Overview

Smart pressure-independent control valves offer the opportunity to save 20% of the cooling energy used in Minnesota commercial buildings with chilled water systems. While pressure-independent controls were introduced over a decade ago, there have been major improvements in their capabilities, most recently with the addition of smart controls. Smart valves offer a proven way to eliminate low delta-T syndrome (LDTS), a well-documented issue that persists because it is outside the scope of most large building energy efficiency projects.

As smart control valves are uncommon in Minnesota, this field project will address the lack of awareness and adoption by generating and disseminating quality field data and case studies demonstrating the energy, cost, and carbon savings impact of smart valves. 

 

Highlights

Objective

  • Determine the energy-saving potential of pressure-independent control valves with integrated energy measurement in chilled water HVAC systems in Minnesota commercial buildings.
  • Survey, characterize, and evaluate the field performance of smart valves and compare them to manufacturer claims.
  • Develop recommendations for best practices to achieve optimal savings in various smart valve applications, as well as parameters that can be used for Energy Conservation and Optimization programs and Technical Reference Manual measures. 

Scope

  • Perform a field-study of smart valve technology in Minnesota commercial buildings, where they are uncommon and not generally accepted by contractors and facility managers.
  • Monitor baseline energy use, oversee the implementation of smart valves, and measure post-installation energy use.
  • Leverage the data from the field-study to inform energy savings calculations and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the valves. 

Non-energy benefits

  • Reduce the number of components and maintenance requirements of the chilled water system.
  • More efficiently control building humidity due to colder supply air in air handlers.
  • Decrease the annual load on chillers, allowing for future increases in cooling load without the necessity of expanding the chiller plant. 

Funding  

This project was supported in whole by a grant from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Division of Energy Resources through the Conservation Applied Research and Development (CARD) program.