Comparison between the chiller air cooled with the variable refrigerant flow technology for high building air conditioning system

Abstract

Energy efficiency is one of the emerging issues of technical and engineering studies recently. Along with the development of massively high buildings, the need of energy saving increases globally. The largest energy usage in buildings is the air conditioning system. Its energy consumption and energy efficiency are significantly affected by the type of the technology used. Therefore, this study compared the chiller air cooled with the variable refrigerant flow technology for high building’s air condition system. Technically the analysis was carried out by using the Hourly Analysis Program E-20 software as a tool to calculate the amount of electrical energy consumption at 15 floors office building’s cooling system for 6 months. Financially the comparison of both technologies was conducted by a total annual cost analysis. This study found that the electricity consumption of the chiller air cooled is lower than the variable refrigerant flow system. Besides the total cost of the chiller air cooled is more efficient than the refrigerant flow technology. The further empirical research is recommended for other different type of buildings such as hospital, factory plant, school or university, airport and so on.