Painting green: Design and analysis of an environmentally and energetically conscious paint booth HVAC control system

• Published in: 2008 American Control Conference pp. 3325 - 3330
• Main Authors: Sadeghipour, E., Westervelt, E.R., Bhattacharya, S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-06-2008
• Subjects: Automotive engineering; Carbon dioxide; Control systems; Costs; Electrical equipment industry; Energy consumption; Footwear industry; Natural gas; Paints
• ISBN: 1424420784; 9781424420780
• ISSN: 0743-1619; 2378-5861
• DOI: 10.1109/ACC.2008.4587005

Paint booths in the automotive industry require conditioned air to achieve desired product finish quality. The large amount of conditioned air required to operate a paint booth results in large amounts of energy consumption. This paper presents an analysis of the energy consumption of a paint booth and gives a means of reducing this consumption by designing and implementing a novel control strategy. This proposed strategy is expected to decrease the plant's HVAC utility costs by more than a fifth, and reduce its annual carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas combustion by roughly a quarter.