Abstract
Energy consumption in the buildings is responsible for 26% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions where cooling typically accounts for over 50% of the total building energy use. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for reducing the cooling systems’ environmental footprint with applications of alternative renewable energy source. Three types of cooling systems, water cooled, air cooled and a hybrid solar-based air-conditioning system, with a total of six scenarios were designed in this work. The scenarios accounted for the types of power supply to the air-conditioning systems with electricity from the grid and with a solar power from highly integrated building photovoltaics (BIPV). Within and between these scenarios, systems’ energy performances were compared based on energy modelling while the harvesting potential of the renewable energy source was further predicted based on building’s detailed geometrical model. The results showed that renewable energy obtained via BIPV scenario could cover building’s annual electricity consumption for cooling and reduce 140 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year. The hybrid solar air-conditioning system has higher energy efficiency than the air cooled chiller system but lower than the water cooled system.
Highlights
The increasing concern over rapid growth of energy consumption and the need for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in building services has become one of the priority objectives when planning the design of new buildings [1,2]
For the cooling demand, power consumption requirements and greenhouse gas emissions based on the local weather conditions
To test the potential of the solar power used by the building, an annual cumulative insolation analysis was performed using a building model and accounting for the nearby shading elements
Summary
The increasing concern over rapid growth of energy consumption and the need for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in building services has become one of the priority objectives when planning the design of new buildings [1,2]. The increased living standards, occupant comfort demands and building architectural characteristic trends, such as increasing application of transparent rather than opaque surfaces in the building envelope or even glass buildings, drive the growing energy demand for air-conditioning [3,4]. This occurs in residential and commercial buildings and in the educational building sector. The local availability of renewable energy sources should be considered a priority [6] for integration in sustainable green building designs. The cooling demand occurs in the daytime when the activities are occurring in the building, and the demand reduces to the background level after the sunset
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