A S H RA E

JOURNAL

The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, February 1997. Copyright 1997 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers,
Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

Figure 1:
Graph shows
the unit was
running during unoccupied periods
on Wednesday, Saturday and the
second Monday (Monday
2).

HVAC System Trend Analysis

By Stephen B. Austin, P.E.
Member ASHRAE

VAC System Trend Analysis is

essential to ensuring proper performance of an air handling system. You
cant tell exactly what is going on by
watching a units instantaneous operation. You need to see the simultaneous
interaction of all the components in the
system. And you need to see this interaction over an extended period of time
under a variety of conditions.
Have you verified that your HVAC
system is operating as efficiently as it
was designed?
Is the system providing the savings
it was justified on?
Could some of your hardware be defective?
Have devices been misapplied?
Could the current sequence of operation be reducing equipment life?
We thought the plant air handling
units were operating reasonably well. In
fact, we watched the systems graphical
interface and everything looked fine. We
44

ASHRAE Journal

spent a lot of time and effort in calibrating devices and performing preventive
maintenance on equipment. However,
when we began to systematically collect
and analyze trend data, we were surprised by what we found.
While most engineers will agree with
the concept, the authors experience is
that few people actually perform comprehensive, systematic HVAC System
Trend Analysis. This article is intended
to emphasize the considerable benefits
of expending the necessary effort. The
following discussion is a summary of the
surprises we uncovered and other useful
information including:
How to setup a trend;
How to analyze a trend;
What types of problems are typically encountered; and
What can be done to correct some of
these problems.
Background
The plant air handling system consists of over 100 air handling units of
various capacities and arrangements.
They provide conditioned air for a large
pharmaceutical and chemical manufac-

turing facility. A Direct Digital Control /

Energy Management System (DDC/
EMS) provides individual unit control
and system time-event programs. Typical DDC/EMS control functions are
shown in Table 1.
Whats Wrong With This Picture?
Figure 1 is an example of an actual
HVAC System Trend Analysis. This
See Austin
Continued on page 46

About the Author

Stephen B. Austin, P.E., is a principle
project engineer with Glaxo Wellcome,
Inc. in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He
has more than 15 years of experience in
energy, automation and utilities. He has
a masters degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University, and is a registered Professional
Engineer in North and South Carolina.
He is a member of ASHRAE and the
International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE).
February, 1997

Advertisement in the print

edition formerly in this space.

February, 1997

ASHRAE Journal

45

Austin
Continued from page 44

sample air handling unit is a single zone

unit with supply and return air fans; a set
of interlocked dampers for outside
return, and mixed air; and chilled water
and reheat coils. The unit uses the DDC/
EMS control strategies shown in Table 1.
Why Is This Unit On At Night?

Figure 1 shows that on Wednesday,

Saturday and the second Monday mornings the unit was running during unoccupied periods. Night Cycle cooling mode
is supposed to keep the air handler off
during these periods unless the space
temperature reaches 82F (31C). The
space temperature had only reached
77F (25C) but the unit was on and
maintaining 68F (20C). What is going
on?
In this case, Night Purge started the
unit to pre-cool the space before occupancy. Night Purge will use outside air to
pre-cool the space if all the Night Purge
criteria are satisfied. (See Table 1). Since
all five Night Purge criteria were satisfied, the fan started and the outdoor air
dampers went to 100% open. If any one
of these conditions had failed, the unit
would have stopped.
That explains why the air handler was
running during an unoccupied period,
but...
Why Is This Unit Short Cycling?

Figure 1 shows short cycling of the

fan and economizer before the occupied
periods on Wednesday, Saturday, and the
second Monday mornings. The unit
stopped and started on average every 16
minutes during these periods.
Two things caused this to happen.
First, the unit would stop during Night
Purge when the space temperature
dropped just below the Night Purge setpoint of 68F (20C). When the temperature increased slightly, the unit would
restart. This is shown on Wednesday and
the second Monday. The unit cycled to
maintain 68F space temperature.
Second, after Night Purge satisfied its
five criteria, the unit started. If any of
these conditions had failed, the unit
would stop. That is what happened on
Saturday morning. Before the space
temperature reached 68F, the outdoor
air increased to within 10F (6C) of the
46

ASHRAE Journal

Table 1: Typical DDC / Ems Control Functions

Discharge Air Temperature Reset - The discharge air temperature is reset from
55F to 65F (12.8C to 18C) as the space temperature decreases from 74F to
70F (23C to 21C).
Return Air Humidity Control - The chilled water coil is modulated as required to
keep the return air humidity below 62%. Reheat is used to prevent over-cooling the
space.
Economizer Cycle - An economizer routine (enthalpy control) uses either outside
air or return air, whichever has a lower heat content. To keep the space from being
over cooled, economizer control will mix return air with outside air if necessary. A
minimum ventilation rate of 10% outside air is used during occupancy.
Night Cycle - Night Cycle shuts off an air handling unit during unoccupied periods
if the space) and 82F (28C). The sample unit has an unoccupied period of 5 p.m.
to 5:30 a.m.
Night Purge - Night purge pre-cools the space with outside air during Night Cycle
to reduce the amount of mechanical cooling required to cool the space during
startup. The Night Purge criteria are:
1. Less than six hours before occupancy
2. Outdoor air temperature is above summer-winter switchover point
(50F or 10C)
3. Outdoor air dewpoint is less than 50F (10C)
4. Space temperature is at least 65F (18C)
5. Space temperature is at least 10F (6C) above outdoor air temperature
Optimum Stop - Optimum Stops the air handling unit as much as an hour before
the end of an occupied period if the program predicts the space will maintain conditions through occupancy.
Optimum Start - Optimum Start starts the unit prior to occupancy, but no earlier
than necessary, to have the space conditions satisfied at occupancy.

space temperature, Night Purge criteria

#5. The unit stopped. Within a few minutes, the space temperature increased so
the conditions for Night Purge were satisfied again.
These cycles repeated over and over.
Not only did this cost energy compared
to a more stable operation, but more
importantly, it put a great deal of unnecessary stress on belts and motors.
The problem was a result of no deadband on the Night Purge criteria or temperature setpoint. We solved the
excessive cycling by programming a
minimum off-time of 23 minutes and a
minimum on-time of 7 minutes for all
our units. This is consistent with the
motor manufacturers recommendation
for the minimum time between starts.
Now the units wont short cycle regardless of temperature or conditions.
We noticed from other trends the same
short cycling occurred when a unit was in
Night Cycle. The minimum on- and offtimes for the fans corrected these shortcycling situations.

Why Is The Economizer Cycling?

Figure 2 shows the economizer operation in action on Tuesday. The space

temperature was above its cooling setpoint, 74F (23C). Cooling was
required. The economizer routine evaluated whether return air or outside air had
lower heat content. From startup until
11:20 a.m., outside air had a higher heat
content so the economizer held the outdoor air dampers in their minimum position, 10%. The chilled water valve
modulated to maintain space conditions.
At 11:20 a.m. the outdoor air enthalpy
dropped below the return air enthalpy so
the economizer went full open. Chilled
water was still required, but not as much
if return air had been used. Shortly afterward, the outdoor air conditions changed
slightly and return air became more economical to use.
During the next six hours the economizer routine was bouncing back and
forth between return air and outside air.
See Austin
Continued on page 48
February, 1997

Advertisement in the print

edition formerly in this space.

February, 1997

ASHRAE Journal

47

Austin
Continued from page 46

This situation can vary the air balance

between different air handling units and
cause temporary fluctuations in room
pressures. The variance is caused by the
differences in the pressure losses of the
return and exhaust ducts.
The economizer short cycling
occurred because there was no deadband
on the enthalpy calculation. We remedied this by adding a make-and-break
point for switchover. The program will
not switch the primary air stream until
the secondary air stream is one Btu per
pound lower. This prevents the economizer from short cycling.
As an additional check, we verified
the units proper economizer and chilled
water valve operation. The chilled water
valve should be closed unless the economizer is at minimum or maximum position. The trend data confirmed that the
routine was operating as it was intended.

Figure 2: Graph shows the economizer short-cycling on Tuesday because there

was no deadband on the enthalpy calculation.

Where Did That Blip Come From?

Figure 3 shows on Wednesday the unit

stopped at 4 p.m., one hour before the 5
p.m. scheduled unoccupied period. The
fan stopped and the economizer went to
the closed position. The unit shut down
because the Optimum Stop routine
determined, based on history, that the
space would not exceed its occupied
cooling setpoint for the rest of the occupied period. However, the unit restarted
at 4:05 p.m. and stayed on until 5 p.m., Figure 3: The unit stopped Wednesday at 4 p.m., one hour before the scheduled
the beginning of the unoccupied period. unoccupied period, and then restarted due to an internal clock reset.
Optimum Stop stopped the unit as it was
supposed to, but the unit restarted within
a few minutes. Why?
As it turns out, the master clock was
resetting the individual controllers
clocks periodically. Due to the amount
of communication bus traffic, the master
clock and the controller clocks would get
slightly out of synch. After a controllers
internal clock was reset, it looked at all
global commands and followed a command priority. Because the unit was
technically in Occupied Mode (the highest priority), it overrode the Optimum
Stop command. The unit was commanded back on when the clock reset.
This might not seem like a huge waste
of energy but it did keep the units on Figure 4: On Friday at 12:30 a.m. the outside air temperature increased abruptlonger than necessary. The problem was ly from 31F (-.55C) to 55F (12.7C). At 6 a.m. it dropped back to 33F (.55C).
48

ASHRAE Journal

February, 1997

Advertisement in the print

edition formerly in this space.

Figure 5: How to perform a typical HVAC trend analysis.

corrected by adjusting the priority of the Optimum Stop command so the program would not override it with an Occupied
Mode command.
Can Weather Change That Fast?

Figure 4 shows on Friday morning the outside air temperature increased abruptly at 12:30 a.m. from 31F to 55F (-.55C
to 12.8C). It stayed constant for several hours and then at 6
a.m. it dropped back to 33F (.55C). Something similar occurs
the following day at the same time. What caused the outdoor
temperature to change so quickly?
The problem was that the outdoor air sensor for this unit was
located in the outdoor air intake of another air handling unit.
That unit was off for Night Cycle from 12:30 a.m. to 6 a.m.
During this time the unit was not bringing in outside air across
the sensor. Warm room air was backing up into the outdoor air
intake and heating the sensor. When the unit started, outside air
was brought across the sensor and the true outdoor air temperature was measured. Due to sensor placement, anytime the unit
was off the reported reading was much higher than the true outdoor air temperature. The colder the outside air, the more dramatic the difference.
To make matters worse, this sensor provided an outdoor air
signal for several units. The problem caused all the units to stay
out of economizer operation when they should have been using
the economizer. Energy was wasted.
We corrected the situation by installing three temperature
and humidity sensors to serve the entire site. (If you use one
February, 1997

Advertisement in the print

edition formerly in this space.

49

sensor, you do not know when it is bad.

If you use two sensors, you know when
one is bad, but you do not know which
one). We located the sensors in shielded
boxes to give reliable temperature and
humidity readings. We compare the
readings, average the two closest, and
transmit the average to all controllers. If
the third reading is more than 10% different from the average, we generate a
calibration alarm for that device.
That Space Doesnt Require Much
Cooling Does It?

Figure 1 shows that on Wednesday

through Saturday the unit maintains
space conditions without chilled water
or outside air for cooling. (There was
some economizer control on Friday
afternoon). While at first this seems like
a good thing (no energy consumption),
on second thought you realize something must be wrong.
What we found is that the chilled water
valve was not closing completely and was
leaking. This amount of cooling was suf-

ficient to keep the space temperature

from reaching its maximum setpoint.
Reheat prevented the space from over
cooling. This prompted us to replace the
valve with an industrial type that sealed
properly under the system water pressure.
Applications

Figure 5 shows the steps in performing

a typical HVAC System Trend Analysis.
Consider using Trend Analysis as a
tool for preventive maintenance. As a
group of air handlers are undergoing
preventive maintenance, run a trend on
one of the units. This allows a method to
maintain ongoing, systematic trending.
Trend Analysis should be used to
commission new installations. This will
prevent future surprises. Include Trend
Analysis in the specifications for all new
project work.
Conclusion
Trend Analysis is a powerful tool for
HVAC troubleshooting. It can help:
Solve operating problems;

Advertisement in the print

edition formerly in this space.

50

ASHRAE Journal

Increase energy efficiency;

Locate defective hardware;
Identify out-of-calibration devices;
Improve occupant comfort; and
Extend equipment life.
It would be impossible to anticipate all
variables when developing and implementing a sequence of operation for an air
handling system. You must be able to see
the unit in action, and the interaction
between the different devices. You must
also be able to see the units operation
over a significant period of time and over
a wide range of conditions. HVAC Trend
Analysis can do all these things.

Please circle the appropriate number

on the Reader Service Card at the back
of the publication.
Extremely Helpful ........................ 458
Helpful ....................................... 459
Somewhat Helpful ....................... 460
Not Helpful................................. 461

Advertisement in the print

edition formerly in this space.

February, 1997