Analyzing heating, cooling and refrigeration technologies for commercial applications, developing performance models to estimate energy and operating costs, and performing comparative economic analyses to determine target markets to aid client in making decisions which will enhance the technical and commercial success of research programs. Examples of investigations include:

• GAX Heat Pump Cost Comparison for Residential Applications
• Competitive Position of Cooling Systems in Various U.S. Locations
• Natural Gas Engine-Driven Chiller Operating Cost Comparisons in 45 Cities
• Absorption Gas Air Conditioner Energy Cost Comparison - Light Commercial Applications
• Natural Gas Cooling - An Investment Opportunity
• Market Opportunities for Applied Natural Gas Engine-Driven Hybrid Chiller Plants
• Impact of Electric Deregulation on Gas Cooling.

GARD participated in a program to help establish and contrast the following with regard to space conditioning equipment reliability and durability:

• What do customers expect in reliability and durability of gas-fired space heating equipment, versus
• What do customers believe to be the actual reliability and durability of gas-fired space heating equipment, versus
• What is the actual reliability and durability of gas-fired space heating equipment.

Data for the first two items were being gathered based on focus groups conducted at several locations in the country. Actual reliability and durability data was gathered from existing sources. In support of this work, nine currently available warm air furnaces of varying efficiencies and from various manufacturers were purchased by GARD and disassembled to compare components, assembly methods, and materials and their possible impact on useful life.

GARD Analytics provided building energy analysis and building codes and standards analysis in support of the client's investigation into the feasibility of using combination-heating systems for application to the lodging market sector. Combination heating systems use a single heat source to provide both domestic hot water and space heat.

GARD provided technical analysis support to evaluate the energy cost effectiveness of the following energy efficiency measures applied to commercial buildings:

• Boilers/Condensing Boilers
• Water Heaters
• Furnaces
• Ceiling Insulation
• Double Effect Absorption Chillers
• Engine Driven Chillers and Packaged A/C
• Flue Heat Retriever.

GARD investigated the impact of deregulation on the future cost of operating electric space conditioning and service water heating equipment at a large skyscraper building located in downtown Chicago. The approach included:

Task 1 - Estimate tariffs under deregulation

Task 2 - Estimate open market power prices

Task 3 - Project annual utility costs through Year 2000

Task 4 - Project annual utility costs through Year 2010.

An economic analysis was performed to investigate the value incentive from the end user perspective of purchasing and installing high efficiency heating equipment compared to baseline efficiency equipment. Comparative economic analyses were performed to determine the simple payback period, net present value, and return on investment which can be expected when the energy savings of high efficiency heating equipment is used to offset the higher equipment first cost compared to baseline equipment. The focus of the analysis was limited to residential natural gas forced air furnaces, commercial natural gas hot water boilers, and commercial natural gas steam boilers.

GARD Analytics assisted in development of a statewide cost-effective industrial energy efficiency program. Four major industrial energy users of both electricity and natural gas in Wisconsin were targeted for in-depth analysis: Food and Kindred Products (SIC 20), Paper and Allied Products (SIC 26), Fabricated Metals (SIC 34), and Industrial Machinery (SIC 35). The project involved:

• Literature search
• Identification of engineering and economic parameters and data elements for each industry
• Development of energy-use intensity baselines
• Market assessment
• Delivery mechanisms and program approaches.

Energy and operating cost comparisons of unitary and applied gas engine products versus competing equipment for a range of commercial building types in 45 U.S. cities were performed using the DOE-2 energy analysis program.

Based on estimated marginal costs for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity through the year 2002, as provided by a local electric utility as part of a rate filing, a series of energy cost analyses were performed for several residential, commercial and industrial end use applications and compared to similar energy costs if natural gas was used.

GARD developed and demonstrated a methodology for determining gas utility incentives for the gas chiller matrix in the client's High Efficiency Chiller Systems Initiative which is structured to help local utilities promote wider use of high efficiency equipment within their customer service territory. The proposed incentive structure accounted for a range of rated chiller COPs, chiller seasonal COPs, type of application and gas utility marginal costs.

DOE-2 energy and energy cost analyses were performed of engine-driven chillers applied to hospitals using time-of-use rates where off-peak power is cheaper than on-peak power. Current rates as well as those that might be in effect in 1999 and 2003 were investigated.

Energy and operating cost comparisons of the direct-fired triple effect absorption chiller versus competing electric equipment for hospital and office applications in 45 U.S. cities were performed using the DOE-2 energy analysis program to determine where the product could be cost competitive.

Performed energy cost analyses of gas engine-driven and absorption chillers applied to four types of commercial buildings located in Birmingham, Alabama.

For buildings cooled by packaged rooftop systems, using a mix of electric and gas air conditioning can be a cost effective alternative to using either all electric or all gas equipment. The substantial savings possible are achieved by using gas cooling to reduce a building's peak electrical demand and enable it to switch from a higher electric rate to a lower one. This project analyzed the electric and gas rates for 45 U.S. cities and performed energy and economic evaluations to identify where this concept could be successfully applied.

A preliminary energy conservation study of two municipal recycling centers was conducted. The objective of the study was to identify and evaluate energy conservation opportunities related to the facilities’ heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, lighting and power systems, and process energy systems. Energy conservation opportunities evaluated included:

• Landfill gas utilization for on-site power generation,
• Consolidation of distributed air conditioning systems,
• Improved ventilation of processing areas,
• Installation of thermal barriers between uniquely controlled zones,
• Infiltration reduction through the addition of quick opening doors, and
• Replacement of electric space heating systems.

Annual operating cost savings of recommended energy conservation measures were computed to be $226,700. Based on an estimated implementation cost of $223,400, a simple payback period of 1.0 years was projected.

A preliminary energy audit of a Chicago-based paint manufacturer had as its objective identifying and ascertaining the cost-effectiveness of a variety of process energy conservation measures. The audit focused on energy efficiency modifications to the existing compressed air plant, which consists of one 125 hp and three 60 hp rotary screw units. Compressed air plant energy conservation opportunities evaluated included:

Annual operating cost savings were computed to be $76,900 if all four measures were implemented. Based on an estimated implementation cost of $85,000, a simple payback period of 1.1 years was projected.

A compressed air plant energy audit was performed for a large manufacturer of plumbing and specialty products as well as generators and four-cycle engines. The Wisconsin complex includes foundry, enamel shop, die cast, pottery, brass operations, and an engine plant. Compressed air is distributed to processes within each of these operations from a central compressed air plant consisting of 8 air compressors, totaling 6,800 HP.

The study was performed in two phases. The objective of the first phase was to review and verify the energy savings potential of air compressor performance enhancements proposed by an equipment manufacturer. Current and projected compressed air energy consumption were calculated from the following data:

• Seasonally adjusted part-load performance curves,
• Equipment operating data,
• Plant operating parameters, and
• Proposed revisions to facility operations.

The first phase analysis confirmed that the proposed enhancements were cost-effective for the client, with a simple payback under five years and potential energy savings of 16% of the estimated plant annual energy costs. The objective of the second phase was to identify and evaluate additional energy conservation opportunities related to the facility's central compressed air plant.

An energy conservation feasibility study was performed for an investment casting firm specializing in small production runs of small complex components used in the aerospace, automotive, and munitions industries. The comprehensive investment casting operations include the following manufacturing processes:

• Patterns developed from casting drawings,
• Pattern material (wax or plastic resin) injected into dies,
• Finished patterns assembled onto drums,
• Shell material applied to patterns,
• Pattern material melted away ("lost wax"),
• Preheated shells filled with metal,
• Shell material removed,
• Castings removed from drum,
• Castings finished as required, and
• Castings inspected, tested, packaged, and shipped.

The objective of the study was to evaluate each of these manufacturing processes and the plant facilities from an energy utilization and optimization perspective and recommend cost-effective modifications to improve the existing process, heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), and lighting.

An interactive approach assured dialog between all interested parties at key junctures during the project so that only energy conservation opportunities (ECOs) which were feasible from an operations and maintenance perspective were incorporated in the final recommendations. The study investigated over 30 ECOs which, when implemented, will provide substantial energy use reductions, and contribute to a safer, more comfortable workplace.

An energy management feasibility study was performed for a precision metal engineering, fabrication and assembly plant. The facility has 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 10,000 square feet of administrative offices.

The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the benefits of interfacing major energy consuming systems in the facility, especially plant and office heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems, to an energy management system (EMS). In addition, the cost-effective replacement of existing office and plant HVAC systems was investigated. An interactive approach assured dialog between all interested parties at key junctures during the project so that only energy management strategies which were feasible from an operations and maintenance perspective were incorporated in the final recommendations.

EMS strategies investigated included:

• Scheduled start/stop
• Night/weekend setback
• Optimum start/stop
• Reheat coil temperature reset, and
• Demand limiting

Energy audits were conducted for three elementary schools and one middle school as part of a Technical assistance Program. The objective of the program was to identify and evaluate energy conserving operation and maintenance procedures and feasible energy conservation measures in sufficient detail to support an application for financial assistance. The audits identified a number of cost-effective projects related to the schools' lighting and heating, ventilation and air condition systems including:

• Conversion of existing dual-duct air handling unit to variable air volume,
• Increased insulation on steam generation and distribution systems,
• High-efficiency indirect-fired absorption chiller,
• Distributed hot water generation,
• Dedicated domestic hot water generator,
• Perimeter radiation temperature control system, and
• Relamping with high efficiency lamps and ballasts.

BCHP Screening Tool Development 2001 - 2002 Home Top

GARD Analytics is developing the BCHP Screening Tool software program for analysis of building cooling, heating and power generation systems.  This development effort pulls together information on thermally activated technologies, on-site power generation, and integrated science research for energy and economic analysis of integrated systems featuring combined cooling, heating, and power. It builds upon a proven building load model and climate data with the inclusion of current information on generating, absorption, and desiccant equipment, thermal storage technologies, and electric and gas utility tariffs.  The tool provides users with a way to compare the economic feasibility of different integrated energy system concepts for a wide range of commercial applications across the U.S. The target audiences for the screening tool are design and design-related professionals.

The BCHP Screening Tool will perform the economic analysis for various system configurations based on annual energy results calculated from the DOE-2.1e building energy simulation program and detailed utility rate descriptions.  The tool includes equipment performance for:

• On-site electrical generation equipment such as engine generators, microturbines, turbines and fuel cells;
• Heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment including those that are thermally active technologies.

The waste heat recovered from building sited fuel cells, microturbines, gas turbines and engine generators offsets the electrical and fuel needs of the chillers, boilers, service water heaters and humidity control equipment typically found in commercial buildings.  Thermally activated technologies such as absorption chillers and regenerative desiccant dehumidifiers can reduce the primary energy used in a building for providing cooling.

The program user interface was developed entirely by GARD Analytics using Visual Basic and the simulation engine, DOE-2.1e was modified to better model desiccants and generators using FORTRAN.  The desiccant modifications allowed the use of the add-on (pre-conditioner) desiccant unit in DOE-2.1e to access user modifiable curve-fits of off-design condition performance. 

The utility rate database developed covers over 200 TMY2 cities across the country with detailed data on each utility rate including multiple blocks, time-of-use, ratchets and taxes.  As many as 20 commercial rates were entered into the database for each electric and gas utility.

EnergyPlus Testing and Support 1999 -2002 Home Top 

GARD Analytics is part of a development team that is developing the next generation of building energy simulation software, EnergyPlus, which combines the best features of DOE-2 and BLAST.  GARD has been assigned a multi-year task to test the new software as well as develop a series of auxiliary programs to assist user input.  The work involves  extensive release testing of each public release version, including the beta versions, and a series of Comprehensive Validation Tests.  Comprehensive Validation Tests include analytical, empirical, and comparative tests that are performed after the initial suites of Release Tests have been completed.

The initial phase of this work was to develop a comprehensive test plan for EnergyPlus.  This work included an extensive literature search covering software testing in general, software testing and validation specifically targeted towards building energy simulation tools, and relevant empirical data sets which could be used as a basis for comparison.  The EnergyPlus Test Plan has provided a framework to guide the actual testing which has been ongoing since August 1999.

EnergyPlus testing activities to date have included several major efforts.  Comparative testing based on the BESTEST/ASHRAE Std. 140 methodology has been completed and results for EnergyPlus have been compared against a set of reference results for other simulation tools.  Portions of two analytical test suites have also been modeled.  In addition, extensive release testing has been performed for the three Beta version releases and two Version 1 releases to date.  This testing is a continual process of detecting bugs, reporting bugs, and verifying fixes, as well as checking to make sure that prior bugs stay fixed.

EnergyPlus support activities to date have included user support and development of utility software.  User support has included posting releases on the GARD web site, processing user license and password requests, and answering user questions via e-mail.  Several utility software programs have been developed by GARD:  IDF Editor, EP-Launch, MathDiff, and a DOE-2 to EnergyPlus translator.  The IDF Editor is a Visual Basic utility to aid in preparing EnergyPlus input data files (IDFs).  The IDF Editor is a dynamic self-configuring input file editor which automatically updates the input structure to match the current EnergyPlus Input Data Dictionary (IDD) file.  EP-Launch is an interactive Visual Basic utility which allows users to  manage the EnergyPlus suite of programs.  EP-Launch features include input file selection, input file editing, weather file selection, simulation execution, and output file viewing.  MathDiff is a Python script which mathematically compares a pair of CSV data files which have been created as output from EnergyPlus.  MathDiff allows batch-oriented comparison of large data sets to identify whether changes are within specified tolerances of percentage and absolute differences.  The DOE-2 to EnergyPlus translator is a FORTRAN utility which translates portions of DOE-2.1E input files into an EnergyPlus IDF. 

Development of Desiccant Dehumidifier Model and Direct-Fired Absorption Chiller Model for EnergyPlus 2001 Home Top 

GARD Analytics developed and integrated modules into the source code for EnergyPlus to simulate active desiccant dehumidifiers and direct-fired absorption chillers. The desiccant module includes heat regenerated desiccant wheels, heat exchangers, evaporative coolers, and associated controls. This module determines the process air outlet conditions, the load on the regeneration heating coil, the electric power consumption for the wheel rotor motor, and the regeneration air fan mass flow rate. All other heat exchangers are modeled as separate objects connected to the inlet and outlet nodes of the dehumidifier. GARD has worked extensively with modeling desiccant dehumidifiers on other projects and has developed both built-in subroutines and a custom function for DOE-2.1E to model various types and configurations of desiccant dehumidifiers. These prior models were used as the algorithmic basis for the EnergyPlus modules. 

GARD also developed a module for EnergyPlus to simulate the operation of direct-fired double effect absorption chillers. The module uses performance curves similar to the equivalent chiller in DOE-2.1E. This type of chiller is unusual for EnergyPlus because it may be used in the same plant on both a chilled water supply branch and a hot water supply branch. The chiller has six node connections for chilled water, condenser water, and hot water, and can provide simultaneous heating and cooling. During simultaneous operation, the heating capacity is reduced as the cooling load increases. 

After the source code for these two modules were developed, the modules were integrated into the EnergyPlus source code, compiled and tested. Complete user input/output documentation was also prepared. Also developed for use with the absorption chiller module were equipment performance curves for a range of direct-fired chillers sold by four manufactures.

Development, Testing and Support for Building Energy Analyzer^TM 2001 - 2002  Home Top

 The Building Energy Analyzer is a commercial software package that allows the user to evaluate the performance and economic viability of thermal storage, onsite power generation and waste heat recovery systems. It is a valuable analysis and reference tool for energy utilities, HVAC engineers, and others responsible for the technical assessment, economic evaluation, or selection of combined cooling, heating and power (CHP) systems for commercial and industrial buildings. Ther Building Energy Analyzer is a powerful simulation tool that quickly and easily assesses the economic advantages of CHP options relative to competing alternatives. GARD Analytics was responsible for development of the simulation engine, building and equipment models, and electric and gas utility rate database. Available from www.interenergysoftware.com.

Development, Testing and Support for Gas Cooling Guide^TM 1995 - 2002 Home Top

The Gas Cooling Guide is a commercial software package that provides a wealth of information about gas cooling technologies and allows the user to evaluate the performance and economic viability of particular types of cooling equipment. It is a valuable analysis and reference tool for energy utilities, gas cooling equipment manufacturers, HVAC engineers, and others responsible for the technical assessment, economic evaluation, or selection of HVAC equipment for commercial buildings. The economic analysis section of the Gas Cooling Guide is a powerful simulation tool that quickly and easily assesses the economic advantages of gas cooling options relative to competing alternatives. Gas Cooling Guide Pro provides the additional option of using the Retrofit Wizard to compare and calibrate simulations with historical billing data for existing applications. The Gas Cooling Guide was developed as a central cooling plant screening tool rather than as a design tool. After selecting a city, selecting a commercial building application from a library of 14 prototype buildings whose size can be scaled up or down, adjusting internal load factors, and setting the baseline and alternative central plant configurations and operating scenarios, the program performs an hourly simulation of each alternative using a DOE-2 based calculation engine. GARD Analytics was responsible for development of the simulation engine, building and equipment models, and electric and gas utility rate database. GARD Analytics also provides technical support to users through a toll free hot line. Since its release in 1999, several upgrades have been completed including the addition of the Retrofit Wizard. Available from www.interenergysoftware.com.

Development, Testing and Support for DesiCalc^TM 1995 - 2002  Home Top 

DesiCalc is a screening tool which utilizes a DOE-2 based simulation engine for performing hour-by-hour simulations to compare the energy needs and costs of using desiccant-based equipment with those of competing electric air-conditioning equipment. GARD Analytics was responsible for development/modification of the DOE-2 simulation engine, incorporation of custom functions to simulate equipment, development of prototype buildings, and development of a series of data bases which include equipment performance data, weather data and electric and gas utility rates. The tool provides templates for 13 building types and annual weather data sets for 236 U.S. locations. During its development, an effort was made to eliminate complex design parameters from DesiCalc's user input. Scalable prototype building models were developed for different commercial applications and include a typical building envelope and typical HVAC, lighting and power systems. DesiCalc performs energy and economic analyses of alternatives for cooling and dehumidifying ventilation air required by commercial buildings. The program incorporates such technologies as desiccants, heat wheels, heat pipe assisted cooling coils, and dual path systems for pre-treating of building ventilation air. The software was first released in 1998 and has undergone periodic enhancements. GARD Analytics also provides technical support to users through a toll free hot line and maintains a web page with news and answers to frequently asked questions.

Development, Testing and Evaluation of GasMod Algorithms 1998 - 2000  Home Top 

GARD Analytics is part of a team that PG&E has assembled to develop their CoolTools program which is an integrated set of software tools and application guides for design and operation of chilled water systems. They are intended to inform owners, design professionals, and operators about achieving the most cost-effective and efficient equipment selection, system design, and operating scenario for new construction and retrofit applications. GARD Analytics had responsibility for developing specifications and algorithms for an automated tool that develops calibrated models of gas-fired and thermally-driven cooling equipment from either manufacturer's or site measured data. The output of GasMod provides the building simulation tool with an accurate model for the gas cooling equipment installed in the building. Work elements included: · Field test data requirements · Algorithm testing techniques · Gas chiller equipment market description · Development of forms for recording of manufacturer's data · Software tests for ensuring robust software when implementing the algorithms · Sensitivity testing using monitored data.

Development of Library Models for Gas Cooling Equipment 1998-99  Home Top

The objective of this project is to develop specifications and algorithms for an automated tool that develops calibrated models of gas-fired and thermally-driven cooling equipment from either manufacturer’s or site measured data. This tool will be part of a larger package of simulation tools designed to support chilled water plant configuration/equipment selection and plant control system design. Algorithms are being developed to simulate the thermodynamic response of gas-fired and thermally-driven cooling equipment to variations in thermal load, operating temperatures and weather conditions through producing sets of curve coefficients and keywords for the existing equipment models contained in the DOE-2.1E building energy analysis program. The work effort is focused on:

• Steam absorption units (single and double effect)
• Direct-fired absorption units (double effect)
• Engine driven units (both shaft mounted and engine-driven electric chillers).

DOE-2 performance models were developed for various types of air treatment packages which incorporate such technologies as desiccants, heat wheels, heat pipe assisted cooling coil, and dual paths for pre-treatment of building ventilation air. These models were incorporated into the DesiCalc computer program that will allow design engineers and utility account representatives to evaluate the energy and operating cost effectiveness of using desiccant-based air treatment equipment versus other alternatives.

Similar to DesiCalc (see Ventilation Air Treatment Analysis Project), an analysis tool called Gas Cooling Guide is being developed for evaluating the application of all types of water chillers to commercial buildings. Once a user has selected a building type, size, location, type of cooling equipment and local utility rates from a built-in library, the DOE-2 energy analysis program is run in the background and comparisons between different cooling equipment types are displayed in the form of easy to read graphs and tables.  Available from www.interenergysoftware.com.

The goal of this program was to install a prototypical neural network interface to an existing HVAC energy management and control system (EMCS) to evaluate the neural network's performance from two standpoints: energy cost reduction and improved comfort. The energy cost reduction was evaluated with respect to the performance of the system already in place. The comfort level was estimated with reference to the deviations from desired temperature and humidity in the building. It is hoped that the neural network will provide energy savings of a few percent over and above the savings provided by the existing EMCS, and substantially reduce deviations from comfort conditions.

An easy-to-use software package was developed to be used by commercial and industrial utility account representatives to quickly evaluate the energy savings and cost effectiveness potential of applying a range of compressed air plant modifications to a specific plant. The program was developed as a spreadsheet application which incorporated Excel macros.  Available from www.ecw.org.

GARD attends all ASHRAE SSPC 90.1 meetings to keep current on changes being proposed for commercial building energy conservation standards, performs engineering analyses to evaluate the impact of proposed changes, and provides technical data to SSPC 90.1 on issues relevant to the client.

GARD attends all ASHRAE SSPC 62 meetings to keep current on changes being proposed for ASHRAE Standard 62-1989, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, which covers commercial and residential buildings. GARD also performs engineering analyses to evaluate the impact of proposed changes, and provides technical data to SSPC 62 on issues relevant to the client.

Impact of Energy Star Home Program on Fuel Choice and the Environment 2002 Home Top

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) procedures developed by the DOE and EPA to compare the site energy consumption and annual energy cost as well as source energy consumption and atmospheric emissions for Energy Star qualified homes heated with natural gas versus all-electric homes for various regions of the U.S. Analyses were performed using the REM/Rate software, which is one of several programs that are certified by EPA for Energy Star certification. Given a detailed description of a residential building in terms of construction characteristics, size, number of floors, location, equipment and appliance efficiencies, etc., REM/Rate computes annual energy consumption and costs and atmospheric emissions and compares the design house to an Energy Star compliant home. Use was made of data available from the DOE/EIA publication titled A Look at Residential Energy Consumption in 1997 and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) publication titled 2001 Housing Facts, Figures and Trends to develop four unique home models that accurately reflect variations in nine census divisions.

Impacts of Minnesota Energy Code on Residential Water Heater Installations 2001 Home Top

The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the 2000 Minnesota Energy Code and the restrictions it places on the use of combustion appliances such as natural gas water heaters in new residential construction by requiring direct vent, power vent or sealed combustion equipment for most installations. This requirement along with the mandatory installation of mechanical ventilation increased the cost of installing natural gas water heaters in new residences causing the market share for new residential natural gas water heaters to fall from traditional levels. The increased use of electric water heaters in new construction also caused negative impacts on the homeowner, the environment and electric reliability, consequences that were probably not foreseen by Minnesota legislators and code officials during the new energy code's development. The results of this analysis will better allow state code officials to consider all of the issues associated with residential heating system requirements and carefully weigh the long-term implications of any energy code revisions.

Energy Savings Analysis of ASHRAE Standard 90.1 1999 - 2000 Home Top

The objective of this project was to assess the energy and energy cost impact on commercial buildings of the revision to the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers Standard 90.1 that regulates energy use in commercial buildings. The assessment used a large number of building energy simulations using DOE-2.1 in ten climate zones to evaluate eight different building types, each with two different floor areas, to estimate the annual gas and electrical energy consumption. Six combinations of wall and roof types were modeled at several different glazing fractions to represent the characteristics of the commercial building stock within the U.S. The heating and cooling equipment simulated included the six most common combinations. The results of the simulations were weighted by using the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey data from the U. S. Department of Energy and new commercial construction data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine the national impact.

Low capacity (less than 70,000 Btuh) heating products are primarily used in single family, multifamily and manufactured housing, particularly in warmer climates and small or energy efficient buildings in colder climates. This is a growing market. This project investigated, studed and made recommendations regarding equipment certification requirements and local code barriers that may hinder the wide-spread use of gas-fired low capacity heating systems.

GARD Analytics operates a research house located on the northwest side of Chicago. This house is representative of typical single-family residences built in the Midwest during the 1960s. Over 110 comfort, energy, weather and indoor air quality parameters are measured using a microcomputer-based data acquisition system designed and installed by GARD Analytics personnel. Over the 10 years, GARD has conducted tests of advanced prototype heating and cooling systems to determine their comfort control capability, reliability, efficiency, dynamic response and effect on indoor and outdoor air quality. Performance and comfort evaluation tests have been conducted for:

• Modulating gas furnace
• 3-ton modulating gas heat pump
• Gas air conditioner
• Electric variable speed heat pump
• Unvented gas-fired space heaters
• Unvented gas fireplaces
• Split ductless gas heater/electric air conditioner package
• Zoned ducted air distribution systems
• Return duct configurations.

Gas Cooling Energy Efficient Measures and Guidelines 1998   Home Top

GARD Analytics provided engineering services to the New Buildings Institute as part of their contract with Southern California Gas Company to develop a set of advanced design guidelines to transform the commercial market over to advanced energy efficiency measures that have been proven to be cost effective. A series of comparative energy and economic analyses were performed to provide the basis for development of the guidelines. The work scope included:

• Developing DOE-2 building models for 10 types of commercial buildings
• Gathering current commercial electric and gas utility rates for 10 U.S. cities
• Performing a technical analysis using DOE-2 of indirect and direct-fired absorption chillers, gas engine-driven screw chillers, and gas engine driven centrifugal chillers versus competitive electric cooling equipment applied to 7 types of commercial buildings located in 10 cites.
• Performing an economic analysis for all alternatives accounting for annual energy operating costs, annual maintenance cost premium for gas chillers, first costs of chillers and additional cooling tower capacity for gas chillers.
• Presentation of results in a series of spreadsheets and graphical aids.

The results of the work effort were incorporated into two publications titled Advanced Design Guideline Series - Gas Engine-Driven Chillers and Advanced Design Guideline Series - Absorption Chillers.

Engine Chiller Ready Reference Guide   Home Top

The Ready Reference Guide contains basic natural gas engine-driven chiller design and operational basics, performance, economics, target markets and engine chiller requirements. The Ready Reference Guide is intended to provide cooling customers, sales and marketing personnel and equipment specifiers with the basic information needed to quickly identify and evaluate natural gas cooling market opportunities. The Guide also covers the integration of an engine chiller into a hybrid cooling plant, associated operating strategies and resulting annual energy cost and life cycle cost savings.

Provide technical support for users of DesiCalc™, desiccant HVAC equipment screening tool software. Support is provided via telephone, e-mail, and web-site (www.desicalc.com).

Gas Cooling Guide Software Support 1998-2002 Home Top

Provide technical support for users of Gas Cooling Guide™, chiller   screening tool software. Support is provided via telephone and e-mail..