Data acquisition and testing at the Tennessee Energy Conservation in Housing (TECH) complex

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6451958

Baxter, V D

The Tennessee Energy Conservation in Housing (TECH) complex was built in 1976 and includes five test residences. It has been used to compare the performance of novel heating, air conditioning, and water heating systems to that of conventional systems. Systems tested include the annual cycle energy system (ACES), solar systems, and ground-coupled heat pumps (GCHP) with conventional air-source heat pumps (ASHP) as control systems. A single Hewlett-Packard minicomputer-based data acquisition system (DAS) serves all five structures. Design of the DAS hardware and software was driven by the long term (annual) test requirements of the ACES and solar systems. The system was set up to scan on a once-per-hour, 24 h/day basis and utilized integrating instrumentation for energy consumption and delivery. Measurement of seasonal and annual performance factors was the primary goal. More recently the TECH complex and DAS were used to obtain detailed field data on dynamic losses for an ASHP. While the DAS performed adequately, it is felt that the software could have been tailored better for this purpose. However, since the DAS was being used concurrently to provide seasonal performance for GCHP systems, this was not possible.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6451958
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510218-3; ON: DE86005026
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320101* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Residential Buildings-- (-1987)
AIR CONDITIONERS
AIR SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
BUILDINGS
COEFFICIENT OF PERFORMANCE
COMPUTERS
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DESIGN
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
FLOW RATE
FLOWMETERS
GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
HEAT PUMPS
HEATING SYSTEMS
HOUSES
HP COMPUTERS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
METERS
MONITORING
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
SOLAR AIR CONDITIONERS
SOLAR COOLING SYSTEMS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS
SOLAR-ASSISTED HEAT PUMPS