New Carrier ChillerVu Chilled Water System Optimizer Expands Energy Savings and Efficiency

To help chilled water systems reach their efficiency potential, Carrier has further enhanced the Carrier ChillerVu plant control system to include the new Carrier ChillerVu chilled water system optimizer. Carrier, a world leader in high-technology heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions, is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. The new optimizer extends control efficiencies beyond the chiller plant and improves the efficiency of the entire chilled water system, including air handling units, fan coils, and other chilled water distribution equipment. Based on laboratory and field tests, adding the optimizer to a building’s chilled water system can yield energy savings in the range of 3 to 15 percent1 (versus non-optimized systems). The new optimizer solution consists of an i-Vu controller, a factory-engineered, patent-pending control algorithm, and a pre-configured energy dashboard for the i-Vu building automation system that allows building managers to monitor and analyze the energy performance of their system in real-time. Once installed, the optimizer intelligently manages the chiller plant’s chilled water and condenser water supply temperature set points to provide optimal energy usage, all while maintaining occupant comfort in the building. The new optimizer is the latest product to be added to Carrier’s line of innovative, industry-leading chiller solutions. In addition to high-efficiency chillers with factory integrated i-Vu controls, Carrier also offers the Carrier ChillerVu plant system manager, which provides efficient, automatic control over all aspects of a chiller plant, coordinating the control of chillers, pumps and towers into a finely tuned, cohesive system. The new optimizer can then be added as an overlay on top of the ChillerVu manager, adding full system optimization to the entire chilled water production and distribution system. Plants with Carrier’s 19, 23 and 30 series chillers are fully supported, as are plants with non-Carrier chillers. “We are happy to add another efficiency solution to the Carrier product line,” says Mark Jones, business manager, Carrier Controls. “Since well-designed, integrated HVAC systems often yield more cumulative comfort and efficiency than the sum of the individual components, we are excited to combine our high-efficiency equipment and controls to deliver best-in-class system performance and efficiency.” The new optimizer also interfaces seamlessly with existing plant controls and equipment, regardless of brand. Because the optimizer works with the equipment and controls already in place, costly system upgrades, pre-installation plant analysis and system modeling are not required prior to deployment. It can also be used on plants of varying size, up to a maximum of eight chillers, and can be configured to optimize the chilled water side alone, the condenser water side alone, or both, depending on the building’s needs. In addition, the optimizer’s self-learning algorithm adapts easily to changes in environmental conditions or equipment performance, helping to optimize energy savings and occupant comfort over varying equipment and environmental profiles. The optimizer is also scalable, allowing additional chilled water distribution equipment to be added easily, further enhancing the effectiveness of the optimization calculations. Source: Carrier