A Comprehensive Review of the Tests Completed on the Flow Loop at the Energy Systems Laboratory (Draft)

Abstract

In 1988 the Governor's Energy Office (GEO) of Texas received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy to establish a $98.6 million state-wide retrofit demonstration program, the LoanSTAR (Loan to Save Taxes and Resources) Program. The LoanSTAR Program was designed to demonstrate commercially available, energy efficient, retrofit technologies and techniques. Part of the approved DOE program includes monitoring buildings to determine the effectiveness of the retrofits. The monitoring for this program is composed of thermal metering (chilled and hot water Btu measurements), electrical load metering, psychrometric data (cooling and heating coil temperatures and humidities), and weather monitoring. All of the sensors and monitoring equipment must be calibrated prior to installation and recalibrated periodically while in service. For this purpose, a calibration facility was developed in which National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)- traceable instrumentation is maintained (Turner et al. 1992).