Development of a Hydronic Rooftop Unit-HyPak-MA

Lee, Eric ; Berman, Mark

关键词: AIR QUALITY;    CLIMATES;    COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS;    COMMERCIALIZATION;    COMPUTERS;    COOLING LOAD;    DESIGN;    ELECTRICITY;    ENERGY CONSUMPTION;    FABRICATION;    FILTRATION;    HEAT EXCHANGERS;    INDOORS;    MODULATION;    OCCUPANTS;    RELIABILITY;    TARGETS;    TESTING;    VENTILATION;   

DOI  :  10.2172/993476
RP-ID  :  None
PID  :  OSTI ID: 993476
Others  :  TRN: US201024%%56

学科分类：能源（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The majority of U.S. commercial floor space is cooled by rooftop HVAC units (RTUs). RTU popularity derives chiefly from their low initial cost and relative ease of service access without disturbing building occupants. Unfortunately, current RTUs are inherently inefficient due to a combination of characteristics that unnecessarily increase cooling loads and energy use. 36% percent of annual U.S. energy, and two-thirds of electricity, is consumed in and by buildings. Commercial buildings consume approximately 4.2 quads of energy each year at a cost of $230 billion per year, with HVAC equipment consuming 1.2 quads of electricity. More than half of all U.S. commercial floor space is cooled by packaged HVAC units, most of which are rooftop units (RTUs). Inefficient RTUs create an estimated 3.5% of U.S. CO{sub 2} emissions, thus contributing significantly to global warming5. Also, RTUs often fail to maintain adequate ventilation air and air filtration, reducing indoor air quality. This is the second HyPak project to be supported by DOE through NETL. The prior project, referred to as HyPak-1 in this report, had two rounds of prototype fabrication and testing as well as computer modeling and market research. The HyPak-1 prototypes demonstrated the high performance capabilities of the HyPak concept, but made it clear that further development was required to reduce heat exchanger cost and improve system reliability before HyPak commercialization can commence. The HyPak-1 prototypes were limited to about 25% ventilation air fraction, limiting performance and marketability. The current project is intended to develop a 'mixed-air' product that is capable of full 0-100% modulation in ventilation air fraction, hence it was referred to as HyPak-MA in the proposal. (For simplicity, the -MA has been dropped when referencing the current project.) The objective of the HyPak Project is to design, develop and test a hydronic RTU that provides a quantum improvement over conventional RTU performance. Our proposal targeted 60% and 50% reduction in electrical energy use by the HyPak RTU for dry and humid climates, respectively, when compared with a conventional unit, and reduction in peak energy consumption of 50% and 33% respectively. In addition to performance targets, our goal is to develop a production-ready design with durability, reliability and maintainability similar to air-cooled packaged equipment, and that can be commercialized immediately following the conclusion of this project.