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A BEMS-Assisted Commissioning Tool to Improve the Energy Performance of HVAC Systems
Abstract
The evolving capabilities of Building Energy
Management Systems (BEMS) offer new
opportunities to automate some parts of the
commissioning process and can generate benefits
over the entire life of a building. These benefits
include a reduction of process cost and manual effort
on site, improved quality assurance process and the
adoption of automated energy audit capabilities to
improve overall building performance.
This paper presents the concept for a new automated
commissioning tool that verifies and optimizes the
performance of building HVAC systems using the
capabilities of BEMS. The tool is applicable mainly
to commercial and institutional buildings. In its
simplest form, the tool monitors building control data
and stores it in a structured database to be used online
or upon request. Data resulting from
standardized test procedures invoked manually or
automatically are also stored in the database. A
reasoning algorithm performs an intelligent analysis
of the monitored data and also performs additional
automated commissioning of HVAC components and
systems, identifying faults, diagnosing them, and
evaluating the potential energy efficiency
improvements. The process is completed by sending
detailed comprehensive reports to the user.
This paper also includes an example showing how an
automated BEMS-assisted commissioning tool can
potentially be applied to improve the energy
performance of variable-air-volume fan systems.
Citation
Choiniere, D.; Corsi, M. (2003). A BEMS-Assisted Commissioning Tool to Improve the Energy Performance of HVAC Systems. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /5201.