Too often, the central or built-up HVAC systems installed in large commer-cial buildings are not designed with a systems’ perspective. Equipment is frequently selected based on the features of individual components rather than on system-wide impacts. As a result, many large HVAC systems use significantly more energy than necessary.

To help address this situation, the California Energy Commission’s PIER (Public Interest Energy Research) program initiated a three-year research project that measured and evaluated the performance of airside variable-air-volume (VAV) systems with chilled water plants. The project, completed in 2004, was managed by the New Buildings Institute of White Salmon, Washington, with two San Francisco Bay Area firms, Eley Associates (now Architectural Energy Corp.) and Taylor Engineering, serving as the lead researchers. The team conducted field studies in five office buildings larger than 100,000 square feet and quantified problems with component and system selection, building con-trols, and operation that cause energy inefficiencies.

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