Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat Evaluation, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

To be effective at maintaining indoor air conditions, a building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system needs to be controlled in some fashion. The control system needs to sense the temperature of a space, feeding it to a control system, and manipulate the HVAC equipment to maintain desired temperatures for the occupants. Within the portfolio of buildings under the jurisdiction, custody, or control of the General Services Administration (GSA), approximately 20% have HVAC systems that are operated by pneumatic control systems. These buildings are under the same energy conservation mandates as all federal facilities. Unfortunately, the major drawback to pneumatic systems is that they are not capable of implementing automated energy-saving control strategies. They can’t automatically change the thermostat setting at night and on weekends in the same way as more modern control systems such as direct digital controls (DDCs). Converting a building from a pneumatic control system to DDCs is typically cost prohibitive.