Operational performance of an Air Handling Unit: insights from a data analysis

Space heating and cooling is one of the most relevant causes of energy consumption in both residential and tertiary sector buildings. In particular, service buildings and offices are mostly served by all-air HVAC systems in which control logics are fundamental to guarantee reliability and performance. Building automation systems are therefore becoming more and more relevant as a support tool for reducing the energy consumption in these contexts. For this reason, the detailed analysis of operational data from real units can help in understanding the main variables that affect the performance and functioning of all-air systems. This paper presents some results from operation data analysis of an Air Handling Unit (AHU) serving a large university classroom. The main drivers of the energy consumption are highlighted, and the classroom occupancy is found to have a significant importance in the energy balance of the system. The availability of historical operation data allows performing a comparison between the actual operation of the AHU and the expected performance from nominal parameters. An example of fault detection is proposed, considering the operation analysis of the heat recovery unit over different years.