HVAC Strategic Plan

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HVAC Strategic Plan

• Mission Statement-The HVAC working group will
  develop a suite of strategies to reduce the
  energy and peak use associated with the design,
  selection, installation, and maintenance of new
  central air conditioning systems and recommend
  demonstrations or tests for some or all of these
  strategies . The results of its initial work will
  be included in the CECs strategic plan to the
  Legislature and provided to the CPUC and its
  utilities to help guide their strategic planning
  process. .

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Trends in Residential and Small Commercial AC
Demand

• Growing faster than overall demand for electrical
  energy
• Major contributor to peak electrical demand- from
  6 in 1976 to 25 in 2006 for residential systems
  alone.

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Californias Air Conditioning Demand

• Residential AC installed in new homes has
  increased from 25 in 1976 to 95 in 2007.
• Home sizes have increased by 55 from 1,560 sq.
  feet to 2,390 sq. feet.
• The result has led to a dramatic increase in
  generating capacity required to meet the
  demandfrom 1,950 MW (2 nuclear units) in 1976
  to 12,000 MW (12 nuclear units) in 2006.

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Figure 1
Since 1976, Residential AC growth in new homes
has increased from 25 to over 95 in 2007.
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AC Appliance Standards

• The energy efficiency SEER ratings for AC units
  went from 7.0 SEER in 1977 to 13.0 SEER in 2006.
• This means that energy usage requirements for the
  same sized AC unit were reduced by 80 over 30
  years, if SEER ratings were directly
  transferrable to peak (EER ratings).
• Without these appliance improvements, peak demand
  would have increased another 8,000 MW (another 8
  nuclear units) to keep up with the demand.

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Since 1976 the share of peak demand associated
with residential AC has grown from 6 of total
peak demand in 1976 to roughly 24 in 2007.
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The HVAC Problem

• Customers are not used to asking for or
  recognizing quality installations for HVAC
  installations
• Installation Quality is poor for new or
  replacement CAC systems
• 90 to 95 of HVAC installations have not pulled
  permits
• When permits are pulled, inspections show that 30
  to 50 of the installations are done improperly
  due to
• Failure to set air flow refrigerant charge to
  manufacturer specs
• Lack of proper HVAC system sizing..
• Bigger is not necessarily better or necessary.
• Standards Requirement to test and seal ducts are
  often ignored.
• Major lack of trained technicians, contractors
  and inspectors.
• Cooling Equipment parameters are not optimized
  for Western Climates
• National Standard set to 82, mild and humid
  temperatures

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Setting Two High Level Goals for the Unitary Air
Conditioning Market

• Goal 1- Increase the Quality of Installation and
  maintenance of Central Air Conditioning Systems
  to achieve additional energy and peak savings
  relative to the status quo ( residential and
  small commercial markets)
• Goal 2- Accelerate the market penetration of new
  hybrid DX systems that are more energy and
  peak1 efficient than existing equipment
• 1 Peak efficient means that the cooling system
  requires less power and energy use from noon to 8
  pm to meet typical customers cooling needs

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Strategies to meet Goal 1- Increase installation
quality and maintenance

• Strategy 1-Increase customer demand for evidence
  of quality control at the time of HVAC
  installations through a customer education
  campaign and the introduction of a
  quality/comfort brand that will be placed on all
  HVAC equipment that has been certified by a third
  party.

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Strategy 2

• Create a level playing field in the HVAC
  installation market by increasing the probability
  that building permits will actually be pulled for
  all replacement jobs, reducing the cost of
  pulling permits, and ensuring verification
  information is used in a constructive manner by
  all parties-
• This will require the introduction of a new
  compliance system designed to track the status of
  HVAC equipment from the sale to contractors at
  the distributor office to the final quality check
  performed by third parties in the field.

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Strategy 3

• Motivated technicians- Increase the number of
  trained technicians qualified to perform a HVAC
  system installations that meet ACCA
  specifications and motivated to receive
  recognition for verified quality work. This will
  require working with existing industry training
  courses and the vocational schools in California
  that may need to provide new quality control
  courses.

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Strategy 4

• Provide systems performance data and fault
  detection feedback to new HVAC customers who opt
  for this service and to their contractors that
  will provide contractors to allow them to build
  a high quality reputation and later to charge
  premium prices for providing higher quality
  services.

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Strategy 5

• Create an industry recognized quality brand that
  certifies that the system operating parameters
  necessary for a quality installation have been
  verified This brand can be used in combination
  with utility programs to reward customers who ask
  for quality information and or a quality
  certification check.

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Strategy 6

• Create tier levels to identify progressively
  higher levels of quality contractors based on the
  proportion of technicians in a given firm meeting
  NATE or other certifications

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Strategies to Achieve Goal 2- Installation of
higher efficiency CAC systems after 2011

• Strategy 7. Develop new energy efficiency
  indicators to rate the expected performance and
  energy use of central cooling systems installed
  in California that more accurately predict system
  power demands in the hot and dry climates of the
  southwest-
• Strategy 8. Develop a new time based performance
  metric that measures and values both the expected
  from which market based incentives to install
  this new equipment can develop.

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Strategy 9

• Stimulate existing research to integrate on board
  diagnostic equipment into new central air
  conditioning systems and provide cash incentives
  to the first 10 of manufacturers who
  successfully integrate and sell on board
  diagnostics as part of their systems by the year
  2009.

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Strategy 10

• Adopt policy changes designed to encourage
  utilities to achieve larger scale market outcomes
  by estimating the energy savings achieved by the
  HVAC quality initiatives proposed in this report
  at the market rather than the program level.
  Includes measurement of spillover and other
  market effects. Not just a program focus.

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Strategy 11

• Develop and implement design competitions to
  reward architect and manufacturer teams that can
  build new homes that require no net electricity
  from the grid during peak periods using a
  combination of passive cooling strategies,
  advanced cooling equipment and photovoltaic
  systems. (Longer term)