Experimental Assessment of Valves’ Fault Severities in an Air-Handling Unit: Energy, Environmental, and Economic Impacts Under Italian Conditions

This research provides a comprehensive faulty and fault-free performance dataset derived from experimental tests carried out on a typical air-handling unit (AHU) operating in southern Italy during winter and summer. This study examined ten faulty scenarios with the valves supplying the cooling coil and the post-heating coil stuck at different opening percentages: 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%. Faulty operation has been compared with fault-free tests carried out under comparable boundary conditions. The results revealed that stuck-valve faults can increase daily electric energy demand, global equivalent CO2 emissions, and operating costs from a minimum of 0.6% up to a maximum of 96.1%, as well as decrease the ability to maintain indoor air temperature and relative humidity within desired thresholds up to 75.8% and 96.8%, respectively.