Energy simulation of sustainable air-cooled chiller system for commercial buildings under climate change

Abstract

Air-cooled chiller systems are commonly used to provide cooling energy in commercial buildings but with considerable electricity consumption. This study demonstrates how to operate the systems with sustainable performance under climate change by applying optimal condenser fan speed control coupled with mist pre-cooling of air entering the condensers. The simulation of system performance was carried out by using EnergyPlus together with an experimentally verified chiller model capable of analyzing advanced control strategies. Weather data under three climate change scenarios in 2020, 2050 and 2080 were considered in evaluating the cooling demand and hourly electricity consumption of an air-cooled chiller system serving an office building. It is found that optimal condenser fan speed control coupled with mist pre-cooling of air-cooled condensers can help maintain a higher coefficient of performance under the warmer future climate, reducing the annual electricity consumption by 16.96–18.58% in the reference weather year and 2080. The ways to implement the sustainable control have been discussed.