PNNL

Abstract

In this study, we assess American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Guideline 36 (G36) with a typical medium office building. Specifically, we modified a Modelica model of a variable air volume (VAV) system that serves this building, which is a part of the Building Operations Testing (BOPTEST) Framework, by introducing components for representing indoor virus transmission and filtration. We then implemented the G36 control sequences for both water-side and air-side equipment in Python. After that, we conducted the assessment by co-simulating G36 and the Modelica model using the BOPTEST Framework. Unlike existing works, this study considers the coupling operation of water-side and air-side devices. It also assesses the performance of G36 from the perspective of indoor air quality under virus scenarios and examines the short-term behaviors of the studied VAV system under G36. This assessment confirms significant energy savings from G36, largely because of the interaction between supply air temperature and hot water controls. It also reveals a trade-off between the ability to slow the spread of virus and the energy performance via demand controlled ventilation. Lastly, it emphasizes the necessity of tuning local feedback control when implementing G36.