Application of simulation to solve hunting problem in VAV system

Variable Air Volume (VAV) system has been widely used in order to reduce energy consumption. However, operation performance and energy consumption may not be as good as expectation in practical projects due to some failures. Hunting of control parameters is one of the typical failures, which may result in dissatisfying the owner’s requirements, abrading the actuators and reducing the service life of the equipment. In this paper, hunting problem is divided into three categories and several solutions are suggested. A practical VAV system in an office building in Beijing is analyzed, and some operation failures are found out. Furthermore, countermeasures are brought forward to improve operation efficiency. Finally, computer simulation is used to analyze and validate the effect of the new control strategy. This research may contribute to optimizing VAV control.