Presents a work focused on minimising the energy cost of the control of variable air volume (VAV) systems. A low-speed wind tunnel was modified to simulate a single VAV system. A dynamic model of the system was developed and used to analyse its energy consumption characteristics. Conventional proportional and integral (PI) control, adaptive control and optimal control algorithms were developed and applied to the duct pressure control loop within the VAV system. Comparison of their performance indicates that an optimal control strategy can save up to 30% of the energy consumed in a system employing a conventional PI control scheme.

KEYWORDS: year 1996, Controls, energy conservation, costs, wind tunnels, experiment, algorithms, comparing, performance, air conditioning, variable volume air conditioning, ducts, pressure