R&D Proposal TMGT421 (R&D for HVAC Replacement) - Essay Example

R&D Proposal “TMGT421" (R&D for HVAC Replacement) Running Head: R&D Proposal “TMGT421" (R&D for HVAC Replacement) Introduction Large amount of energy is often lost or consumed annually for the space heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) especially in the residential buildings. As per the united states Department of Energy (DOE), by the year 1983, the total amount of energy consumed by the residential buildings was at 10.72 quadrillion Btu (quads) compared to the amount of energy consumed in the residential sector in the same year. Notably, approximately sixty percent of the residential s sector energy is used for the HVAC appliances (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). The DOE has funded series of considerable research on the HVAC equipment used in the residential sector. Similarly, the same research work is being conducted on the residential sectors since m there is need to improve the efficiency of electric or energy consuming appliances in order to reduce the energy consumption both in the domestic and residential appliances (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). Therefore, research and development for the residential HVAC is vital to help towards reducing energy consumption by these appliances; nonetheless, this study or research shall bank heavily on the improvement on the performance and functionality of the air conditioner. Residential buildings are diverse buildings that have different sizes and functions. Therefore, some of them often contain complex HVAC systems that constitute HVAC equipment control system, and distribution systems. The project is pegged on air conditioner that is one of the HVAC equipment (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). According to the statistics of 1994 HVAC equipment, the HVAC equipment were identified to have immense effect on the national energy. Some of the equipments that were listed under this category included electric centrifugal chillers, oil fired boilers, gas furnace, gas-fired boilers, and split are and electric package conditioners. In most case, the small sized units of air conditioners often define or dominate the market. The average size of the air conditioners that are shipped without the packaged terminal units often range between 10 and 15 tons (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). The majority of these units often range between five and ten tons. This is an indication that the mainly or immensely used air conditioners in residential building and the residential buildings are the small sized air conditioners (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). Task statement Installing a new HVAC appliance will improve reliability, reduce long-term costs, increase efficiency, and be less harmful to the environment. Proposed problem statement Improve current HVAC system with a system that gives the best return on investment. This will include: Resetting the thermostat and possibly replacing it to meet requirements of an optimally functioning air conditioning Adjusting air flow rates to ensure its at optimal levels Problem Importance This problem is important because current system is costing homeowner more money than necessary. The current age of system causes concern, that air conditioner could fail at any given time making the comfort level of living space undesirable (United States, 1989). The current system will increase the need for service and repair because of condition and age. The service and repair will be an added cost to homeowner.   The project herein will focus on the performance and performance improvement potentials of the current market of the air conditioners. This parameter will be assessed according to the analysis and discussions with field representative and sales officers from the manufacturers (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). These steps will enable the establishment of the actual information that is published for particular equipment has per the air conditioning and refrigeration institution (ARI). The conclusion will be related to the recommendation of methods that lead to highly performance air conditioners (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). The intended high performing air conditioners are likely to be produced due to the current advancement of technology. The efficiency in the performance of the intended air conditioners will be pegged on the energy consumption rates. For instance, the air compressor energy rates for a highly performing of the air conditioners is expected to be as low as 0.5 kW/ton, this reading or energy consumption rate can be translated to an equivalent energy efficiency ratio (EER) of 24 Btu/W (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). Attaining these conditions will only be made possible by adopting and incorporating new technologies in the manufacturing of the air conditioners. However, main challenge that may be experience in the increase in the corresponding capital equipment costs among other institutional impediments as well as other features of energy efficient features that are usually not incorporated or considered in the development, manufacturing, and installation of the air conditioners (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). Therefore, there are needs to introduce air conditioner markets that are highly competitive and with drastic economic barriers since this market are immensely attuned to equipment first cost. According to the 1986 ARI Directory, the average EERs for 10-ton air conditioners ranges from 7.1 to 10.6 Btuh/W (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). These figures also include auxiliary power. However, the analogous establishment of these methods may be related to the production of chillers that are likely to be used in the production of high performing air conditioners (United States, 1989). The project will include an intensive literature search to help in conduction reviews on the past and ongoing searches that may be applied towards improving the energy efficiency of the air conditioners. The DOE Energy Database computer search will be performed to aid to help in understanding of the energy rates related to different domestic and residential performances (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). Moreover, a manual search will be incorporated with the focus on the publications from DOE reports, the America society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) reports, conference and workshop proceedings, GRI reports, summary from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), relevant United States patents, and Applied Mechanics Reviews. Incorporation of these reports and institutions will help towards understanding what research and development that have been conduction as well as those that have been successful and those that have failed and need improvement towards attaining efficient and effective air conditioners (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). Additionally, HVAC practitioners and researchers from various organizations, institutions, consulting forms, communities, manufacturers, trade organizations, research laboratories, and trade organization will be consulted towards understanding different aspects of the air conditioners and their subsequent improvement (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). These expert opinions are vital in understanding and developing as well as improving on the existing air conditioners. Combination of result from different studies on the current equipment as well as the reviews from the past and the current research works aim at providing clear background of understanding a mature technology to be used, their performance potential improvement, and the any technical limitation that is not stymied (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). The energy constraining efficiency factors in the current equipments are naturally non-technical; thus, they are primarily economic (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). In other words, if cost was never a factor and if the designed feature for improving operating efficiency is uniformly applied then, there would be a substantial reduction in the energy consumption. Therefore, the most effective and efficient technological advancements of improving the energy efficiency will be the reduction of the incremental costs in the establishment of the energy efficient features (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). Moreover, it will be effective to promote the life cycle costing of a DOE equipment research programs in order to encourage the application and use energy efficient equipment (United States, 1989). According to the current assessment, the PNL recommends that the DOE should address the following specific equipment level R and Don the electrical air conditioners: Elevate understanding and engineering heat exchanger coils The R&D should be supported for variable capacity drives that include AC inverters for brushless DC air conditioners units. Support R&D on the nonazeotropic refrigeration cycles towards improving part load performance Assessing environmental effects beginning with refrigerant and its subsequent refrigeration cycles The development of effective and efficient air conditioners with lower cost heat exchange will have instantaneous effect on the performance on the equipmen (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004)t. The heat exchanger surface fouling is primarily the common cause of extensive or long-term air conditioner performance degradation (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). Therefore, innovative studies to reduce the heat exchanger surface build up will help in reducing subsequent equipment failure thereby improving the equipment’s design and operation. In addition, there is need to increase use of the high speed inverters due to the intensive increase of private residential buildings’ fan or use of the air conditioners (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). The residential buildings as well as residential sectors should embrace the use of the brushless DC units that are mainly compatible with small sized air conditioners (United States, 1989). The application of the nonazeotropic refrigeration cycles will improve the performance of the electric or air conditioners potentially. The incorporation and application of the nonazeotropic systems may be intensively complex; however, its application often improves the performance of the equipment since it often lowers the equipment operation temperatures (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). Additionally, the efficiency of the air conditioners will be improved by reducing the size of the equipment that will also lead to part load and load matching efficiency. The commonly used refrigerants especially in the residential air conditioning equipments include R-11 and the R-12 (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). Nonetheless, they often considered mostly as environmentally detrimental within the chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants. Therefore, there is need for investigation to determine alternative refrigerants that will be environmental friendly. The primary objective for the study was the identification of the R&D opportunities for the air conditioners. However, the project is the first step towards determining the overall R&D needs of the HVAC systems. Different HVAC needs are expected to arise especially from other R&D researchers and other practitioners. Nonetheless, the project will concentrate largely on the improvement of the system level problems, control issues, and part load issues (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). Different experts have suggested that system level HVAC problems play significant in the conservation of energy in the residential buildings. Some of the system problems associated with the HVAC include problems incorporated by individual system component that produces operating unit and the operating equipment problem that controls and distributes different parts of other systems that forms parts of the entire building (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). Equipments with better part load performance will have great impact on the seasonal performance. Therefore, the decrease in the cost of the electronics should influence greatly on the system control (National Research Council (U.S.), 1990). Notably, both part load performance and better system integration should benefit through improved control strategies. From the literature understanding and these of this project, it is apparent that there should be clear and effective recommendations to address problems associated with residential HVAC systems. The HVAC systems are vital towards energy consumptions as well as thermal comfort especially in the residential buildings. These conditions can only be met by using effective and efficient HVAC equipment that in this project is the air conditioners (Burgess, Ellenbecker, and Treitman, 2004). The essential integral part in energy conservation using this HVAC equipment or the air conditioner is the design of the equipment, control system, distribution system, and the building envelope as well as the optimization of the system (United States, 1989). The improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the HVAC systems requires high level of understanding of the inter rations in the system issues especially the primary engineering issues. Additionally, detailed trades off issues relating to the energy conservation designs must be exploited fully before conclusion are drawn and recommendation made (National Research Council (U.S.) and National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). The computer among other measurement tools is the current tools that can be used to develop a detailed analysis of the HVAC systems. Notably, the general improvement on the HVAC systems will automatically lead to tremendous energy conservation opportunities especially in the residential buildings. The desired air conditioner will be designed not to run continuously as it is in air conditions that are being used currently. This kindly of system design will be achieved through installation or embedding thermostat into the home used air conditioners so that it is automatically switches off and on the once the desired temperatures are attained. This modified air conditioner will reduce the amount of energy used in running the air conditioner thereby leading to a great deal of energy conservation. This kind of energy conservation system will help reduce energy consumption rates that will reflect as low electricity bills. Apparently, the intended new air conditioners or the HVAC appliance will improve reliability, reduce long-term costs, increase efficiency, and be less harmful to the environment since they will not run continuously and they will contain refrigerants that are environmental friendly. References Burgess, W. A., Ellenbecker, M. J., & Treitman, R. D. (2004). Ventilation for control of the work environment. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Interscience. National Research Council (U.S.). (1990). Policies and criteria for heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems in federal buildings. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press. National Research Council (U.S.)., & National Academies Press (U.S.). (2010). Capabilities for the future: An assessment of NASA laboratories for basic research. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press. United States. (1989). R & D in the construction industry: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, first session, September 12, 1989. Washington: U.S. G.P.O. Read More