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Underheated VAV with No reheat

asked 2015-10-26 20:17:35 -0500

DanielLu's avatar

I am currently investigating the potential savings of using a small scale VAV system for single family homes. The intent is to compare two models:

  • The baseline model uses central heating and cooling and supplies air at constant volume. The HVAC system is controlled by a single thermostat.
  • The proposed model uses the same heating and cooling systems, but supplies varying amounts of air to the spaces based on individual thermostats placed in each room. For this reason, the model is multizonal, even though it's a single family home. No terminal units are used for reheating before air enters the individual spaces.

I am using eQuest to compare the two scenarios but am already having trouble with unmet load hours for the baseline model. My current set up on the Air Side is a single VAV system serving multiple zones. The VAV system uses a chilled water loop for cooling and a boiler for heating. Zone heat source is not installed because no terminal reheating is provided. The baseline model is underheated for around 5000 hours. I am letting eQuest autosize the heating capacity, but it sizes to 0. Looking at other threads, I've tried setting the hot deck temperature to 65 but the heating capacity is still 0. I’ve also increased the throttling range to 6 degrees but this only reduces a small amount of the underheated hours.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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answered 2015-10-27 06:48:11 -0500

Chris Jones's avatar

updated 2015-10-27 06:49:32 -0500

Sometimes it helps to set COOL-CONTROL = WARMEST and HEAT-CONTROL = COLDEST. I find the VAVS system in eQuest quite hard control for meeting heating loads when there is no reheat or baseboards in the zones.

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Also check the minimum flows.

Rohini's avatar Rohini  ( 2015-10-27 07:47:41 -0500 )edit

This is a good idea. Even if the system has a properly sized heating capacity, a VAV system tends to be controlled with a constant central supply temperature with zone terminals increasing the flow under cooling and adding reheat under heating. If the supply temperature is constant and there is no zone heat it will be very hard to avoid unmet heating hours as some zones will be perpetually overcooled.

Daniel's avatar Daniel  ( 2015-10-27 16:12:27 -0500 )edit
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answered 2015-10-27 16:09:51 -0500

updated 2015-11-09 11:27:09 -0500

If the autosizing is not working it might be worth manually setting the heating capacity for the main VAV system. You might be able to pull the peak heating load for the system from the SS-J report in the .SIM file. This file can be accessed by going to the menubar > Tools > View Simulation Output. Once you have the peak heating load you could try sizing the heating capacity with whatever oversizing factor you are comfortable with.

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answered 2015-11-23 05:23:30 -0500

Akshay's avatar

if your controls are all Ok, do check your building envelope and infiltration parameters. I recently debugged a model with unwanted heating by correcting these...

another choice is adjusting your REHEAT DELTA T.

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Asked: 2015-10-26 20:02:11 -0500

Seen: 1,002 times

Last updated: Nov 09 '15