IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY AND GENERAL APPLICATIONS VOL. IGA-2, NO.

6 NOV /DEC 1966

Solid-State Controller for Air Conditioning Units

RUSSELL E. WOOD AND DAVID B. DIBBLE

Abstract-It is essential to maintain the condensing temperature
of air-cooled air conditioning systems at certain minimum levels
when operating during cold weather. Recent advances in solid-
state technology have opened up new approaches to controlling
condensing temperatures at any desired minimum level. The solid-
state control system described uses an SCR with a unijunction
transistor firing circuit to control directly the power to the specially
designed fan motors. In designing such a control system, con-
sideration has to be given to matching properly the solid-state
control, fan motor, and the temperature sensing device with the air
conditioning unit performance characteristics to obtain the desired
reliability and stability.
The design and operating characteristics of the solid-state
controller and the special fan motor are stressed. The solid-state
circuit design is described and the analysis and testing to insure the
desired characteristics are reported. The controller power output
waveforms are shown and their deleterious effects on standard
motors illustrated. The improvement with the special design of
fan motor is shown.
SUMMARY
IT IS BECOMING common for air conditioning systems
to be required to supply cooling to air conditioned spaces
during all seasons of the year. Interior zones of large build-
ings with either high light and people loads or electronic
equipment loads need air conditioning often when it is as
low as 0°F outside.
An air conditioning unit which uses an air-cooled con-
denser is subject to various problems when the outdoor
temperatures drops below approximately 50°F. At these
low temperatures, there will not be sufficient pressure dif-
ference across the expansion device to pass enough re-
frigerant to the indoor evaporator coil. This causes a grad-
ual decrease in suction pressure at the coil and com-
pressor, resulting in loss of capacity, frost accumulation on
the evaporator coil, possible liquid flood back to the com-
pressor, and even sweating of the liquid line due to ex-
cessive subcooling of the liquid refrigerant.
By controlling the quantity of air flowing over the con-
denser coil, it is possible to maintain the condensing tem-
perature at an optimum operating level. It has now become
practical to control the revolutions per minute of the
condenser fan and thus the quantity of air by using an SCR
(Silicon Controlled Rectifier) in an electronic circuit to
control the average power delivered to the condenser fan
motor.
THEORY
Figure shows a curve of a typical single compressor,
1
single condenser fan system comparing rated capacity to
outdoor ambient temperature entering the condenser coil.
Below 54°F, at ARI rating conditions (80°F dry bulb, 67°F
wet bulb) at the evaporator, the system will begin to lose
capacity. The indoor cooling load at ARI rating conditions
is used in this case, but would actually be lower during
winter operation due to lower relative humidities usually
encountered in the winter months. The system may, there-
fore, start to lose capacity at an even higher outdoor tem-
perature. It is desirable that the condensing temperature
be kept above 90°F to insure proper expansion device feed.
A system normally operates at a condensing temperature
about 30°F above the outdoor ambient temperatures. If
the condenser fan speed, and thus the air quantity, is cut
in half, the difference between outdoor air temperature and
condensing temperature is doubled, assuming the indoor
load remains constant. If, on a day when the ambient tem-
perature was -20°F and the fan speed were reduced to
1/4 of its normal speed, the condensing temperature would
95
z
6004 S
z
40 2
SYSTEM --;
WITHOUT
w CONTR
0
0
0 20-
7 k
0 SYSTEM
C O0 N T R O
WITH
L~~~~~~~~CNTO

Paper approved by the IEEE Electric Space Heating and Air

Conditioning Committee for presentation at the 17th Annual -2C10 11
Appliance Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, May 17-19, 1966. Manu- 20 40 6~0 cO 00 1~0 40
script received October 4, 1966. % ARI CAPACITY
The authors are with the Carrier Air Conditioning Company, Syra-
cuse, N. Y. Fig. 1. Capacity vs. outdoor entering air.
499
500 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY AND GENERAL APPLlCATIONS NOV /DEC

be about 100°F, the normal 30-degree difference being divider, comprised of the thermistor and a resistor; second,
changed to 1200. through a resistor R2 connected to the anode of the SCR.
By using the solid-state circuit shown in Fig. 2, the The thermistor-resistor voltage is fed to the capacitor
power input to a special permanent split capacitor motor through a diode almost instantly every half-cycle. If full
may be precisely controlled, thereby allowing 0 to 100 per- fan power is called for by the thermistor, then the voltage
cent fan speed in response to a temperature signal. divider will provide ample voltage to fire the SCR with
only a few volts drop across the entire control. If the ther-
THERMISTOR SENSOR mistor calls for a very low fan speed, then the initial
The temperature signal for this circuit is obtained with charge on the capacitor from the voltage divider may be
a thermistor. This device is mounted on the condenser coil two volts below the unijunction firing point. The remain-
at a point where condensation is taking place and the tem- ing charge is supplied through R2. This resistor charges the
perature is representative of the condensing temperature capacitor with a cosine wave, so that there is a linear change
being maintained. The thermistor must be electrically between the temperature of the thermistor and the power
isolated from the coil it is mounted on, yet must be ther- supplied to the motor. A given increment of a sine wave
mally responsive to the coil, and must be properly mated has a different amount of power in it than an adj acent
to the system and control to insure system stability. increment. The cosine wave balances this inequity, as
A satisfactory thermistor design shown Fig. 3. The shown in Fig. 4. Thus, the output of the R3 thermistor volt-
is in
assembly is composed of a mounting strap to which a piece age divider controls the power supplied to the motor.
of 1/4-inch OD copper tube is soldered. A piece of in-
sulating material is placed under the thermistor at 'the
bottom of the tube and the tube is filled with a thermally
conductive epoxy. A negative temperature coefficient
thermistor is used.
POWER CIRCUIT
The fan nmotor is connected in series with a full-wave
bridge rectifier. The SCR is connected across the bridge out-
put. When the SCR is triggered to a conducting state by a
positive pulse on its gate, current flows to the motor. At the
end of each half-cycle, the current momentarily goes to
zero and the SCR again becomes an open circuit. It requires
another positive pulse on the gate to allow current to flow
to the motor. The effective power supplied to the motor is
Fig. 2. Circulit.
a function of the percent of the time during a half-cycle
that the SCR is conducting.
The output waveshape of this device must be sym- z LEADS

metrical; that is, the positive half-cycle must be identical

to the negative half-cycle. This is not a problem on resistive CONDUCTIVE EPOXY FILL
TTHERMISTOR
loads, but the effect of a minute direct current component
in the alternating current fed to a motor will result in a RETURN

CLAMP
BEND

lower speed and higher winding temperatures on the

motor. The use of a single SCR insures the symmetry of SATURATED REFRIGERANT
the waveshape and minimizes motor design problems.
CONTROL CIRCUIT
Fig. 3. Thermistor sensor assembly.
A dropping resistor R1 in series with a Zener diode is con-
nected in parallel with the SCR. The Zener diode provides
a reference voltage for the control circuit when the SCR is
in the nonconducting state. The pulse which controls the
SCR comes from a capacitor discharging through a uni- ZENER REFERENCE VOLTS

junction transistor. It is a characteristic of this transistor UJ

UJT FIRING
that when the voltage between emitter and Base 1 exceeds (D
VOLTS
CAPACITOR CHARGE
a certain percent of the voltage between Base 1 and T HERMISTOR- R3 VOLTS

Base 2, then the resistance between emitter and Base 1

becomes very small. In this circuit, the capacitor is charged
up to the firing voltage of the transistor, then discharged 1/2 CYLE
through the transistor into the gate of the SCR. The TIME

capacitor is charged from two sources. First, by the voltage Fig. 4' Control circuit voltages.
1966 WOOD AND DIBBLE: SOLID-STATE CONTROLLER FOR CONDITIONING UNITS 501

TRANSIENT PROTECTION
All semiconductor components in this circuit are sub-
ject to transient overvoltages. The unijunction transistor
and Zener diode are self-protecting; however, the diodes
and SCR have been damaged in the laboratory by placing
the control on the secondary of a 460: 230 volt transformer
and switching the 460 volt primary. Transient overvoltages
over 4000 volts have been recorded on the control in this
manner. An avalanche diode was placed from anode to gate
on the SCR. This diode was selected to avalanche at a volt-
age lower than the peak inverse voltage rating of the bridge
diodes. When the avalanche diodes voltage rating is ex-
ceeded, it triggers the SCR and allows the transient to
pass through the control and be dissipated in the motor.
FAN MOTORS
M\'Iotors and associated equipment which are used with
this control must be compatible with it. Figure 5 shows
speed, voltage, and temperature rise of a permanent split
capacitor (PSC) motor. Curves A and B are for motors
which are considered standard. Curve A shows the voltage
reduced by means of a variable auto transformer. Curve B
shows the effect of this control on the same motor. Curve C
shows the replacement motor which was designed to work
with this control.
When a motor is slipped down with a variable auto
transformer, the rotor losses become enormous. At half
voltage, for example, of the total watts input about 22 per-
cent is stator losses, 41 percent is rotor losses, and 37 per-
cent is doing work, whereas at full voltage in the same
motor, 9 percent is rotor losses, 19 percent is stator losses
and 72 percent is doing work. When this control is used, the
rotor losses are compounded due to the existence of har-
monics in the waveshape applied to the motor. At half
voltage, approximately one-third the total energy supplied
to the motor through this control is at the fundamental line
frequency, about one-third is at the third harmonic, and
the remaining one-third is at other odd harmonics. Because
of the symmetry of the waveshape, even order harmonics
do not exist. These harmonics, incidentally, cause all
mranner of vibration problems in fans and motor mounts
which were designed for 60 cycle use and never tested at
180 and 300 cycles.
Another important relationship is between input power
and speed. Curve B shows a much steeper slope than curve
C anid motor B is much more prone to getting the whole
system into a hunting situation due to a snmall voltage
change causing a larger speed change.
The solution to these problems has been in designing a
rotor which has minimum losses at low speeds and rotors
and stators which are less susceptible to harmonics. These
things all tend to reduce efficiency at full power to the
motor so there is a very definite limit placed on how far it
is economically feasible to go. The remaining heat has to be
removed from the motor with improved cooling systems. A
large fan integrally cast into the endring of the rotor has
proven the most successful means of removing this heat.
TESTING
This control is designed to operate on 208- to 240-volt
systems and at design ambients from -20 to 125°F. The
critical components in the control were thermocoupled and

-300
.~~~~~~

-- ~~~~~~~-looc
SPEED
9900
SPEED SPEED

200 - - 800

w
EM f 1 A_ 300

Q)
(I, 0-
a.
IOV 120 RPM -600 II:
0W IOV= 100 RPMI
PF
I-

Tl S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
W .

-Ii-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
U DO WV eVV - , \ 300

t/ X,~Il-~ - --

-.
200

0 50 ISO
000 EO 250 0 50
I
In
100
I

150 200
.=n
2550 0 50 100 150 200 250
VOLTS

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 5. Motor characteristics. (a) Standard PSC motor with Variac. (b) Standard PSC motor with solid-state control.
(c) Special PSC motor with solid-state control.
502 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY AND GENERAL APPLICATIONS NOV/DEC

checked on an operating system at voltage extremes (187 CONCLUSION

to 264 volts) and at temperatures from -40 to + 125.
At low ambients and light loading, the entire system was
tested for stability. The sensitivity of the control was ad-
justed so that, at very low ambients, wind gusts and ex-
pansion device instability would not cause the system to
go into an undamped hunt or a hunt whose extremes would
cause unsafe or unsatisfactory operation.
Since there is always a slight voltage drop through the
control, its effect at maximum ambients was checked. This
voltage drop is caused by the drop through the diode bridge
and also by the fact that some of the wave is always
chopped out. The effect of this at maximum ambients was
found to be about 0.5 percent in fan speed. This was found
to be insignificant on total system performance.
The application of a solid-state speed control to an air-
cooled air conditioning system for the purpose of control-
ling head pressure has proven to be an intricate balance
of many items. When these items are all brought into har-
mony, a reliable device can be produced which increases
the versatility of the air-cooled air conditioning system and
improves the operational reliability.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Acknowledgment is made to Dr. J. Law and R. Resh
of the Carrier Research Division, Carrier Corporation,
and to L. Rodgers of the Carrier Air Conditioning Com-
pany for their assistance in the refinement and evaluation
of the control package.

David B. Dibble was born in Syracuse, N. Y., on April 16, 1931. He received the B.M.E. de-
gree from Syracuse University, N. Y., in 1954.
He joined the Chrysler Corporation, Highland Park, Mich., in 1954, in their Institute of En-
gineering program. From mid-1954 to 1956 he served in the United States Navy as an Engi-
neering Officer. He joined Carrier Corporation, Syracuse, N. Y., in 1956, and worked as a de-
velopment engineer in the Unitary Equipment Development Department. He has been in-
volved in the development of packaged air conditioning and heating units ranging in size from
room to 80-ton air conditioners. He is at present Manager of the Large Packaged Equipment
Development Department for Carrier Air Conditioning Company, a division of Carrier Corp-
oration.
Mr. Dibble is a member of ASHRAE.

Russell E. Wood was born in Syracuse, N. Y., on February 5, 1937. He received the B.S. degree
in mechanical engineering from John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., in 1958.
He served in the United States Army as a guided missile maintenance officer, and then joined
United Aircraft Research Laboratories, East Hartford, Conn., in 1961. In 1962 he joined Carrier
Air Conditioning Company, Syracuse, N. Y., where he has been involved with the development
of packaged commercial air conditioning systems and with their application for satisfactory
year-round operation.
Mr. Wood is a member of ASHRAE.