Economic Evaluation of Residential Central Air Conditioning Systems

Abstract

Nowadays the residential central air conditioning systems are being widely used in China, and there are several different system options in the actual applications. Different residential central air conditioning systems will have different initial costs and operating costs. It is quite important for the decision-makers to choose an economical air conditioning system. In this paper six residential central air conditioning systems are introduced, which are the air-source heat pump system, household gas-fired air conditioning system, air-cooled chiller unit/gas-fired boiler system, water loop heat pump system, ground-source heat pump system and solar heat pump system. By using the method of dynamic total annual cost with an example of residential building in Beijing, the total annual costs of chosen six air conditioning systems are calculated and compared, and the sensitivity of total annual cost are analyzed with the rates of electricity and natural gas being used as the sensitive factors. The results show that the total annual cost of water loop heat pump system is the minimum among the six systems, which is the optimal option under the given conditions. The rates of electricity and natural gas will influence the raking of systems.