Energy Evaluation and Energy Savings Analysis with the 2 Selection of AC Systems in an Educational Building

Milen Balbis-Morejón,Javier M Rey-Hernández,Juan J Cabello-Eras,Francisco J Rey-Martínez

doi:10.3390/su13147527

Milen Balbis-Morejón, Javier M Rey-Hernández + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147527

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Abstract

This paper presents an energy performance assessment on an educational building in Barranquilla, Colombia. The electricity consumption performance was assessed using the software DesignBuilder for two different Air Conditioning (AC) systems. The current electricity intensity is 215.3 kWh/m2-year and centralized AC systems with individual fan coils and a water chiller share 66% of the total consumption and lighting at 16%. The simulation of the AC technology change to Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) resulted in an improvement of 38% in AC energy intensity with 88 kWh/m2-year and significant savings in electricity consumption and life-cycle cost of AC systems in buildings.

Highlights

Buildings have a significant 40% share of thetotal energy use worldwide
Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) resulted in an improvement of 38% in Air Conditioning (AC) energy intensity with
In Colombia the energy consumption of buildings is an estimated 22.8% of the total [4] but there is a significant energy saving potential estimated at approximately 25% by The Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME) [5]

Summary

Introduction

Buildings have a significant 40% share of thetotal energy use worldwide. Since the buildings’ internal environment must be conditioned to human comfort, a considerable amount of its energy consumption, approximately 55%, is spent on heating, ventilation, AC, and refrigeration systems [1,2,3]. VRF systems have advantages over other conventional HVAC systems in the market, such as improved building design, reduced installation costs, low energy dissipation, excellent part-load efficiency, quiet operation, and flexible temperature, among others that reaffirm it as a good choice of high-tech product [2,3]. Selecting a simulation program for building energy analysis depends on its application, the number of times it will be used, the user experience, and the hardware available to run it [27] This kind of software uses precise physical functions and thermal dynamics theory to calculate detailed energy consumption from information about the characteristics of the building and the weather, operation performance, program or rate of use, AC systems, lighting, etc. The results indicated the importance and impact of selecting the best technology when the building is designed

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusions