Energy Control System Applications.

The recent escalation in the price of energy has been forcing the Army to investigate better ways to achieve effective use of our natural resources. Although considerable attention has been directed towards improved methods of construction of new buildings and of reducing energy consumption in existing buildings, the means of controlling the HVAC equipment in buildings to achieve energy savings has been only lightly addressed. The typical Army installation is spread out over a large area and contains a heterogeneous mixture of buildings with regard to size, age, use, and mechanical systems. Accordingly, their growth and expansion has occurred primarily during a time when neither the technology was available nor did the justification exist for incorporating sophisticated control equipment to achieve more effective energy utilization. That situation has now changed and facilities engineers must examine the energy saving benefits through more effctive energy management with automated controls. Automatic control can simply be defined as a closed loop where control of a piece of equipment is based on feedback, often in the form of an electrical signal, form the equipment being controlled. Author