Effects of outdoor air conditions on hybrid air conditioning based on task/ambient strategy with natural and mechanical ventilation in office buildings

Abstract

This research aims to clarify the effects and indoor environmental characteristics of natural and mechanical hybrid air-conditioning systems in office buildings during intermediate seasons and to obtain design data. Natural and mechanical hybrid air conditioning is an air-conditioning system that utilizes natural ventilation and mechanical air-conditioning systems to improve the quality of the indoor thermal and air environment, and to reduce energy consumption. This report first categorizes the available natural ventilation conditions and estimates the amount of natural ventilation available in a model building. Furthermore, based on the concept of task-ambient air conditioning, after controlling the average temperature in the task zone to a target air conditioning temperature (26°C), changes in the outdoor temperature/humidity and the inflow rate, and the indoor environment and amount of cool heat input were studied with changes in the size of the natural vent using three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. The results of these studies indicated that natural ventilation at temperatures lower than the indoor temperature effectively covered the lower indoor task zone through negative buoyancy, which enabled energy-saving air conditioning in the task zone.