LCCP Evaluation on Environmental Impact of Air-Conditioning Cold and Heat Source

Abstract

Several indexes for evaluating the global warming impact, including GWP (global warming potential), TEWI (total equivalent warming impact) and LCCP (life cycle climate performance), are analyzed and investigated from the concept, contents, difference and correlation among them. LCCP is a rigorous method to calculate the cradle-to-grave warming impact of different refrigeration and air conditioning systems. The LCCP index was therein used to analyze overall greenhouse effect of three air conditioning cold and heat source plans for a public building. The results show that the total amount of equivalent CO2 emission from air conditioning heat and cold sources is up to 50,000 tons throughout the life cycle. Indirect global warming impact dominated the LCCP values of cold and heat source systems, which accounts for >96% of overall impact and caused by energy consumption both for producing refrigerant and operating refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. Therefore, increasing the energy efficiency of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment to reduce indirect global warming impact is the key to lowering A/C’ total impact on climate change. The LCCP of water source heat pump is always lower than that of conventional electric water chillers plus gas direct-fired unit, and its carbon emission reduction rates up to 32.4% as compared to the latter. So the overall impact from air conditioning cold and heat source could be effectively reduced through using renewable energy technology.