Snowmelt system controls adjusted to save energy

摘要

At this large office campus, the sidewalk snowmelt system had never been reviewed or commissioned. During a recent retro-commissioning investigation for a large office complex, exp U.S. Services learned that the boiler-heated glycol system used for snow melting ran continually whenever the outdoor air temperature was below 38 F. NOAA weather records revealed that while the temperature is below 38 F for about 2250 hours/year, the actual amount of time of snowfall is only 580 hrs/yr. This difference of about 1,700 hrs represents the time the snowmelt system is on when it doesn't need to be.