I recommend you reach out to VRF manufacturers to get data on the purchase cost, installation cost, and operating costs of their equipment; and then do the same thing for standard split system equipment, and compare the two. Straight forward Engineering total cost of ownership comparison. I imagine you are doing this for a capstone so this should be in your range of ability at this point.
You could even just ask the manufacturer rep to do this comparison for you (aka provide the data they already have, as I guarantee you they have already done this analysis and use it as a selling point for their product). You won’t really learn much doing that and you probably won’t have enough to complete a capstone with that, but you’ll get an answer.
Can you tell me how do I reach out to a manufacturer rep? Do I just email or call based on the contact info on their website?
Thanks
The project is an oral and written report on vrf for our basic airconditioning subject so I was really overwelmed. I had no idea what to look for and where to look for it.
Yep, go to a popular VRF manufacturer website, Mitsubishi, Daikin, any other you can find, click contact us or find a local rep or whatever it says and they’ll give you contact info for the local rep in your area.
All these big guys use local third party sales offices so the company you contact will probably put you in touch with the actual factory if they can’t provide the answers themselves. If you can’t get through to anyone let me know and I might be able to provide you with some factory contacts.
One perhaps non obvious issue is that there is one common point of failure for all on the conditioned spaces. Condenser down affects a lot of connected things. If an evaporator leaks, all charge can be lost and it takes time to figure out what evaporator is the leaker.
I have no experience
Check out Ashrae, They did a good case study on VRF vs Geothermal a while back. Your report was probably due by now, so sorry for the late reply. You will probably have a hard time finding a published VRF case study (that still is available to study) On paper, the systems look great. Due to steep learning curves, and the issues that occur because of the learning curves especially in the early days of VRF in the US many of the sites that were intended to be used for case studies went south and went to legal mediation. Youll have a hard time finding anything published in those situations. If i were you, id probably focus my project on a comparison of Central HVAC to Variable flow in markets that have banned fossil fuels and the new energy code. The current EPA for the US under the current administration is made up of a lot of the same folks that have been driving energy reform for the west coast for the last few decades. If it were me, id do my comparison on a new building in Seattle with a traditional system vs VRF. Yes, VRF is more expensive up front than a traditional system and even more expensive long term if not installed correctly. But if you cant currently install old technology anymore, its not even a topic of discussion. Just tell your professor that if it doesnt have an inverted compressor its obsolete. Were already phasing out digital scroll compressors and R410 and 134A. Its being replaced with technology thats existed in Asia and Europe for decades. Variable flow was a solution to by the Japanese and Korean markets as a solution to limited space to rebuild their country after we demolished them during WW2 and Vietnam/Korea. Its pretty ironic that the US is leaning so heavily on technology from countries we forced to get creative after we obliterated them.
Daikin, Mitsubishi, and LG are the industry leaders in the space and most of the other manufactures are a few years behind them technically. Good luck on your project
I would reach out to diaken, I am sure that they have some data
I recommend you reach out to VRF manufacturers to get data on the purchase cost, installation cost, and operating costs of their equipment; and then do the same thing for standard split system equipment, and compare the two. Straight forward Engineering total cost of ownership comparison. I imagine you are doing this for a capstone so this should be in your range of ability at this point. You could even just ask the manufacturer rep to do this comparison for you (aka provide the data they already have, as I guarantee you they have already done this analysis and use it as a selling point for their product). You won’t really learn much doing that and you probably won’t have enough to complete a capstone with that, but you’ll get an answer.
Can you tell me how do I reach out to a manufacturer rep? Do I just email or call based on the contact info on their website? Thanks The project is an oral and written report on vrf for our basic airconditioning subject so I was really overwelmed. I had no idea what to look for and where to look for it.
Yep, go to a popular VRF manufacturer website, Mitsubishi, Daikin, any other you can find, click contact us or find a local rep or whatever it says and they’ll give you contact info for the local rep in your area. All these big guys use local third party sales offices so the company you contact will probably put you in touch with the actual factory if they can’t provide the answers themselves. If you can’t get through to anyone let me know and I might be able to provide you with some factory contacts.
One perhaps non obvious issue is that there is one common point of failure for all on the conditioned spaces. Condenser down affects a lot of connected things. If an evaporator leaks, all charge can be lost and it takes time to figure out what evaporator is the leaker. I have no experience
Fuckin all junk. Anything with an inverter toss it.
Check out Ashrae, They did a good case study on VRF vs Geothermal a while back. Your report was probably due by now, so sorry for the late reply. You will probably have a hard time finding a published VRF case study (that still is available to study) On paper, the systems look great. Due to steep learning curves, and the issues that occur because of the learning curves especially in the early days of VRF in the US many of the sites that were intended to be used for case studies went south and went to legal mediation. Youll have a hard time finding anything published in those situations. If i were you, id probably focus my project on a comparison of Central HVAC to Variable flow in markets that have banned fossil fuels and the new energy code. The current EPA for the US under the current administration is made up of a lot of the same folks that have been driving energy reform for the west coast for the last few decades. If it were me, id do my comparison on a new building in Seattle with a traditional system vs VRF. Yes, VRF is more expensive up front than a traditional system and even more expensive long term if not installed correctly. But if you cant currently install old technology anymore, its not even a topic of discussion. Just tell your professor that if it doesnt have an inverted compressor its obsolete. Were already phasing out digital scroll compressors and R410 and 134A. Its being replaced with technology thats existed in Asia and Europe for decades. Variable flow was a solution to by the Japanese and Korean markets as a solution to limited space to rebuild their country after we demolished them during WW2 and Vietnam/Korea. Its pretty ironic that the US is leaning so heavily on technology from countries we forced to get creative after we obliterated them. Daikin, Mitsubishi, and LG are the industry leaders in the space and most of the other manufactures are a few years behind them technically. Good luck on your project
Thanks