Energy Measurement of HVAC System : Research and evaluation of current and new energy measurement technology

Abstract: In today’s society the energy usage for water, electricity and heat is closely monitored but ventilation is not. Why is that? Today the way ventilation is measured is either through airflow or the size of the room the air is distributed to. Lindab Innovation Hub wants to see if there is potential for a different solution to energy and air measurement within ventilation systems. This project has performed a concept and design for a new energy and air measurement technology. This technology was also compared to existing ones. Simulations of a real shopping mall containing four different shops were done in two different simulation programs. One which is designed for focus on heating, cooling, and ventilation inside of the ventilation system. And the second one which has a much broader perspective. After simulations, construction of a real ventilation system was also accomplished. The simulations were used to simulate theoretical values which then were used with the results from the experimental tests to see if the energy losses between the new and old solution could be neglected.The report presents important results between the two different kind of simulation programs as well as the difference in accuracy between the existing measuring technologies and a new enthalpy-based technology. The results also show that the energy that is not currently considered in the cost distribution is far from neglectable. With this project as a base, it is possible to create a correction factor for all kinds of facilities or rooms for a better economical and sustainable solution.