Learning HVAC

I realized that if you want to have an in-depth learning of Heat Transfer, one should study an HCAC system. I suppose it doesn't matter if it is an industrial scale system or an ACU in your home. Both in the end work within the principles of Heat Transfer.

Fortunately for me I can observe the Rockwell Power Plant system and its separate systems.

What I found in my studies is that there are essentially 3 systems or loops in a HVAC system--at least this is how I look at it. I suppose the drainage system can be considered another system, but to me it is a built in segment of the system.

The three loops are the Chilled Water loop, the Air Distribution loop, and the Condensation loop. The "terminal" that connects the Chilled Water and Condensation loop is the Evaporator inside the Chiller unit.

I realized that the Condenser loop was the only part I saw and did testing on (motors, pumps), so I naturally thought that this was the most important. Its a flawed way of thinking but I think its human nature to think about a certain segment in one's environment instead of thinking about the system as a whole.

A proper analysis of diagnosing a system from an energy analyst's view point is to always discover what the Significant Energy Users are. Confirm the SEUs and then branch out from there. I found out that the Significant Energy User of an HVAC system is really the Chiller unit, specifically the Compressor.

But interesting enough, they only consume a ton more energy if there is something wrong occurring in the Air distribution side. More specifically, is there too much air intake, are the filters dirty, are the coils dirty? All these symptoms mess with heat transfer. This chain reaction eventually propagates back through the system, forcing the chiller to work harder in order to compensate for inefficiencies occurring upstream in the air distribution loop. As a result, the compressor consumes more energy not because it is inherently inefficient, but because the system conditions no longer allow heat to be transferred effectively.

The same can be said about the pumps themselves. Cavitation can occur which affects flow. But did a cavitation problem