Fan Flow Control Factor describes how the fans within a building will operate. Variable flow achieved by assigning control factors reduce energy used by the fans.
The platform provides and following options for Fan Flow Control Factor in descending order of efficiency:
No Control [1]
Inlet Blade Adjunct [0.75]
Variable Speed [0.65]
Variable Speed control includes variable speed motors which can run at different speeds based on demand, saving fan energy vs. fans which have no speed control. Inlet blade adjunct is a method of controlling speed by adjusting the pitch of the fan blades, while keeping the motor speed constant. Inlet blade adjunct does not provide as much variability as a variable motor.
cove.tool uses NEN 2916 Energy Performance of Non-Residential Buildings for the calculation of Fan Flow Control Factor. NEN 2916 is the basis for several calculation methods including SBEM.
The Fan Flow Control Factor input is located on the Baseline page, under the Building Systems tab. The default values are populated based the Energy code defined on the Project page.
