A new operating strategy for economizer dampers of VAV system

The paper proposes a new operating strategy for the outdoor, discharge, and recirculation air dampers of the economizer in VAV system, called split-signal damper control strategy. The strategy controls the outdoor air by only one damper while keeping the remaining dampers full open. The discharge or recirculation air damper is modulated to control the amount of outdoor air introduced into the system while keeping the two remaining dampers full open. Since at least two dampers are always kept fully open during the occupied times, the strategy can provide a minimum static pressure drop in economizer dampers and results in minimum energy use in return and supply fans. An additional advantage is that the proposed strategy prevents reverse airflow through the discharge air damper of a VAV system that uses a volume matching control strategy. The proposed strategy along with the existing strategies such as the three-coupled dampers used in most existing system and the two-coupled dampers are evaluated on an existing system using 1-year long measured data set, along with an economizer damper model developed and validated in this paper. The simulation results show that the annual energy savings in supply and return fans of an existing system, compared to the traditional strategy of three-coupled dampers, are 12% and 5%, respectively.