Streams of too-warm, too-cool complaints?
Today's technology offers solutions.

They stream into maintenance and engineering departments daily: complaint calls about the HVAC system.

Depending on the facility, about half of these calls can be attributed to personal, subjective definitions of comfort. But the others stem from real HVAC problems: equipment out of calibration, air distribution problems due to construction, dampers not responding correctly.

The easy solution used to be applying energy. Increase air flow, crank the thermostat up or down, open dampers more, let the reheats go wild. But since the energy crisis of the 1970s, the energy solution has proven troublesome for its effect on budgets.

The pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later scenario trades the expense of comfort for the cost savings of energy efficiency. On top of that, spending more up front hurts facilities’ chances of using the money later to correct the problems that caused the expense up front.

This is the ongoing struggle for maintenance and engineering departments: ensuring comfort while maintaining or reducing energy costs. Today, comfort and energy efficiency are closer than ever to being in balance because of the technology available to facilities professionals.

Inherent difficulties
Maintaining good indoor air quality for occupants of health care and higher education facilities is challenging. Take higher education, for example.

“Temperature control in our residence halls is by floor or wing, so you have some rooms that are too warm or too cool,” says Bob Bertraum, director of physical plant at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vt. “What happens? Students open their windows when they’re too warm. That drives the heat on. Now the cold people are happier, but more people complain that it is too warm.”

Hospitals have their own special problems with demanding comfort requirements, says Richard Seguin, senior energy management consultant with Raiser Foundation Health Plan’s National Facilities Services.

“Exam rooms have to be one temperature and offices are another,” he says. “An exam room really can’t have a range of acceptable temperatures because you have people taking their clothes off. Sometimes, people in the offices want the same consistency of temperature. Add more people in an office or a meeting room than the system is programmed for, and you have all sorts of real and imagined problems. This represents our daily challenge.”

Into this muddle of inherent difficulties throw demands to cut energy costs. Whether it is competition in health care or stagnant budget trends for higher education, energy costs are a big deal.

Control Solutions
One technology helping managers meet the challenge is the energy management system (EMS). Considered by some facility professionals to be one of the most underused but important technologies at a facility’s disposal, the EMS can save energy and improve the maintenance department’s productivity.

The heart of any EMS is direct digital controls (DDC). While DDC provides a little more accuracy and range of comfort points than would not have been possible with pneumatic systems, their chief benefit may be in helping to centralize system control by accurately feeding data back to a computer.

“We really try to use our DDCs as much as possible,” says Scott Ramsey, project manager with Facility Projects Services at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Mim., which includes about 4.5 million square feet of space. “With DDC, you can compare so many different variables.”

The EMS at Mayo runs customized specifications that optimize individual control of rooms. A thermostat-like device installed in every room responds to manipulation plus or minus 2 degrees from a setpoint. Up to the 2 degree limit, the HVAC system will respond.

Ramsey says the system shows how important individual control is to being comfortable. People seem happier when they sense they control the environment.

“Happier means more productive people,” he says. “And even slight productivity gains to an organization’s bottom line can far exceed energy cost savings.”

Friendly technology
Despite what Ramsey sees as a range of technical expertise in any facility department, he says many EMS really need no special training to operate. Seguin concurs: “The advances in the EMS has been the ease of use.”

Today’ s EMS and DDC combination helps save energy and preserve comfort by eliminating temperature fluctuations. EMS can shut down fans not needed and prevent equipment start-ups during peak demand times. When demand for HVAC is high, the system has to respond to preserve comfort, says R. Michael Herran, energy management and technical systems manager at Duke University.

“During lower demand periods, the building HVAC load is reduced, and some excess equipment capacity can be turned off and still maintain comfort,” Herran says. “How this can be done without an EMS is beyond me.”

Facility professionals also are turning to other technologies to balance comfort and energy.

“I think new technology should be and is headed in the direction of making comfort and energy efficiency a viable option for all us,” Kaiser Permanente’s Seguin says. “Heat pipes pretty much stand alone in this area.”

Heat pipes use the phase-change energy transfer capabilities of fluids to move heat from areas where it’s not wanted to areas where it is.

A heat pipe can quickly transfer heat from one point to another without the need of energy input. Heat pipes are often referred to as superconductors of heat because they possess a heat transfer capacity with almost no energy loss.

The result is not only the tempering of air but the desiccation of it, as well.

Monitor matters
Another energy technology getting more attention is C02 monitors. If a C02 monitor detects a decline in the parts per million of C02, the mix of outside air into the system could be reduced, as can extra energy needed to condition outside air.

“This is important because if we could get a better control on outside air, I think we could stand to gain a large efficiency benefit,” says Mayo Clinic’s Ramsey.

Current C02 monitor technology is a good start, he says, adding that facility professionals still have a hard time getting a good enough read on C02 in a room. For instance, it is difficult to distinguish between C02 brought in from the outside and C02 measure in the exhaust air from the room because the mix in the room contains C02 from both sources.
“In addition, C02 amounts can change quickly in a room, and I don’t know if the system could keep up with changes and still provide comfort and energy efficiency,” Ramsey says.

To provide better comfort with a only a little energy loss, some facilities, particularly hospitals, are turning to increased air filtration. Colin Yennie, section head with Facilities Services at the Mayo Clinic, says that 10 years ago, increased filtration — the use of 80 percent filters, for example — might have had a real negative draw on the energy budget. New filters, however, affect energy only slightly.

“We’ve turned to using 80 percent filters and in some cases 90 percent filters because this allows us to really cut down on dust,” Yennie says. “While not a direct energy gain, it has allowed us to cut down on maintenance on the ducts. Reducing dust in the ducts, in turn, helps improve energy efficiency.”

The balance between occupant comfort and energy efficiency will depend on the nature and location of any particular facility. The gap between the two, however, has declined dramatically, due largely to a steady stream of new technology.

“I believe energy efficiency is an ongoing process of man and machine,” Duke University’s Herran says, adding that huge leaps in new technology are probably not going to come along any more. “Now the challenge for facility professionals is using the right technology in the right place and in the right way. That is where our next gains will be made.”

The Human Side of Technology
Having the right technology is only half the battle in balancing comfort and energy efficiency. The other half is manpower. While HVAC technology is more user friendly than ever, someone still has to apply and maintain it.

“Technology is an excellent tool, but it is not the magic bullet,” says R. Michael Herran, energy management and technical systems manager with Duke University. “The art of proper application of equipment sequencing and control system calibration is still necessary no matter what the technology.”

No matter the complaint, if the energy management system is showing discrepancies, someone has to check find out what or who is right, says Colin Yennie, section head with Facilities Services at the Mayo Clinic.
“What is the cause of the problematic data we’re receiving?” Yennie asks. “Has something gone out of calibration, or are there just too many people in a room? We address problems immediately and on an individual basis, and this is our check on the system.”

A big problem with technology for most facility professionals is keeping instruments in calibration.

The need to keep controls accurate to provide the most comfort for the least amount of energy is driving the Mayo Clinic to consider hiring a full-time person to do nothing but measure and adjust controls calibration. Richard Seguin, senior energy manager for Raiser Permanente is not sure that the staff needs to play so pivotal a role with today’s technology.

“We used to call it working smarter, not harder,” he says. “Of course, you need to expand the EMS functional points to accommodate all the necessary programs, but there is no reason facility staff should be checking temperatures, making rounds, etc.”

But most managers agree that the technology is not there yet.

“Not having the right information being reported to the system could be nickel and diming the institution,” Yennie says. For instance, parameters call for the dampers to be open 30 percent and allow 30 percent outside air. But the dampers may only be open 27 percent. “Often times, the only times they are right,” he says, “is when they are fully open or completely closed. Othenwise, how do verify this? Someone has to check it.”