Economics of Balancing

TA Hydronic College
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Map of U.S. energy need

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 HVAC objectives

All HVAC installations should reach 2 fundamental objectives:

1. To deliver the specified comfort level

2. To reach the first objective, while using a minimum quantity

of energy

Production Distribution Terminal units

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 Hydronic control

In theory, current technology involving state-of-the-art

BMS systems makes it possible to achieve these 2 objectives

In practice, even the most sophisticated control systems lead

often to reduced comfort at increased operation costs

In many cases, problems and therefore

solutions are to be found on the hydronic side
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 Symptoms related to typical hydronic problems

 Too hot in some parts, too cold in other parts

 Start-up after a set-back is difficult in some rooms

 Installed power is not deliverable

 Room temperatures fluctuate

 Higher energy consumption

than expected
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 TA Hydronic’s 3 Key Conditions
for
Perfect Hydronic Control
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Why and how to satisfy them in the simplest way

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 Overflows and underflows
Without hydronic balancing, the first circuits are in overflow
creating underflows in other circuits.
62°F Control valves cannot solve this problem.

Underflow Overflow
= too cold = too warm

74°F Low High

differential differential
pressure pressure
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 Overflows and underflows

To avoid complaints from building tenants

62°F
1st action:
Pumps are pushed to the maximum

 overflows increase
 underflows are reduced:

But q ~ p (turbulent flow)

To compensate an underflow of 20%

in a circuit (raising the flow by 25% from 0.80 qc to qc)
74°F
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The local available Dp must be

increased by 56% !
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 Unbalanced plant usually means too high total flow

20% underflow

Dp circuit x 1.56
Increasing Dp circuit by 56%

Requires a brute-force increase

of the pump head H by 56%

Leading to a total flow increase

H x 1.56 of 25%
qtot x 1.25
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 Pumping costs
Increasing the pump head to reduce underflows is very energy consuming.

x 1.56 x 1.25
x 1.95
Pump head Flow
Pumpingcosts  C0 
Pump efficiency
With pumping costs representing up to:
(in annual energy consumption)

Heating Cooling
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 Overflows and underflows

To avoid complaints from building tenants

2nd action:
Supply water temperature is: increased in heating
(decreased in cooling)

 unfavoured rooms start to be comfortable

 tenants from favoured rooms will react

Energy waste !
Increased CO2 emission !
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 The cost of discomfort

The cost of 1°F too high

Heating
room temperature over a year
4 to 7% *

The cost of 1°F too low

Cooling
room temperature over a year
6 to 10% *
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(*) of the plant annual energy consumption

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 Material life-time

Overflows means that water velocity is higher than expected per design

1273 q
v 2
with q in l/s, di in mm
di

Too high water velocity leads to erosion in

pipe elbows and heat exhangers.

Control valves of circuits in overflows work

with very short open/close cycles.
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This limits dramatically their actuator life-time.

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 Maintenance technician intervention

In unbalanced buildings, tenants claim for bad

comfort conditions.

Maintenance technicians waste their time

repetitively visiting these buildings trying to fight
symptoms.

Unbalanced Balancing performed Balanced

building in Sep. 2002 building

Number of 35

technician 30

interventions 25 Case study Sep. 2004.

in an 20

apartment 15
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building 10
5
0
2001 2002 2003
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 Start-up after set-back
When a plant is unbalanced, the Underflow Overflow
startup time is longer for the last circuits
in underflow. Overflows do not result in
higher power output of the terminal units.

When a plant is balanced, start-up is

achieved simultaneously in all circuits.

°F COOLING Emission
84 120%
Occupancy point
100%
81
80%
78
UNBALANCED BALANCED 60%
PLANT PLANT
75
40%

72 20%
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Time
Excessive Start-up time 0%
start-up time 0% 50% 100% 150% 200%
Flow
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 Control valves not under control

In frequent cases, control valves do not control the flow in

terminal units any longer.
They are set fully open by the control system :

At start-up after a set-back

Because of sudden load variation

Because of weird set-point at the thermostat

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 Room temperature control
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Hotel in Paris
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 Room temperature control

Dear passengers:
Due to Central Airconditioning, we
are unable to control the Lounge
temperature.
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Please bear with us.

Thank you! Beijing International Airport

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 Hydronic condition nr 1

The design flow must be available

at all terminal units in design
conditions.
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 Achieving hydronic condition nr 1
Adjusting the design flows in all terminal units in design conditions

 Design conditions are the "worst" plant operating conditions, under which
maximum flow is required : control valves are all fully open.
 If design flows are adjusted under design conditions, they can be obtained
in all other conditions.

> qc <qc >qc

fully partly
fully fully
open open
open open

This should be achieved while creating

>qc >qc >qc the absolute minimum amount of
fully fully fully
additional pressure drops.
open open open
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 TA balancing concept

 To enable systematic balancing with optimal in pressure drop result,

hydronic distribution pipings must be decomposed into hydronic modules

A.6

A.5
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A.4

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 TA balancing concept

 To enable systematic balancing with optimal in pressure drop result,

hydronic distribution piping must be decomposed into hydronic modules

A.6

A.5

A.4
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 Turning direction criterion for splitting into modules

For finding balancing valve locations resulting in

the lowest possible sizes

20 gpm 20 gpm 5 gpm 5 gpm 5 gpm

At any bifurcation between many and many units

turn in the direction of the main flow
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and place a balancing valve on the low flow side.

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 Balancing methods for hydronic modules

Proportional method
adapted from air system balancing methodologies
not optimal in pressure drops

Compensated method (Pr. Robert Petitjean, see CIBSE Code W)

designed for application with balancing valves
optimal in pressure drops
by-product: all excess Dp is concentrated in the main valve

TA Balance method (Pr. Robert Petitjean)

fully computerized: automatic determination of the index valve (on
the worst unit)
optimal in pressure drops
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by-product: all excess Dp is concentrated in the main valve

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 Order for balancing modules
The structure of hydronic modules can
be seen as a hierarchical tree. =
A.6

A.5

Before a module can be balanced, the

whole descent of this module must be A.4
balanced.
A

4
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Balancing order:
2
1
3 25
 VSP set-point optimisation
System curves
Pump head
[ft]
Too high H Pump head Flow
B A Pumpingcosts  C0 
50
150
Pump efficiency

40
120 C
Optimum H
A. System unbalanced
30
90 Total flow higher than needed
Pump power: 17.2 HP (100%)
B. System balanced
20
60
Total flow adjusted – Excess Dp in main valve
Pump power: 13.7 HP (80%)
10
30 C. System balanced
Main valve re-opened; VSP set-point reduced
Pump power: 9.8 HP (57%)
0
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0 45
200 90
400 135
600 180
800 225
1000 270
1200 Flow
[gpm]
Design over 26
flow flow
 Savings are real

Pfizer pharmaceutical production unit

Installed cooling capacity of 1535 ton (refrig.) 5.4 MW (3 chillers in cascade)
Total design flow: 3400 gpm = 773 m³/h
Problem: production alarms !
80 balancing valves from ½” to 8”

Audit of plant with TA Select based on a first measurement campaign

(presettings calculated, viscosity corrections checked)
Full balancing performed using TA-Balance on one TA-CBI
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 Savings are real

Industrial plant
Before
balancing
1535 ton (refrig.) cooling
After
3914 gpm balancing
112 ft pump head

3400 gpm (-13%)

90 ft pump head (-20%)
Pumping power reduction :
52 HP = 39 kW
Savings: 25,300 USD/year
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17,200 €/year
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 The importance of measuring

"When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it
in numbers you know something about it;
but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in
numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind."

Lord Kelvin, 1883

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 Diagnostic is a key point

Through balancing, many hydronic problems may be detected

Terminal units or exchangers wrongly mounted
Pipe damaged or not connected as expected
Shut-off valves partially shut
Check valves or pumps installed back-to-front

Balancing exposes these flaws while they can still be cheaply repaired.

Diagnostic is one of the main use

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of balancing valves.
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 System Check
Measurement/Verification:
Available head
Filters or valves clogged
Pipe damaged or not
connected as expected
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 The Three Keys to Perfect Hydronic Control

The design flow must be available

at all terminal units in design conditions.

The differential pressure across control valves

must not vary too much.

The water flows must be compatible at system interfaces.

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 The Three Keys

Three simple conditions to satisfy

in order to make hydronic systems work
as expected from design

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 Thank you for your attention !
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