Economizers

economizers

Many folks see an economizer as just an open damper. Not understanding that there's a reason for why it's open (or closed), they figure an open damper is "out of control" and disable it.

The reason for having an economizer is that there are times, such as this time of year in many parts of the country, when the temperature and humidity outside is just right for conditioning the air inside. So the economizer control measures the temperature and humidity of the outside air. The controller is sometimes called an "enthalpy" controller.

A way to save energy is to have an economizer as the first stage of cooling. When the enthalpy controller says conditions are right, the economizer provides "free cooling."

There are a number of different controls. If you can get the number from the old control, for example W7499, just to mention one, you can go to the Honeywell website with the number and pull up all the literature about it. So for this one, go to customer.honeywell.com. At the very bottom right corner, under literature, type in W7499. Then you can click on the piece of literature you want to see.

Also, there is an "Conomizer Systems Quick Selection Guide" on p 401 of the 2006 catalog. To see the catalog, on the first page of the website, again at the lower right corner, enter literature form number 70-6910.