Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
October 2014
Assistant Secretary
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Building Technologies Program
Appliances and Commercial Equipment Standards
Washington, DC 20585
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................5
1.1.
Current Test Procedure ...........................................................................................5
1.2.
Products Tested........................................................................................................7
USE OF TEST CYLINDER ................................................................................................8
USE OF FALSE CEILING................................................................................................10
ACCURACY OF VELOCITY SENSORS ........................................................................13
INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE FAN HEADS .............................................15
AIRFLOW FROM TILTED FAN HEAD .........................................................................17
VERTICAL DISTANCE FROM BLADE TO SENSORS ...............................................19
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Products used in ceiling fan test report. .............................................................................7
Table 2: Air velocity variance without a test cylinder as percentage of the variance with a
test cylinder ..............................................................................................................9
Table 3: Airflow and power measurements for different test configurations of a multihead fan system. .....................................................................................................16
Table 4: Testing results for an adjustable tilt fan head. .................................................................18
Table 5: Testing results for both vertical distance measurements. ................................................20
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Side view of testing room in current test procedure. ........................................................6
Figure 2: Top-down view of testing room and placement of sensor axes in current test
procedure..................................................................................................................6
Figure 3: Airflow without test cylinder as percentage of airflow with test cylinder for
Fans 1, 2, and 3. .......................................................................................................8
Figure 4: Airflow at all speeds for Fans 4 through 8 with a false ceiling, expressed as a
percentage of each fans airflow without a false ceiling........................................11
Figure 5: Airflow for standard and hugger mount of Fan 9 with false ceiling, expressed as
a proportion of the airflow for standard mount without a false ceiling. ................11
Figure 6: Airflow with a false ceiling as a function of the difference between false ceiling
size and fan diameter for all speeds of hugger Fans 4 through 8. Airflow is
expressed as a percentage of each fans airflow without a false ceiling. ...............12
Figure 7: Distribution of standard error of air velocity measured at two labs. The dotted
red line indicates the mean of each distribution.....................................................13
Figure 8: Measured standard deviation of Fan 1 air velocity measurements from Lab 2,
compared to the standard deviation expected if all of the variation in
measurements resulted from the accuracy of the sensors alone. ...........................14
Figure 9: Airflow velocity profiles on high speed for multi-head fan system with both
heads turned on simultaneously, and the sum of testing each fan head
individually. ...........................................................................................................15
Figure 10: Airflow velocity profile along 4 sensor axes, for an adjustable tilt fan head.
Tests were conducted with fan head point straight down, and tilted 15
away from straight down in the direction of axis C. ..............................................17
Figure 11: Vertical distance test for Fan 2. ....................................................................................19
Figure 12: Vertical distance test for Fan 11. ..................................................................................20
1. INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) conducted a series of tests to assess the impact of
proposed revisions and additions to the current DOE test procedure for ceiling fans on airflow
and power consumption measurements. DOE collected and analyzed data on airflow and power
consumption for the following topics:
Impact of using a false ceiling for standard and hugger mount ceiling fans
The interactive effect of multiple fan heads and the impact of estimating airflow and
power using measurements of individual fan heads
Impact of measuring the vertical distance from the middle of the blade tip blades to
sensors or the bottom of the blade tip to sensors
Figure 2: Top-down view of testing room and placement of sensor axes in current test
procedure.
Fan
ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Blade Span
(inches)
44
52
56
44
44
44
52
52
52
24
52
Number of
Speeds
3
3
3
6
3
4
3
6
3
3
3
Standard Hugger
Mount
Mount
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Multi-Head Notes
Fan
X
X
Multi-mount fan
Two 24" fan heads
Curved fan blades
Figure 3: Airflow without test cylinder as percentage of airflow with test cylinder for Fans 1, 2, and 3.
DOE also investigated the variability of the air velocity measurements used to calculate airflow.
In the test procedure, 100 air velocity measurements are taken, once per second, at each sensor
position and axis. These measurements are then averaged to get a mean air velocity at that
position and axis. DOE used the variance of the 100 air velocity measurements at each sensor
position and axis as a measure of the variability of the air velocity measurements. Table 2 shows
the mean variance of the air velocity measurements for each fan without a test cylinder,
expressed as a percentage of the variance with a test cylinder. On average, variance without a
cylinder was 20% lower than variance with a cylinder.
8
Table 2: Air velocity variance without a test cylinder as percentage of the variance with a test cylinder
Fan
Fan 1
Fan 2
Fan 3
10
Figure 4: Airflow at all speeds for Fans 4 through 8 with a false ceiling, expressed as a percentage of each
fans airflow without a false ceiling.
To determine the effect of a false ceiling on the airflow of multi-mount fans that can be mounted
in standard and hugger configuration, DOE tested the multi-mount Fan 9 in three configurations:
1) standard mount without a false ceiling
2) standard mount with a false ceiling
3) hugger mount with a false ceiling.
Figure 5 shows airflow at all 3 speeds for the two configurations with a false ceiling, expressed
as a percentage of airflow for standard mount without a false ceiling. On average, and compared
to the standard mount without a false ceiling, the airflow in the standard mount configuration
was 30% lower with a false ceiling, and airflow in the hugger mount configuration was 46%
lower with a false ceiling. DOE assumed that the airflow of the hugger mount without a false
ceiling would be nearly identical to the airflow of the standard mount without a false ceiling,
because the current test procedure requires that the fan blades are in the same position relative to
the testing room ceiling and test cylinder for both mounting options.
Figure 5: Airflow for standard and hugger mount of Fan 9 with false ceiling, expressed as a proportion of the
airflow for standard mount without a false ceiling.
11
To determine the effect of the size of the false ceiling on hugger fan airflow, DOE used two sizes
of false ceiling in its tests60 inches square and 68 inches square. Figure 6 shows the
relationship between airflow and the difference in size between the fan and false ceiling for Fans
4 through 8, using the same results shown in Figure 4. Note that tests at all available speeds are
shown for all fans. There is no clear relationship between airflow and the difference in size
between the fan and false ceiling in this sample. In addition, DOE tested Fan 5 with both ceiling
sizes, and the mean airflow differed by 3% between the two false ceilings. These results can be
seen in Figure 4.
Figure 6: Airflow with a false ceiling as a function of the difference between false ceiling size and fan diameter
for all speeds of hugger Fans 4 through 8. Airflow is expressed as a percentage of each fans airflow without a
false ceiling.
12
Figure 7: Distribution of standard error of air velocity measured at two labs. The dotted red line indicates the
mean of each distribution.
13
DOE also investigated the variability of the individual air velocity measurements from Lab 2s
test of Fan 1. DOE used the assumption that the reported accuracy of the sensors provided an
estimate of a 95% confidence interval for the individual sensor readings. Based on this
assumption, DOE calculated the standard deviation of sensor readings that would be expected if
all of the variation in measurements resulted from the accuracy of the sensors alone. Figure 8
shows the ratio of the actual measured standard deviation to the standard deviation expected
from the sensor accuracy alone. The ratio ranges from 3 to 34, with a mean of 15.
Figure 8: Measured standard deviation of Fan 1 air velocity measurements from Lab 2, compared to the
standard deviation expected if all of the variation in measurements resulted from the accuracy of the sensors
alone.
14
Figure 9: Airflow velocity profiles on high speed for multi-head fan system with both heads turned
on simultaneously, and the sum of testing each fan head individually.
15
Table 3 shows the airflow and power measurements for the different test configurations.
Compared to the airflow when both fan heads are operating simultaneously, the sum of airflow
measurements from the individual fan head tests is 9% higher on low, 7% higher on medium,
and 20% higher on high. These results suggest that interactive effects of multiple fan heads act to
reduce the total measured airflow.
Measurements of power consumption found that tests involving only one operating fan head
produced power values that were approximately 75% of the power consumption of both fan
heads operating. As shown in Table 3, summing the power consumption of individual fan heads
significantly overestimates the power consumption of the fan system with both fan heads
operational by 50% on low, 42% on medium, and 26% on high speed.
Table 3: Airflow and power measurements for different test configurations of a multi-head fan system.
Test
Configuration
Fan Head 1 only
Fan Head 2 only
Fan Head 1 +
Fan Head 2
Both Heads
Simultaneously
Percent
Difference*
Low
CFM
Power
(W)
1120.28
14.9
1004.71
14.9
Medium
CFM
Power
(W)
1587.05
25.8
1650.85
26.0
High
CFM
Power
(W)
2827.01
49.2
2682.79
46.4
2124.99
29.8
3237.90
51.8
5509.80
95.5
1957.01
19.9
3012.85
36.3
4607.54
75.7
+9%
+50%
+7%
+42%
+20%
+26%
* Sum of individual fan head measurements compared to both fan heads operating simultaneously.
16
Figure 10: Airflow velocity profile along 4 sensor axes, for an adjustable tilt fan head. Tests were
conducted with fan head point straight down, and tilted 15 away from straight down in the direction
of axis C.
17
Table 4 shows the total measured CFM averaged over the four sensor axes and summed over
sensor positions. Measurements for the tilted configuration are systematically lower compared to
the straight down configuration. In comparison to the straight down configuration, measurements
for CFM in the titled configuration are 9% lower on low speed, 17% lower on medium speed,
and 6% lower on high speed.
Table 4: Testing results for an adjustable tilt fan head.
Configuration
Straight Down
Tilted 15
Percent
Difference*
CFM Low
1149.50
1041.36
-9%
CFM Med
1891.02
1560.61
-17%
CFM High
3093.20
2904.22
-6%
18
19
Fan ID
2
11
Vertical Distance
Measured from
Middle of Blade
Bottom of Blade
Middle of Blade
Bottom of Blade
CFM Low
CFM Medium
CFM High
1882.21
1768.73
1255.53
1260.80
3199.15
3105.79
2078.14
2023.25
4407.43
4313.46
3339.00
3321.05
20