CAV Constant Air Volume HVAC System BasicsContents 1 2 3. 4 What is a CAV system? The CAV system.. CAY system operatioi Dual duct CAV system Page 1 of 7CAV Systems 1. What is a CAV system? CAV stands from Constant Air Volume. It’s a type of HVAC air distribution system used in buildings wher= the volume of air suppled is kept constant but the temperature of the air is varied. CAV Is an older design method; we stl find this used in existing buildings but it’s less commen in newer buildings because VAV systems are now the preferred choice of installation. VAV stands for variable air volume. This method provides superior zone contral and reduced energy consumption, Ce Are lea ees oral en VA tote a WAU ar ele rsa ea reyes sae eu aso ial Although Constant Air Volume systems are becoming less commonin newer buildings, you might:stil find them being installed in smeller buildings and that's because they're easier, quicker and cheaper to install. Although the intial installation costis lower, the running cost of the system will potentially be far higher than a VAV system, because CAV is less energy efficient. Page 2 of 72. The CAV system Here we have a simple model of a CAV system for a small office First of all, we have the main air handling unit in the mechanical room. Then we have the supply duct. The fresh ambient outdoor air is sucked into the AHU. it is ‘then filtered and heated up or cooled down within the ‘AKU and a fan pushes this out down the ductwork to be cistributed throughout the building. Coming off of the main supply duct are a number of branches. Each branch has a diffuser at the end, the diffuser has metal fins which are at an angle to direct the stream of alr and distribute it actoss the room. This airs then circulated around the room and pushes, the dirty used air into the return grille. Branches Diffuser The return grille is typically on the opposite side of the room, sometimes at floor level, sometimes at ceiling level. The placement of the return grille will impact the effectiveness and the efficiency of the ventilation system. Industry bodies such as ASHREA, CIBSE, BSRIA provide guidance on the design of such system The retum grille is connected to the main return duct. This again runs the length of the building and retums to the AHU. A separate return fan pulls the air in through the grille and brings this back to the AHU. This used air can then be rejected from the building, although some designs of AHU allow a portion of this, air to be recycled back into the supoly. This will reduce the energy consumption of the system. This does require some more — advanced controls to determine when conditions are right to recirculate the air, some local regulations do not always permit this system to be used. Page 3 of 73. CAY system operation CAV systems do have some limitations because their supply alr temperature Is varied but the volume, or flow rate, of air being supplied is kept constant. So, while the system is operating, it provides air at a consistent and constant volume and only the temperature of that air changes. Typically, the air is provided at around 13°C, or 55°F, but this can be adjusted to suit the needs of the building. Keep in mind that heating or cooing the air does consume a lot of energy and this increases the operating costs of the building. ‘As Lmentioned, the volume flow rate ofthe entire system and therefore each roomis kept constent. We have to celeulete how much air each room will receive during the design phase. That depends on the size of the room as well asthe purpose or what's happening inside each room. For example, a server room is going torequire much more cooling than a storage room. There are industry guides available which will tell youhow to calculate this. Each branch has a mechanical damper which is manually adjusted, and then locked in position, during commissioning to ensure the correct air flow rate, as per design ‘As an example, a small room might require just 3 cubic meters per second or 6,356 cubic feet per minute. Whereas a larger room might require, for exemple, 20 to 30 cubic meters or 42,377 to 63,566 cubic feet per second ‘The size of the ductwork, the damper and obviously the AHU fan will let us achieve that. ‘he total system flowrate depends on the size of the building. Perhaps a small building only requires a total air flow rate of 30 cubic meters per second or 63,566 cubic feet per minute. But it could be an old multi storey building with an enormaus AHU on the roof which is pushing air down through the entire building, that’s obviously going to be a vast amount of air moving. One of the main problems with the CAV system, is that everything connected to the AHU, and supply duct, is classed as one zone. That means all the rooms connected to it receive the same temperature air regardless of their heat load. Page 4 of 7For example, the large room, in our example, could be a busy meeting room in the middle of summer, so we have a very large cooling demand with all the solar thermal heat gain etc, But this room will receive the same temperature alr as the small room which might bea tiny office for one person, That's going to be very uncomfortable for that person This means the rooms are not receiving their reouired cooling demand, that means the system is very inefficient because we're generating a lot of cooling which is simply being wasted as the rooms might not reauire it. ‘The AHU fans would also run at 100% the entire time the system Is running. Although you could fit a Variable frequency drive to the fen motor and slightly reduce the flow rate for periods of low occupancy. Keepin mind this will impact how much fresh ar is entering each room. Fitting just 2 VED will not convert this into avarieble air volume system, we need alot more controls, vav terminals etc. Ittekes alot of time and money to convert a system but it can be done. It might not be economical to convert a system, it depends on the size of the building and the life span of both the equipment and the building. From this simplified schematical representation of the CAV system, you can see how its all connected. ‘The branch commissioning dampers have been omitted. Notice that all of the rooms are connected to the main duct, and the only form of temperature control isin the main AHU. That means all the rooms receive the same temperature air at a constant volume. As | mentioned earlier, some AHU’s have the ability to recirculate a portion of the air back into the supply steam, this wil save energy but we don’talways find this used or perhaps building regulations do not always allow this, [ACAY system would work very well if all of the rooms have a similar cooling demand, Say the building was underground or just had minimal solar heat geins, and each of ther ooms hed a consistent heat load inside them that didn’t very too much. Then e VAV system would be ideal. Although it is difficult to change the design if the purpose of the room is ever changed. We can adjust the branch demper but we will need to balance the system efter. Page Sof 7Sometimes we will havemultiple CAV systemsin a building, to give ussomezanecontrol. Each CAV system is providinga different temperature air to suit the zone. Apossible solution to thi, isto install terminal reheaters. These are usually found in the ceiling just before the diffuser on individual branches. These are typically electrically powered heaters although they could also be from a hot water system. These units will heat the local incoming air up to. higher temperature, tosuit theindividual room. But obviously thats very energy inefficient because the AHU is already cooling the air down in the main AHU which costs a lot of money. Then we're also paying to heat the air back up again atthe reheater unit. So, we're wasting energy and money on both cooling and heating. ‘Typically, the air temperature for this type of system Is supplied at the coldest temperature possible to satisfy the room with the largest cooling load, Page 6 of 74. Dual duct CAV system ‘You might come across dual duct CAV systems. It’s uncommon so see such systems these days but some older buildings still use them. With this system we have two ducts running along and supplying the rooms. el “tt TW mW cea Cea cay) One of these will be carrying cold air end the other will be cerrying warm air. The air streams are then mixed by some dempers to suit the individual room. The air is then collected inthe main return duct and sent back to the AHU to be either rejected to atmosphere orrecycled. This system does provide improved thermal control, compared to the standard single supply duct CAV system, but there is litte control of the humidity. Again, it's not energy efficient cither. As air is being supplied through two streams, there is high frictional losses in the ductwork which the fan is going to have tocovercome. There's also unnecessary heating and cooling of ai. If you find one of these systems and want to make it more energy efficient, then you should ensure that 2 temperature reset isenabled on the system. This will monitor the demand and reduce the het air stream ‘temperature to the lowest acceotable temperature, meanviile also increasing the cold air stream to the warmest acceptable temperature. That way we're minimising our heating and cooling energy demand and thus operating costs. Page 7 of 7VAV Variable Air Volume HVAC System BasicsContents 1 2. 3. 4. What isa VAV system?) 2 VAV Terminal 4 Fan assisted VAV terminal 7 VAV system operation... 8 Page | of 9VAV Systems 1. What is a VAV system? \VAV stands for variable air volume. Thisis a type of ventilation system which is commonly used in modern office buildings. The temperature of the supply airis keat constant, but the volume of air supplied to each zones varied. Veriable air volume systems are more energy efficient compared to the predecessor, the CAVor constant air volume system. VAY systems allow different areas, or zones, of a building to operate at different temperatures, from the same ventilation system. This is ideal because not every room in a building will experience the same heat load, For example, one side of a buildingis in the sun, while the other side isin the shade. One room might have just a few people with laptops which produces a small heat load, others may be filed with rows of server racks, each producing vast amounts of heat. With a VAV system we can individually control the emount of cooling, and possibly heating, into each of the zones, from the same main duct work and mein Air Handling Unit. In abasicoffice, we find the main Air Handling Unit (AHU) in the mechanical plant room. Then we have the supply duct which runs through the building and branches out into each of the rooms, this supplies the fresh treated air throughout the building. On the other side of the zone we have the return duct, which collects the dirty used air from the rooms and brings itback to the main AHU. Once the return air reaches the AHU, it can either be rejected from the building, or some designs of AHU's allowa portionof the return air to loop back into the supply stream, to save energy. This is only used when conditions areright and where local laws permit. In aVAV system, the air leaving the AHU and being distributed throughout the building, is being supplied at around 13°C degrees Celsius or 55°F degrees Fahrenheit. The supply fan, within the AHU, will push this air all the way through the ductwork, to the very end, The air then distributes into the rooms, or zones, by flowing through each of the branches. The air then flows through the diffusers and distributes across the room, Page 2 of 9‘Supply Diffuser Return Grille On the other side of the room, we have a return grille. This collects the dirty air and sends it back to the main AHU. Page 3 of 92. VAV Terminal The VAV terminal is one of the main differences between a VAV and CAV system. Each VAV terminal serves a certain zone. Within the zone we will ind ¢ thermostat, this is usually mounted on the wall with @ communication cable running from this, al the way back to the VAV terminal. The thermostat tells the vay terminal whether the temperature of the roomis too hot, too cold or just right. The VAV box looks something like this. There's an inlet, which is where the air enters from the branch and supply duct. ‘Then we have the main VAV housing, and then we have the exit where the air leaves and supplies the zone via the diffuser. Looking inside the VAV terminal, you can see it’s a fairly simple design. There's nothing too complex happening inside these. ay We have controller, which is mounted onto the actuator. The actuator controls and rotates the shaft. Connected to the shaft is the damper, which is basically just @ sheet of metal. The damper can modulate its position to cover or uncover the inet. This blocks the stream of air, or allows it to low, which therefore controls the flow of air into the unit and thus into the zone. When the room Is too hot, the thermostat tells the controllerto unblock the inletand let more cold alr in. When the room Is too cold, the thermostat tells the controller to start partially olocking the inlet to prevent more cold air entering. Every VAV terminal connected to the system will receive the same temperature alr. Sometimes this alr ‘temperature Is t00 cold for the zone, so we often find an electrical reheater inside the unit which will switch on and warm the air, as it passes through. You don't necessarily need this inside, but it's fairly common, especially in colder climates like Europe and North America. The heater doesn’t necessarily have tobe electriceither, it could also be a fin and tube heat exchanger fed from the buildings hot water system Page 4 of 9or even a heat pump. But electrical heaters are most common because they are very simpleto install and operate. From the controller we will find some flexible tubes which pass through the duct and connect onto some thin pipes, typically in a cross shape. ‘The pipes are an air flow sensor. This measures the change in pressure across the inlet. There wil! be a difference in air velocity between the centre and outer region of the Inlet duct, because alr flows faster at the centre, By measuring the pressure at different points across the cross-sectional area, we can therefore calculate the average alr velocty, or average flow rate into the vav box. Terra On the alr flow sensor pipes we find some holes. ‘There are some holes on both the front as well as, the back of the pipes. If you imagine the air is entering and colliding with the pipe, then flowing. around it. So, one side of the tube will be high pressure while the other side is a lower pressure, ‘thus giving us @ pressure difference. Once we know the pressure different and the size of the duct, we can use a mathematical formula, which is provided by the vev terminal manufacturer, to calculate the average flow rate of air entering the vav terminal and thus entering the zone. Page 5 of 9omektis) rey a) aod ia a Sco (tn) Actuaten Controller Inside the electrical panel, we typically have the following components. The controller, the actuator and the pressure differential sensor along with a small electrical transformer. The controller, actuator and pressure sensor can be separate items but now it's most common to find them as an integrated unit which makes installation and commissioning much easier ‘The thermostat is connected to the controller and provides the controller with information on the room temperature. The controller is typically pre-programmed with a strategy which then tells the actuator if it needs to open or close the damper, of the VAV terminal, to reduce or increase the airflow, based on the information received. The actuator is clamped onto the shaft of the damper, a smallinternal motor in the actuator rotates this, which results in the shaft, and thus damper, changing position. There are two ports Inthe unit which allow the air flow sensor to connect to the pressure differential sensor. The controller Usually allows for network control via BMS and also to link to other terminal units. ‘The damper doesn’t usually fully close, because we still need a certain amount of fresh alr to enter the zone. So, It partially closes which allows a small stream of air to trickle through Into the room. If the thermostat detects the room temperature has increased above the desired setpoint temperature, then the damper is instructed to open further and allow the cold air to enter. Remember this iris around 13°C oF 55"F so that will cool theroom faisly quickly. The warm air will be sucked away through the return duct. For exemple, in the middle of summer in a busy room full of people with computers, plus high solar gains. ‘The camper willtherefore be 100% open, to let as much cold air in as possible and remove the unwanted heat. During the peak of winter or even @ normal cloudy day when theroom is empty and there isn’t much heat load, the dampers position will be further towards the closed position to minimise the cooling but still allow fresh air to circulate. Page 6 of 93. Fan assisted VAV terminal You can get fan assisted VAV boxes and these are ovailable in many variations. These are essentially the same as a regular VAV terminal, except there is an extra section attached which usually contains a small filter and a fen, The fan allows air to be pulled in from the room, this air is dicty so we pass it througha filter to stop the dustfrom collectinginside the fan, ductwork or heating element. ‘The air will enter through the side of the unit and then mix with the main air stream as the damper opens. This is beneficial because we can reduce the heating demand of the reheat coil as we're reusing the heat that already exists in the zone. This also ensures a constant volume through the terminal unit, so as the damper opens and closes, we don’t get surges of air flow into the space and we maintain a constant tumover of air in the room. Additionally, it also reduces the chances of cold air being dumped out of the diffuser onto anyone sitting below which wouldn't be very comfortable, Page 7 of 94. VAV system operation Now, if you imagine that many VAV terminals are connected to the same system, and they can all open and dose to suit the cooling load of their individual zone, then obviously the main ductwork is going to experience large fluctuations in pressure. If we left the fan to run at a constant speed, then when most of the VAV terminals opened fully, the fan isn’t going to be supplying enough air to the terminals furthest away, the pressure drop will be too large. If all the VAV terminals were to close, then the fan is goingto be supplying too much air. The pressure in the ductwork is therefore going to fluctuate as the units modulate their dampers position. So, what we want to do is fit @ pressure sensor towards the furthest point in the ductwork. This pressure sensor is connected to the Variable Frequency Drive (VFO). This is also often called the variable speed drive because it controls the speed of the electrical motor attached to the fan. ‘The pressure sensor is detecting the pressure at the furthest point in the system. We choose this point because it has the largest pressure drop of the entire system, due to frictional losses in the ductwork. We determine the minimum allowable pressure at this point, basically this is the pressure that the furthest \VAV terminal can sufficiently operate at. eG! eal | Liana arp Uicamearly Siar Page 8 of 9‘The VED varies the speed of the fan to increase or decrease the alr flow rate and thus the pressure in the ductwork, to try and ensure the pressure at the furthest point remains within limit. If this vav terminal can operate with sufficient air pressure, then the rest of the system can also, ‘This control strategy therefore allows the fans to run at optimal speeds which saves a lot of energy, additionally the cooling coils in the main AHU are only supplying what is needed. Page 9 of 9