Use of power

Imtiyaz Ali.

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Last month saw the fourth annual ‘Earth Hour’, when lights around the world were switched off to keep in mind how much we rely on electricity and get us thinking about how energy can be consumed.

In buildings in the Middle East High Ambient Regions, it is the air conditioning that uses up a great majority of its energy use. HVAC in hotels, for example, use up about 64% of total consumption.

Johnson Controls has been researching this area and has launched products that aim to vary the amount of power needed at any one time in order.

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Specifically, the company has extended the applications for its variable speed drives (VSD) for chillers and air handling units.

For the chillers, Johnson Controls has installed as standard the VSD technology to the compressors, condenser fan motors and pumps, essentially working as a kind of dimmer switch that can vary the power needed for the system.

The thinking is based around the fact that over a typical day the temperature outside will vary. When a chiller has only ‘off’ or ‘on’ functions it means that its running on full power even when it is cooler outside.

With the VSD installed it will be able to sense when it is cooler and adjust the power to the system, and in this way save energy. This VSD is also installed on air handling units, fan coil units and pumps.

The company has also been distributing its occupancy sensors, which can sense when no one is in the room and adjust the air conditioning and temperature to save energy. When rooms are occupied you do not need the levels of fresh air being pumped in.

There are also CO2 sensors, which allow you to correctly monitor the fresh air levels. In Saudi Arabia, there are a lot of sandstorms and dust seeps in from outside.

But you don’t need to standardise and dump 30-40% fresh air constantly, and these sensors can monitor this and control the required fresh air.

Some consultants and contractors in Saudi Arabia have been receptive to these new systems, and on one particular project in Makkah we completed a large job for the chiller system where we replaced the condenser coil.

But in a country that still has high subsidies for electricity, not enough people are concerned about energy efficiency retrofits.

Two things need to happen: subsidies need to be relaxed, and at the same time there needs to be a change in culture. This is not just for us but for the future environment and the next generation.

We need to educate young people when they are still in school and get people thinking about switching off, and get businesses to think about upgrading their technology.

Johnson Controls has also been active in gathering data about the efficiency of different buildings in different countries through an energy audit. The aim is to create a benchmarking system for the region.

This would include looking at the numbers of kWh per square foot and then do a comparison – to show countries where they stand.

Moreover Johnson Controls recommends having measurement and verification on HVAC equipment to regularly monitors what is their kW consumption for individual equipment.

If you don’t monitor your equipment’s energy consumption with M&V you will not be able to monitor & control the energy consumption.

Imtiyaz Ali is aftermarket sales manager at Al Salem Johnson Controls