/stop signals, interlocked damper control, receive proof of flow via current sensing, monitor the runtime and HOA position remotely, detect phase failure or phase loss, and enact fireman's overrides or emergency shutdowns. These starters provide unequaled ease of use and troubleshooting capabilities and require the absolute minimum in field labor to accomplish this.

BACnet points matrix


Simplified Interlocks

Many fan systems have control dampers that are intended to close when the fan is not operating. These dampers can serve to isolate a single fan in a multiple fan array, or may serve to prevent undesired airflow when the fan is not operating. However, these sorts of systems present a problem--The damper must be opened before the fan is turned on in order to prevent overpressurization of the ductwork. This is typically is handled by the BAS sending a signal to open the damper, having and endswitch on the damper send a signal back to the BAS to indicate that it is open, and then having the BAS send a signal to start the fan. This requires three control points on a BAS controller. Often, these control points are limited, and may or may not be available without a significant cost impact. Cerus has again simplified things by providing for a direct interlock between the fan motor and damper. In this system, the BAS sends a signal to start the fan, then the starter sends a signal to the damper and waits for a confirming end-switch signal before it will initiate the fan. This eliminates two control points from the BAS and greatly simplifies this critical interlock.



Additionally, the control terminal strip for the Cerus BAS starter has dedicated contacts for emergency shutdown and fireman's override.

And More to Come

Cerus is quickly adding functionality to their BAS starter line and upcoming features will include revenue-grade power metering and automatically calibrating motor overload protection.

Smarter starters use today's technology to reduce installation costs, minimize field problems and simplify troubleshooting.

Cerus BAS motor starter specification
Cerus BACnet motor starter specification

Seismic/Hurricane Certification for Air Handlers

When the IBC was adopted by Washington State, it brought in some new requirements in air handler construction and certification. These new rules required that for some projects, non-structural building components had to be shown to withstand, and in some cases operate after, a catastrophic seismic event. The intent of these rules was to provide critical facilities (first responders, hospitals, etc.) with systems that would likely survive an earthquake that would cause widespread damage elsewhere.

Likewise, Dade County Florida has created requirements for hurricane resistance for various building components, including rooftop Air Handlers. Rooftop Air Handlers must pass a rigorous series of tests to show compliance, including pressurizing a test section of the cabinet to over 30" of static and firing a 2x4 at the cabinet to simulate hurricane-blown debris!

Climate Craft has been a leader in the industry in showing compliance with both of these standards. They were one of the first manufacturers to show compliance with the Dade County requirements, as these videos from the testing attest:

Missile Testing

Cyclic Pressure Testing
Pressures up to 30" wg cause deformations of the cabinet well-beyond normal operation

Showing compliance to the IBC seismic regulations is a bit more complicated, since the code does not accept testing on a sample unit, and each individual air handler must show compliance as constructed. This means that the designer must take into consideration the site's seismic hazard, the soil conditions at the site, the unit's location within the building and the unit design itself before a determination can be made whether or not the air handler meets the code. Climate Craft has published a white paper discussing the complexities of this process:



In both cases, Climate Craft benefits greatly from its industry-leading cabinet design with doubly-reinforced standing seam joints:



Climate Craft's superior cabinet design ensures a superior performance on site.

For Your Inner Math Geek

I offer no apologies.

Added Conversion Tables to Blog

I've added a bunch of conversion tables like the one below to the blog.

They are all located right here.

POWER CONVERSIONS

From:	To:
watt [W]kilowatt [kW]horsepower [hp]horsepower (boiler)horsepower (electric)horsepower (water)Btu (th)/hourMBHton (refrigeration)volt ampere [V*A]	watt [W]kilowatt [kW]horsepower [hp]horsepower (boiler)horsepower (electric)horsepower (water)Btu (th)/hourMBHton (refrigeration)volt ampere [V*A]
Result:
power conversion factors provided by unitconversion.org

Direct Drive, Evolved

Previous articles on this site have discussed the advantages of direct-drive plug fans and the technical tricks required to apply them correctly. However, despite their many advantages, there are times that direct-drive fans just haven't made sense.

In large part, this is because direct-drive fans have been applied as if they were belt-drive fans. It turns out, however, that there is a better way to apply these fans.











See, the problem with direct-drive is that due to the peculiarities of motor performance (discussed in the links above) you usually want to select your fan at a design speed very close to a synchronous motor speed (900, 1200, 1800 rpm, nominally). This limitation can be made up for by varying the width of the fan wheel, but this can cause an unacceptable decrease in static efficiency, or an unacceptable increase in fan noise. Or it can lead to the use of an oversized, less readily available low-rpm motor.

Another strategy is to consider selections of multiple fans, which opens up more design possibilities. However, in standard HVAC designs, this option has practical limits in the number of fans that can be arranged in a cabinet. In the traditional belt-drive paradigm, one or two large fans are mounted on the air handler floor. In unusual situations, three or more fans can be arranged this way, but this requires unusual cabinet geometries that are not often appropriate. This limits the number of direct-drive solutions that can be brought to bear, limitations that are not present with the infinitely-variable fan speeds that are available with belt-drive equipment.

But with a deceptively simple re-thinking of a traditional fan mounting, it becomes possible to stack fans one above another in an air handler cabinet--and suddenly a whole new universe of design solutions present themselves.

It is this evolved fan mounting that is the basis of the ClimateCraft Matrix system.

Matrix is an array of direct-drive plug fans designed to allow maximum flexibility in the selection of fan performance to maximize the benefits of direct drive without the traditional tradeoffs that used to be required. Five fan wheels between 16 and 27 inches are available, with motor sizes between 3 and 30 hp. The fan wheels are AMCA-certified welded aluminum wheels. The wheels are ‘modified class II’ to cover up to 11” static, or class III for higher pressures. The motors are premium efficiency, VFD compatible, 1600V insulation, ODP or TEFC—off the shelf replaceable.

An obvious temptation when mounting multiple, small fans is to avoid the costs associated with isolation and to mount them rigidly to the air handler itself. This simplistic approach, however, can result in repercussions downstream. In fact, the ASHRAE Applications handbook, chapter 47 recommends spring isolators on fans operating above 500 rpm with brake HP below 40. The issue isn’t so much transmitted vibrations, although that certainly can be a problem, but instead bearing life. Strong vibrations can kill bearings, and when the fan bearing is also a motor bearing as is the case in direct-drive plug fans, a bearing failure can be awfully expensive. Climate Craft avoids this problem by isolating every fan from the air handler structure with a unique three-point, seismically-restrained spring isolation system to prevent developing harmonics and creating damaging vibrations. But they have taken the effort even further and used a finite-element analysis to ensure that no harmonic frequencies exist in their fan base anywhere in the operating RPM of their fan systems. This step essentially converts every individual fan base into an inertia base.

This measure ensures that no VFD frequency lock-outs are needed to prevent violent vibration at the fan—a step that is often overlooked in commissioning and can cause unacceptable rates of motor failure. The unique isolator design has the added benefit of preventing the fan base from contacting the seismic restraints and causing a short-circuiting of the fan vibration directly to the frame of the unit and thus the building. This sort of grounding out of the seismic isolation is common on variable airflow systems where the fan thrust changes depending on the fan speed required at any given service point.

The Matrix allows fans to be stacked in towers 1, 2 or three high inside an air handler cabinet. Multiple towers can be installed across the air handler air tunnel. Since the fan wheels are much smaller than typical for the air handler size, many such towers can fit horizontally where only one or two typically sized fans could fit before. These fan towers are designed so that only two different designs are required to support all five different fan wheels and any required motor frame. This greatly aids in construction, making this approach a very cost competitive approach to fan mounting. The towers also serve as a rigid support truss for the fan inlet wall to support the interior of the unit at a location where the pressure differences are often quite high.

Operator Benefits

This sort of a change in fan concept represents a significant advantage for the operator of these systems. This system enhances the air handler’s reliability and serviceability. Redundancy is almost total, since in multiple-fan arrays, the loss of a single fan can often be overcome by the remaining fans simply by ramping up the RPM slightly. Replacement of a failed motor is also much easier. First of all, Matrix uses off-the shelf motor sizes that are easily obtainable on short notice. So simply getting a replacement is easier. Additionally, a typical Matrix motor and wheel assembly might weigh 150 lbs and be easily maneuvered into place by a couple of men, while a typical large fan motor may weigh 1500 lbs or more, and require special rigging to get into place. This may require a significant facility shutdown or even crane work in some cases.


Additionally, the multiple fan array allows shorter air handlers, making a more efficient use of valuable facility square footage. The smaller, faster fans also shift the acoustical signature of the system into higher octave bands, making sound attenuation easier and less expensive.

And a maintenance person will never have to tighten or align a belt on a Matrix system.

Matrix is the next evolution in fan system design.

Labs 21 Highlights Benefits of Low Pressure Lab Ventilation Design

Labs21 is the leading organization focusing on low-energy, sustainable laboratory design. Cosponsored by the EPA and the DOE, Labs21 has their sights set on these highly energy-intensive buildings and strives to find technically sound solutions to minimize the energy impact of these facilities without sacrificing their mission.

And Labs21 has set their sights on pressure drop.



Their document, Low Pressure Drop HVAC Design for Laboratories, identifies huge opportunities for savings by paying attention to this design criteria. They feel that 30-65% of the laboratory HVAC energy use could be saved by designing low pressure drop into these systems.

Tek-Air's inherently low-pressure drop air-valves can be an integral part of a low-pressure lab HVAC design, and one of the few identified that is essentially cost-neutral.

'Green' is where the lab market is going. Labs21 can help point your way there.

Aaon Helps Project Achieve LEED Platinum

Signature Center, in Golden Colorado, recently received a LEED™ Platinum rating. This ambitious goal was realized with inspired design, and wise choice of mechanical systems.

The design featured:

• Underfloor Air Distribution
• Chilled Beams
• Evaporatively Cooled Chillers with Variable Speed Pumping
• Evaporatively Cooled Rooftop DX Air Handlers
• Non-CFC R-410a Refrigerant
  

Aaon made a natural choice because of their commitment to efficient packaged equipment. This project utilized a packaged LL Chiller Plant as well as a penthouse-type RL air handler. Both units utilized Aaon's unique, water-saving evaporative condensing system. Major project savings were achieved not just in energy, but in this other increasingly scare resource.

Not only did this project reach LEED™ Platinum--It also received the 2007 top award in the institutional building category from the Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES).

You can read more about this notable project in this Aaon case study.

'Greening' Lab Design

Laboratory fume hoods are energy intensive. In order to provide safety for their operator, they need to ensure a constant face velocity of air at the sash--air that must first be conditioned to keep the space temperature acceptable for comfort, moved via mechanical means to the lab, and then exhausted out of the building.

A common comparison used to highlight the energy costs of these systems is to compare the energy impact of a single fume hood with that of a typical US household. On average a single lab fume hood uses as much energy as three typical US houses. And when you consider that a given facility may have many lab hoods in a single laboratory space, you can see how these energy impacts quickly add up.


In order to minimize the wasted energy associated with these laboratories, high-precision VAV lab controls have been developed to ensure operator safety, and to only provide the minimum amount of air necessary--And great savings have been realized by this sort of measure. But the energy efficiency of these systems can be improved even more.

Once the airflow has been taken down to a minimum, the energy associated with conditioning that air has been greatly reduced. But the energy associated with moving that air still can be reduced further. ASHRAE 90.1 states:

ASHRAE Standard 90.1 - 6.5.3.2.3:
“For systems with direct digital control of individual zone boxes reporting to the central control panel, static pressure setpoint shall be reset based on the zone requiring the most pressure; i.e., the setpoint is reset lower until one zone damper is nearly wide open.”

This calls for static pressure reset for VAV systems to minimize fan energy--ensuring that only the minimum amount of static pressure is provided to move the air. And this strategy is perfectly applicable to laboratory VAV systems as well as commercial air conditioning--as long as the system components are selected appropriately.

Tek-Air has published a white paper entitled Demand Based Static Pressure Reset Control for Laboratories That explores the energy benefits of this type of control scheme.


This paper analyzes system component selection, including control valves and sensors and illustrates the impact of these decisions on the overall energy use of the VAV system. In an analysis of a 50,000 cfm exhaust system, the reduced static from a pressure reset strategy can result in nearly $9,000 per year savings in fan energy (based on 0.75" savings, and $0.06/kwh electric costs).

These sorts of static pressure savings are easily attainable with a wise selection of air valve components. The commonly specified venturi-type valve has a minimum operating pressure that prevents these savings from being realized, and this added pressure drop often creates objectionable noise, which requires even more pressure drop for the system in the form of sound attenuators. This pressure reset strategy requires valves that can operate accurately and safely at low pressures.

The Tek-Air PRD valve provides unmatched pressure performance, and a quick examination of a cross section of the valve shows why:


Each blade of the damper is a smooth airfoil, greatly reducing turbulence and keeping the pressure and acoustic profile of the valve to a minimum.

If pneumatic air is not available, Tek-Air's new Accuvalve provides very similar performance with the convenience of electronic actuation. (And it won an innovation award at the 2008 AHR expo!)



A peek at the cross section of this valve shows how it attains these low pressure drops:


The airfoil shape of the valve assembly assures minimal pressure drop and sound generation for great efficiency in the fan system.

Energy savings cannot come at the cost of safety, and it is imperative that systems utilizing this method of pressure reset have sensors that can operate accurately and effectively in a wide range of pressure regimes. Tek-Air uses vortex shedding flow sensor technology to ensure the most accurate and linear control on the market.

Energy conservation is only going to become a bigger and bigger issue for designers of all building systems, and fume hood systems are a large opportunity for savings. It is important that designers and owners consider all the impacts of their design decisions and their system selections.

(Don't forget about checking the fan for stability: See this article for a review on this issue.)

Rethinking Air-Cooled Chillers

Air Cooled Advantages

Air cooled chillers offer many advantages to owners and designers. The first, and perhaps most compelling for many jobs is lower installed cost. Lower installed costs (compared to water cooled chillers) are driven by the following advantages:

• No Cooling Tower, Tower pumps, Tower and Pump Starters
• No equipment room required for the chillers
• Mounted starters

They also are easier to maintain, since the systems are significantly simpler than water-cooled systems:

• No on site Systems Engineer required
• No water treatment or make up water required
• No leaks on the roof
• No cooling tower, condenser pumps, associated starters

Generally, however, these advantages have come with significant trade-offs: Efficiency and Sound performance.

However, the introduction of Variable Speed oil-free air-cooled chillers by Smardt changes the balance.


First off, the Smardt Chiller is efficient. With IPLV's as low as 0.65 kw/ton, these chillers rival water-cooled system when the parasitic loads of the condenser pumps and cooling tower are considered. These chillers gain their efficiencies both from the inherent efficiency of the Turbocor compressor and the elimination of oil return issues that prevent other air-cooled chillers from capitalizing on the reduced head pressures available at low ambients.

This means these chillers use about 60-65% energy of other air-cooled chillers for the same load, and can nearly eliminate the energy benefit typically provided by moving to water-cooled systems. When you consider the cost of water (nearly $15/1000 gallons in Seattle, including sewer charges) this means the yearly cost of operation of these units is unrivaled. And energy conservation rebates are extremely attractive for these chillers.

The other major traditional trade off with using air-cooled equipment is sound. Screw chillers especially are known for their unfavorable sound characteristics. In most municipalities, sound ordinances are driven by occupancy and time of day. The most stringent criteria must be met during evening hours, typically when the units are not at their peak load. However, with constant-speed systems, the compressor is either on or off. This means it is either putting out its full sound or none at all. At full speed, such compressors can often exceed the evening sound criteria--even if they are on only momentarily. And the staging between on and off can be objectionable in its own right, regardless of sound level.

The Smardt chiller minimizes the problems with compressor sound in two ways. First, the variable speed drive allows the compressor to ramp slowly up and down to match the required output, eliminating the objectionable switching between compressors that constant-speed chillers exhibit. And secondly, they are just extremely quiet to begin with. Since no moving mechanical part is in contact with the chiller casing, very little mechanical noise is transmitted. Ninety-ton Turbocor compressors have been tested at 72 dBa at one meter, compared to screw compressors that can be as high as 80 dBa or higher in the same test. Five of these compressors operating together yield a sound level of 75 dBa at 10’.

More Benefits

But efficiency and sound are not the only benefits from using the Turbocor technology on air-cooled chillers. Other, less obvious ones exist.

Turbocor compressors have only one moving part, yielding un-matched reliability.

Reliability is enhanced by the elimination of oil in the refrigerant system. And the frictionless bearing requires almost no maintenance.

Since Turbocor compressors are variable speed driven, they provide an inherent soft-start on the compressor. Instead of kicking the motor up to full speed when power is applied to the system, the VSD slowly ramps the compressor up to the required speed for the load sensed by the system. This reduces stress on the already greatly simplified system to reduce wear and tear on the components.

But this soft start has another, very important advantage over standard air-cooled chiler systems--the use of the VSD eliminates inrush amperage. When an electrical motor is at rest, there is very little inductive resistance to current flow through the windings. As the motor starts to turn, this inductive resistance increases with the increase in RPM. What this means is when power is applied across the line (or even with a reduced voltage starter) to a stopped motor, there is a spike of electrical current far greater in amplitude than the design amp draw of the motor:

(example graph of inrush on a well pump motor)

This temporary increased amp draw heats the motor beyond where it is designed to operate for extended periods. This forces the chiller designer to provided anti-recycle timers to prevent rapid re-starts that could fatally overheat the motor. In practice, this usually means constant speed compressors cannot be started more often than every half-hour or so.

Additionally, this increased amp draw has effects that need to be addressed electrically. This becomes even more significant if the chillers are being served by emergency power. The emergency generators that serve the chiller must be sized to handle the inrush amperage. This can be a very costly addition, especially since the added amperage is only required for the first 30 second of operation or so.

Generators = $$$

Turbocor compressors on the Smardt air-cooled chillers eliminate inrush and provides a soft-start. This both heightens reliability and reduces electrical costs. For jobs where reliability is a primary concern, like data centers, this technology makes a lot of sense. First, it eliminates the need for increased generator sizing, it is an inherently more reliable compressor, and it frees the cooling system from reliance on a water utility service that could be disrupted.

The Dark Side of Chiller oil

Most compressorized systems operate with oil mixed in with the refrigerant. This oil is required for lubrication of the shaft bearing and, in positive displacement compressors like scrolls or screws, it actually provides the seal that is necessary to effect the compression of the refrigerant. The oil is miscible with the refrigerant, and travels with it throughout the system to provide lubrication and compression sealing. That means the oil is everywhere the refrigerant is—Which can lead to several operation problems that need to be addressed in the design and operation of the system.

The first issue is oil transport. The oil travels with the refrigerant whenever the velocity of the refrigerant is high enough to carry the oil with it. This means that the system must be designed to ensure adequate velocities are met at all times. The biggest obstacle to refrigerant flow occurs, however, at the expansion device between the condenser and the evaporator. This is by design a big restriction on refrigerant flow—the greater the restriction, the greater the pressure drop across it and therefore the larger the temperature difference between condenser and evaporator. Its function is similar to that of a flow restrictor in a shower head or an orifice plate in a commercial piping system. Therefore, in order to ensure an adequate flow rate for oil transport between the condenser and evaporator, the pressure between these components must be kept above a minimum. If the pressure difference falls below this minimum, oil starts stacking up in the condenser and the machine will trip out on low oil pressure.

While there are methods that can be used to minimize this problem, such as oil pumps and eductors that siphon the accumulated oil out of the condenser, these are usually only provided on larger tonnage centrifugal machines, and even then there is a practical limit to the operating environment the compressor is designed for. In practice, head pressure control is used where low condensing temperatures are expected, such as fan cycling on air-cooled condensers or bypass lines on water cooled compressors. And even then, oil transport problems are a major cause of chiller downtime, especially in cool climates.

These head-pressure control mechanisms ensure a minimum condensing pressure to assure oil transport—which is good, because this ensures trouble-free operation. But it does this at the cost of energy efficiency.

See, a compressor is very similar to a pump. The total mass flow of refrigerant can be thought of as analogous to the flow rate of the pump and the pressure difference between the evaporator and condenser is analogous to the static head of the pump. In order to reduce energy use on a pump, you can either reduce the flow rate through the pump, or you can reduce the static head. In a chiller system you have the same options, but remember that the refrigerant mass flow rate is what determines the cooling capacity of the chiller. If you want to reduce energy use, but still provide the same cooling capacity, your only option is to reduce condenser pressure. One of the great advantages of using the ambient air as a heat sink is that for over 99% of the year, you have access to air temperatures (wet bulb or dry bulb, depending on the heat rejection of the system) below your design condition. This is why part load ratings on chillers are so much better than peak load ratings.


Head pressure controls, however, artificially limit how low this head pressure can go. Just when you are really getting efficient, the system kicks in a mechanism to keep your system from getting any more efficient! Without the need to maintain oil flow, a compressor can take full advantage of the available head pressure relief and operate extremely efficiently.

The second major issue with oil in your system is that it actually inhibits heat transfer, reducing the overall efficiency of the refrigeration system. In fact, a nominal 3.5% charge of oil in a chiller system equates to about an 8% loss of efficiency from this insulating effect (from ASHRAE 601).


And this only gets worse with time. An ARI study found that this insulating effect increases for the first 5-6 years of operation reducing chiller efficiency by about 20% due to oil fouling of the heat transfer surfaces in the chiller.

These numbers assume a constant oil charge—which is a big assumption. In practice, chiller oil charges often exceed the recommended oil charge by very significant amounts—since a common method of correcting a ‘low oil pressure’ alarm is to add more oil—despite the fact that the usual cause of this alarm is the stacking of refrigerant in the condenser, not any loss of oil in the machine. The same ASHRAE study above sampled many machines in the field and found that the average charge of oil was nearly 13% which equates to a total efficiency loss of 21%!

The last major issue with oil in the compressor is the chance of motor burnout. If a refrigerant system experiences a small leak in a low pressure location, moisture and air can enter the refrigerant system. Enough moist air can react with the refrigerant and oil to form hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids which then travel through the system to the motor windings and eat away the insulation, eventually causing massive arcing and a catastrophic failure of the compressor motor. This acidic residue will be deposited throughout they system, requiring extensive flushing of the chiller shells before the system can safely be brought back on line. This is not only very expensive, but amounts to a very long downtime in what may be a critical building component.


Developed in Australia in the mid-90’s, the Turbocor™ compressor was born out of a desire to avoid the energy penalty and maintenance headaches associated with oil in the refrigerant circuit of traditional compressorized cooling systems.


These centrifugal compressors utilize a unique magnetic bearing to completely avoid the need for oil in the refrigerant system. These systems require very little maintenance and provide excellent efficiency both initially and many years down the road.

Smardt manufacturers water-cooled and air-cooled chillers exclusively utilizing these innovative compressors. These chillers avoid all of the drawbacks of oil, and eliminate much of the cost of ownership that is commonly associated with chiller systems. Since the bearings do not wear, traditional scheduled stop-major chiller teardowns are unnecessary, and all of the downtime and cost associated with oil (around 50% of the maintenance cost on these systems) are avoided. Smardt chillers provide an owner with excellent efficiency, reliability and economy.