Evaluation of the energy performance and thermal comfort of an air conditioner with temperature and humidity controls in a cooling season

Abstract

Interest in energy and environmental problems is increasing worldwide, and efforts are being made to reduce the environmental burden of the world's energy needs. Simultaneously, the demand for precise comfort control in buildings has increased as people have acquired a better quality of life. In most cases in residential or small commercial buildings, the desired indoor environment is achieved by set temperature controls for cooling, especially with Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) or Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRV) systems. However, this set-temperature control method may not guarantee thermal comfort for occupants in energy efficient operation. In this study, a new comfort control algorithm is suggested to ensure better thermal comfort of residents, taking into consideration indoor humidity and initial status of indoor air to run the air conditioner. Furthermore, the performance of the algorithm in terms of energy consumption and the thermal comfort ratio is examined and compared with that of the set-temperature control method.