Experimental Comparison of Commercial Implementations of Guideline 36 and Legacy Controller Sequences of Operation

Published

May 5, 2026

Author(s)

Amanda Pertzborn, Michael Galler

Abstract

In this study, we test the performance of Guideline 36-compliant sequences of operation for the air system and compare the performance to sequences of operation that predate Guideline 36. We present a platform that can be used to study the impact on building operations of changing the control system in a building without changing any other aspect of that building, such as equipment upgrades, internal load variations, and changes to weather. We use the Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed (VCBT), which contains commercial BACnet-enabled controllers and an operator workstation, as well as the Intelligent Building Agents Laboratory (IBAL), which uses chillers to meet the loads in an air handling unit-variable air volume (AHU-VAV) system and can generate repeatable weather conditions and zone loads. These facilities use a hardware-in-the-loop approach, which combines a simulation of a building with hardware. This is the first demonstration of the combined VCBT-IBAL platform, which provides a method to evaluate potential sequences of operation in hardware before deploying them in real buildings.

Citation

Science and Technology for the Built Environment

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1080/23744731.2026.2663718

Local Download

Keywords

Guideline 36, HVAC, controls, hardware-in-the-loop

Citation

Pertzborn, A. and Galler, M. (2026), Experimental Comparison of Commercial Implementations of Guideline 36 and Legacy Controller Sequences of Operation, Science and Technology for the Built Environment, [online], https://doi.org/10.1080/23744731.2026.2663718, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=960813 (Accessed August 12, 2026)

Additional citation formats