Supervisory and optimal control of building HVAC systems: a review.
INTRODUCTION The building automation system (BAS) is a tool that can be used for more effective and efficient management of building services systems (Carlson and Di Giandomenico 1991). One of the main achievable goals of effective use of BASs is to improve the building energy or cost...

Optimization of control hardware placement in a thermal-hydraulic network.
INTRODUCTION A significant amount of energy is consumed by high rises and building complexes in which HVAC systems do not perform optimally. Thermal-hydraulic networks play an essential role in distributed hydronic heating and cooling systems; hence, it is vital to understand and optimize their performance. Several optimization...

Evolutionary synthesis of HVAC system configurations: Algorithm development (RP-1049).
INTRODUCTION The capital cost, energy use, or life-cycle cost of a building can be minimized through the use of simulation-based numerical optimization in which a simulation is used to evaluate the performance of the building for each trial solution of the optimization. To date, the approach has...

Sustainable building systems require new design guidelines.
It is an exciting time to be an HVAC&R engineer or researcher because, at present, our society is highly motivated to make buildings energy efficient and environmentally friendly. This effort is different from the energy efficiency that was promoted as a result of the first energy crisis in the...

Lake-source district cooling systems.
Lake-source cooling (LSC), sometimes called deep lake water cooling (DLWC), uses cold lake water instead of chillers to provide cooling for large, multiple-building applications such as urban communities or college campuses. They typically extract cold lake water (from depths of 250 ft [76 m] or more) and circulate the...

Helping protect buildings against anthrax: ultraviolet C lights in HVAC systems. (Products and Services).
Steril-Aire, Inc., has announced that its germicidal ultraviolet C (UVC) light fixtures, which are designed to destroy harmful microbes circulating through HVAC systems, can help defend against the threat of infection from inhalation anthrax. A NIOSH study performed in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati found that...

Fan vibration specifications.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Engineers specifying allowable fan vibration levels are challenged to balance the need for lower initial equipment cost with the need for higher equipment reliability. This is especially important in critical applications. This article is a case study of a multiyear process that addressed the balancing...

Required and current thermal conditions for occupants in Iranian hospitals.
AIMS OF THE STUDY The aims of this study are as follows: 1. Determine the conditions required for thermal comfort by patients and staff of Iranian hospitals. 2. Investigate the current thermal comfort conditions being achieved in Iranian hospitals. 3. Suggest...

An improved method for determining heat transfer fin efficiencies for dehumidifying cooling coils (RP-1194).
INTRODUCTION Finned-tube heat exchangers are widely applied for cooling and dehumidifying moist air, and there is much literature related to modeling their steady-state performance. For instance, the 2000 ASHRAE Handbook-HVAC Systems and Equipment (ASHRAE 2000) and ARI Standard 410-2001: Forced-Circulation Air-Cooling and Air-Heating Coils (ARI 2001) present...

General methodology combining engineering optimization of primary HVAC & R plants with decision analysis methods--Part I: deterministic analysis.
This paper is the first of a two-part sequence that proposes a general methodology for dynamic scheduling and optimal control of complex primary HVAC & R plants, which combines engineering analyses within a practical decision analysis framework by modeling risk attitudes of the operator. The methodology involves a computationally...