ASHRAE Journal - July 2020 - 43

2020 ASHRAE TECHNOLOGY AWARD CASE STUDIES

Ventilation Systems

Energy Year Over Year

Average Temperature (°C)

Energy Consumption (kWh)

120,000
25
The building contains spaces
Electricity (kWh)
Natural Gas (kWh)
Average Temperature (°C)
with different indoor envi20
100,000
ronmental conditions: exhibit
15
galleries that require tight tem80,000
perature and humidity control
10
60,000
to meet the Class AA museum
5
standard, and general, non40,000
gallery spaces, such as a public
0
lobby, a gift shop, ofﬁces, and
20,000
-5
a living quarter that do not
-10
0
require Class AA museum grade
2017 2018 2019
2016 2017 2018
2016 2017 2018
2016 2017 2018
environment. Two ventilation
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
systems-one for the gallery and
FIGURE 2 Total metered energy consumption and average outdoor air temperature.
one for the non-gallery spaces-
provide separate zone control in
order to reduce the heating, cooling, humidiﬁcation, and and second year of operation based on the electricity
dehumidiﬁcation energy of non-gallery spaces than if one and gas utility bills was 1,502,384 kWh (5,126,300 kBtu)
system was to be provided for both spaces.
and 1,735,811 kWh (5,922,800 kBtu), respectively, 13%
The gallery ventilation system consists of an energy
lower and on par with the energy model. In March 2018,
recovery ventilator, two AHUs with an energy recovery
the third year of operation, it was discovered that the
ventilator, a heating coil, cooling coils, a humidiﬁer, and supplementary boilers were operating when the buildsupply and exhaust fans. The energy recovery ventilaing heating demand was within the heat pumps' heattor supplies ventilation air to the gallery AHUs, which,
ing capacity, and the boilers' supply water temperature
in turn, provide ventilation, heating, and cooling to
was also higher than design. This was rectiﬁed, and the
the gallery. Ventilation air is returned from the storage
building energy consumption dropped to 1,387,886 kWh
rooms back to the energy recovery ventilation (ERV) sys- (4,735,600 kBtu), 20% less than the modeled building
tem and exhausted. The energy recovery wheel recovers energy consumption. Refer to Figure 2 for the building's
sensible and latent energy to reduce heating, cooling,
metered electricity, gas, and total energy consumption
humidiﬁcation, and dehumidiﬁcation load.
for the ﬁrst three years of operation.
The non-gallery ventilation system consists of an
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and Thermal Comfort
energy recovery ventilator with energy recovery wheel,
IAQ
heating coil, cooling coil, humidiﬁer, supply and
The gallery's air system has ﬁltration that meets the
exhaust fans, plus four-pipe fan-coil units. The energy
Canadian Conservation Institute's Class A HVAC ﬁlrecovery ventilator supplies ventilation air to the fanter system for advanced degree of preservation. The
coils and exhausts air from the washrooms, catering
warming kitchen, janitor's room, and the ﬁrst-aid room. energy recovery ventilator contains a MERV 8 pre-ﬁlter
and carbon ﬁlter to deal with forest ﬁre season, and
Space heating and cooling is provided by the four-pipe
the AHUs contain a MERV pre-ﬁlter and an electronifan-coil units. The non-gallery spaces act as a thermal
buffer zone between the outdoor and the gallery spaces, cally enhanced ﬁlter. The electronically enhanced ﬁlter
contains three sections. The ﬁrst section emits equal
so humidiﬁcation is provided in the heat recovery AHU
amounts of positive and negative charges, and particles
to humidify the dry, incoming outdoor air in the winter
in the air become polarized. The second section is an
to maintain the minimum space humidity level. The
electrically charged ﬁeld, and the polarized particles are
cooling coils in the AHU and fan-coil units will dehucaptured in this section. The ﬁnal section uses a pulsed,
midify moist air to prevent excessive humidity level in
high-voltage electrodynamic ﬁeld to force any particles
the space during the summer months.
that escaped the second section to have an inelastic
The total building energy consumption for the ﬁrst
J U LY 2 0 2 0

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