Improving Building Comfort and Energy Savings of the McKenzie Airport Terminal by Maintaining and Improving Pneumatic Control Systems

Abstract

McKenzie Airport Terminal is located at Easterwood Airport, which is owned and operated by Texas A&M University. It was built in 1988. Most all HVAC equipment, which includes boiler, chiller, pumps, AHUs and exhaust fans, due to lack of maintenance, had some form of deteriorated controls, components, and operational function. For example, most of pneumatic controls were failed due to bad components, wrong settings, and disconnection before the Continuous CommissioningR (CCSM). This caused humid and hot problems of the building, and wasted energy. After maintaining and improving the pneumatic controls, the boiler and hot water pump is now turned off when outside air temperature is higher than 80°F. The chiller is now shut off when the outside air temperature is below 55 °F, and the economizers activate to maintain discharge air temperature when the outside air temperature is below 60 °F. The building comfort in temperature and relative humidity (RH) is improved after CCSM. For example, average space temperature of the building was above 75 °F most of the time before CCSM and is now 73 °F after CCSM. The relative humidity in the baggage claim area was 70% before CCSM and is now 55% after CCSM. The annual savings of electricity for chiller and natural gas for boiler are $5,040 and $12,090 respectively. The total annual energy savings are $17,130.