Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) applications can use a wide range of full-scale, low-pressure sensors to address the variety of measurements involved in controlling and monitoring for maximum efficiency and performance. In a multilevel building, these measurements could include the use of differential pressure transmitters, a variable airflow volume (VAV) unit, a positive pressure module and airflow system monitor as well as a handheld test system.
The measurements typically range from up to 10” H2O (2500 Pa) down to 1” H2O (250 Pa) and even as low as 0.1” H2O (25 Pa). To deliver the required and “as specified on the data sheet” performance, traditional sensor products for these HVAC applications support only a single calibrated full-scale range. This necessitates the use of 3 to 5 or more separate sensors/transducers to cover the required range of pressures.
Using proprietary NimbleSense™ technology built into its HV series product families, Superior Sensor Technology provides the industry’s first Multi-Range™ pressure sensor products. This capability enables a single system to cover the full range required while maintaining optimized, calibrated performance at each desired pressure range. A single user command optimizes products for operation in any range from 20” H2O (5000 Pa) down to 0.1” H2O (25 Pa) while delivering 0.1% max accuracy for the selected range and a total error band (including offset, span and thermal effect errors) as low as 0.15 % FSS.
The solution provides programmable bandwidth control as well as flexible filtering options to optimize sensing for a variety of selectable pressure ranges. These HVAC application-specific pressure sensors allow the manufacturer to cut the number of inventoried products by factors of 3 to 5 or more, saving substantially on inventory cost and simplifying manufacturing efforts.
