Laboratory Performance Measurement of Blowers with Electronically Commutated Motors in Horizontal Low-Profile Fan Coil Units

The goal of this study was to quantify the efficiency of blowers driven by electronically commutated motors (ECMs) in horizontal low-profile fan coil units (FCUs) over the typical range of operating pressure. The airflow and power of twelve FCUs from three manufactures were measured over an external...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inASHRAE transactions Vol. 126; no. 1; pp. 770 - 781
Main Authors Yin, Peng, Derouen, Beau, McBride, Albert, O'Neal, Dennis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Atlanta American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) 01.01.2020
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc
Subjects
Air flow
Analysis
Blowers
Coils
Credit unions
Data points
Efficiency
Energy modeling
External pressure
Laboratories
Laboratory equipment
Manufacturers
Measurement
Motors
Performance measurement
Simulation
Static pressure
Statistical analysis
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Summary:The goal of this study was to quantify the efficiency of blowers driven by electronically commutated motors (ECMs) in horizontal low-profile fan coil units (FCUs) over the typical range of operating pressure. The airflow and power of twelve FCUs from three manufactures were measured over an external static pressure (ESP) range from 0 to 125 Pa (0 to 0.5 in. w.g.) in a well-instrumented laboratory environment. The overall efficiency of blower/motor combination was also determined from the experimental measurements. Due to different ECM controls, the effect of increasing ESP on airflow and power varies among units from different manufactures. Blowers with constant torque control may suffer from moderate to significant airflow decreases while blowers with constant airflow control maintains airflow over the tested ESP range. The overall efficiency increased with increasing ESP although drops in efficiency were measured at the higher end of ESPs at lower speeds. The maximum overall efficiency measured from the twelve units was under 25% while 91% of the data points were below 20%, which was dramatically lower than the default efficiency of 60 to 70% in building energy simulation programs. Statistical measures of 25% percentile, median, and 75% percentile in the overall efficiency over the tested ESP range were identified through statistical analysis. These results provided important information on the power calculations of blowers with ECMs in horizontal low-profile fan coil units with ESPs ranging from 0 to 125 Pa (0 to 0.5 in. w.g.).
ISSN:0001-2505