A S H RA E

JOURNAL

The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, November 1998. Copyright 1998 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers,
Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

Proper Control of HVAC

Variable Speed Pumps
By Larry Tillack
and

James B. Rishel, P.E.

Life Member/Fellow ASHRAE

he advent of the variable speed

pump has prompted the formation
of many new procedures for operating hot water, chilled water and condenser water systems. The variable speed pump
has reduced the over-pressuring of water systems and reduced pump maintenance caused
by the excessive radial thrust often found in
constant speed pumps. Often, energy consumption by variable speed pumps is a fraction
of that of constant speed pumps. However, most
of these advantages are lost when proper speed
control is not maintained in variable speed pumping systems.
Variable speed pumps have been used successfully since around 1967 in the HVAC industry. In the 1970s, they became popular
with the development of the variable frequency drive. The variable frequency drive
simplified pump speed control by using a digital control for speed regulation instead of a
mechanical device. It became apparent that
specific control requirements were necessary
to achieve successful operation of variable
speed HVAC pumps. Some of these requirements are:
1. Variable speed pumps operated in paral- Figure 1: Location of differential pressure transmitters on hot and chilled
lel have to be operated at the same speed. water, variable speed pumping systems.
Therefore, one control parameter is required
to operate a set of pumps running in parallel. A current require- lems result from a lack of control of individual pump speed.
2. A requirement that has proven necessary is that differential
ment for successful variable speed operation is that all 1,780rpm pumps run within 20 rpm of each other. If the pumps do not pressure, pressure or flow sensors that regulate pump speed
run within 20 rpm of each other, they will operate at less effi- must have their calibration traceable to the National Institute of
cient points on their curve. Too often, system operating prob- Standards and Technology (NIST). This is the only specification
that guarantees that the quality and reliability of these instruments is adequate for HVAC pump speed control.
About the Authors
3. The most successful method of varying the pump speed
Larry Tillack works at Systecon in electrical design engineering
to suit the demands of the water system, from minimum to maxifor HVAC control systems.
mum load on that system, is to properly use a differential pressure transmitter that is located in the chilled or hot water sysJames (Burt) Rishel, P.E., is chairman of Systecon. He is Retem. The actual location of the differential pressure transmitter
search Subcommittee chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee
will be described in the next section and in Figures 1 through 3.
8.10, Pumps and Hydronic Piping and is author of two books.
Since the differential pressure transmitter often is located at
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Figure 2: Proper location of differential pressure transmitter. The differential pressure transmitter at pumps must be set at
100% design head, eliminating the value of the variable speed pump.

the end of long loops where water hammer can be damaging,

the casing design pressure for the instrument should be 2,000
lbs (8900 N) working pressure.
4. A great advantage of using the differential pressure transmitter is that the actual operating pressure maintained at the
various points in the system is indicated on the system PC.
Any excess pressure developed by the pump control system is
immediately known, because the PC can display the setpoint
and the actual pressure, the difference being the excess pressure. If the pump speed control is operating properly, the difference between the setpoint and the actual pressure should not
be more than 0.75 to 1 ft of pump head at the controlling
differential pressure transmitter. Such control of the differential
pressure eliminates energy loss rated by widely varying the
differential pressure.
5. The rate of response for the PID loop or DDC feedback
control must be fast enough to avoid hunting for the pump
speed. More than thirty years of experience with hundreds upon
hundreds of HVAC systems has proved that a rate of response
of 500 ms (twice per second) is adequate for most HVAC applications. This is a standard for commercially available PID loops
and is not considered very fast in the control industry. This will
be discussed further under Rate of Response.
6. A nagging problem about variable speed pump control is
that the building management system (BMS) computer is often
loaded down with critical functions. This computer (or computers) is monitoring much more than just the water management
system. This often means that the water management system
receives a low priority for useful bandwidth on the computer
network. As a result, signals buffered through a BMS computer
may not be updated in a timely or reliable (meaning at the same
time interval) manner. This requires the differential pressure
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ASHRAE Journal

signals to be wired directly from the transmitter to the pump

speed controller.
These six parameters have proved to be indispensable in
achieving a successful and efficient HVAC variable speed pumping system.

Location of the Differential Pressure Transmitter

The differential pressure transmitter must be located at the
point in the water system that will remove the variable friction
head from the control signal. The location of this transmitter is,
therefore, dependent upon the piping used to connect the heating or cooling coils. Figure 1 describes the connection for
direct and reverse return loops. The reverse return loop requires a differential pressure transmitter on each end of the
loop, particularly on long loops where there may be as much as
50 ft (15 m) of pipe friction in the loop itself.
Figure 2 illustrates the need to remove the variable friction
from the control signal. This is the reason why the differential
pressure transmitter must be located at the far end of the direct
return piping loop.
Use of Valve Position to Control Pump Speed
Attempts have been made to use coil control valve position
as a means of controlling pump speed. It is questionable whether
this procedure insures that the pumps are operated at the most
efficient speed. Figure 3a demonstrates that there is no valve
position that is indicative of the total head generated by the
pumps. Figure 3b demonstrates that valve position can be a
valuable tool for reducing the differential pressure maintained
at the differential pressure transmitters. The BMS adjusts the
differential pressure transmitter setpoint with control valve
position. If any control valve is fully open, the setpoint might
November 1998

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be 25 ft (8 m); if all valves are at least 50%

closed, the setpoint could be 15 ft (4.5 m),
and if all valves are near to the closed
position, the setpoint could be 10 ft (3 m).
The valve position/setpoint program
would be developed for each chilled or
hot water system.

Rate of Response
One question that always arises when
dealing with variable speed pump control, specifically through the use of PID
controllers, is How fast does the process value have to be updated? The best
answer for this question is twice per second or faster. The reason is that the pressure in a system changes instantaneously, and the controllers function is
to maintain that pressure at a setpoint.
From a simplified interpretation of the
Nyquist Criterion 1 for stable control, a
controller must update approximately
twice as fast as the fastest process that it
is trying to control. In our case, pressure
imparted by the pumps changing speed
can be realized in the system within one
second.
This means that the controller must
update at least twice per second to maintain stable control, and the inputs to the
controller must be updated at the same
rate or faster than the output of the controller. Therefore, the inputs must be updated twice per second or faster to maintain stable control.
For the typical pump speed PID application, the system can be expected to
settle between 10 and 20 seconds from
the time any upset is introduced (this may
take slightly longer at system startup).
The typical application consists of a PID
controller with an update (response) rate
of twice per second and a process value
that updates at the same rate. This typical response can be seen in Figure 4a.
The system will actually run slightly
over its setpoint and then be brought back
to the correct operating point. This is normal because the controller will continue
to increase the speed of the pumps until
it receives feedback from the system
indicating that the pumps need to be
slowed. This is a small price to pay for
such a rapid response.
When the process value is not updated in a timely manner the PID response
becomes unstable. This can be seen in
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ASHRAE Journal

Figure 3a: This diagram shows the problem of using valve position for pump
speed control.

Figure 3b: This diagram shows differential pressure reset with control valve
position.

Figure 4b. In this case the PID controller

is still updating its output twice per second, but the process value is only being
updated once every twelve seconds. In
classic control theory it is demonstrated
that sometimes a fine line exists between
a good feedback controller and a good
oscillator. The phenomenon that is happening here can be explained best by an
example.
Suppose that a man is placed in a field
and that this man has no way of judging
any distance he moves, but travels about

4 fps (1.2 m/s). Now the man is told that

he needs to move 20 ft (6 m) and once he
starts moving he cannot stop until commanded to do so. The man starts moving
and is not given the command to stop for
twelve seconds. This means he has
moved 48 ft (15 m), which is 28 ft (8.5 m)
past his destination! Now, he is given
feedback telling him that he is 28 ft (8.5 m)
from his destination and he starts on his
way. He again travels 48 ft (15 m), putting
him back to where he started!
This cycle will continue indefinitely,
November 1998

PUMPS

PID Controller Response

Figure 4a: Typical PID response, output and process
update twice per second.
Figure 4b: PID where output is updated twice per
second, but process is updated once every
twelve seconds.
Figure 4c: PID where output and process are both
updated once every twelve seconds.

creating a nice oscillator, but a poor controller. While this may

seem extreme, systems like this can happen and the blame is
usually attributed to variable speed pumping instead of to the
real culprit, unreliable (slow) update from the process value.
One possible solution to this problem of oscillation would
be to slow down the PID response to match the update rate of
the process value. Doing this will create a nice stable controller. The problem is that it takes a long time for the pumps to
reach their proper operating speed. If there is concern for the
efficiency of the system, this is not a good solution. In addition, if any equipment in the system relies on fast stabilization
(such as chillers), this is definitely undesirable. The response
of such a system can be seen in Figure 4c.
Suppose that this theory is applied to the man in the field.
However, now he can take only one step towards his destination every twelve seconds. While he will eventually reach his
destination and maintain his position, it will take him several
minutes to arrive there. Although this solves the problem of an
oscillating controller, it is not the best solution. Due to the
dynamics of the pressure in the system, the PID controller
really needs to update its calculation at least twice per second
to provide proper control of the system.
With all of the control knowledge extant in our industry,
November 1998

there is no excuse for poor control of HVAC variable speed

pumps. A bad control system can cost as much as a properly
designed system. The differential pressure at the controlling
differential pressure transmitter should not vary more than
0.75 of 1 ft of pump head. Any fluctuation above this can
result in over-pressuring the system and an increase in the
pump energy consumption.

Reference
1. Phillips, C. L. and R. D. Harbor. 1988. Feedback Control
Systems, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, p. 288.

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