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control thermal zone temperture by air flow rather than chilled water flow

asked 2025-05-03 19:59:24 -0500

mattkoch's avatar

updated 2025-05-05 08:40:11 -0500

My client has district chilled water supporting air handling units with chilled water coils, hot water preheat coils and variable speed fans. These air handling units in turn support multiple variable air volume terminal units with hot water reheat coils. We are trying to estimate the effect of cooling and heating point adjustments on electricity demand, e.g. cooling from 72 to 73 to 74 F and heating from 70 to 69 to 68 F. The setpoint managers on the air handling units use Warmest between 55 F and 60 F.

We noticed that in these runs, the fan flow rates do not change much, and instead the chilled water flow rates decrease. Since the chilled water comes from district cooling, it has no effect on our electricity demand (other than the pump with minor impact), while the fans obviously would, as they are large. So, we would like the fan flow rates (and power) to decrease before the chilled water flow rates decrease. Can that be accomplished in Openstudio/EnergyPlus? Thank you.

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answered 2025-05-04 04:19:03 -0500

Keigo's avatar

District chilled water tariff is normally charged not based on the flow rate but based on the energy used. The cooling energy that the district chiled water provides is modulated to meet the cooling load. I don't think the chilled water flow rate matters, but if you don't want to reduce the flow rate, you can use a constant-speed pump for DCS rather than a variable-speed pump. The district chilled water flow rate will be constant at the max flow, and the delta T of the district chilled water will decrease. The on-site chilled water pump should be modelled as per design.

If you want to reduce the fan flow rate, I recommend reviewing your supply air temperature control. Note that Warmest i.e. SAT reset control increases the fan flow rate. The intention of SAT reset control is 1) to avoid overcooling and/or 2) to allow high chilled water temperature which results in higher chiller COP, but now your model uses DCS with a constant supply water temperature. Everything should be considered comprehensively for energy optimisation, but if you just want to minimise the fan flow rate, the supply air temperature setpoint should be fixed.

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Thank you, Keigo. This is a LEED project, following ASHRAE 90.1-2010 Appendix G - the chilled water side is based on that. For demand reduction, we need to work with electricity, as working with chilled water, as you effectively state, is pointless for demand. In that context, I came across SetpointManager:WarmestTemperatureFlow last night after posting my question. Initial runs seem to suggest that the fan flow rate throughout the year modulates a little more, but I need to do more research.

mattkoch's avatar mattkoch  ( 2025-05-04 12:07:21 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2025-05-03 19:59:24 -0500

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Last updated: May 04