Prediction and evaluation of air conditioner energy consumption of residential buildings in the Yangtze River Basin

Abstract

Prediction and evaluation of energy consumption can guide energy usage behavior and promote energy saving. In view of the impact of many factors, like regional meteorological conditions, availability of passive techniques and occupant behavior, evaluation is complex. This paper focuses on the air conditioner energy consumption of residential buildings in the Yangtze River Basin. In terms of nature resources and climate conditions, A new zoning map with eight sub-zones for the adaptability of passive techniques was developed. The adaptability of single passive techniques and passive technique combinations in every sub-zone were summarized by comparing heating/cooling load, non-air-conditioning time and indoor thermal comfortable time. Moreover, the concepts of operational heating/cooling degree hours (OHDH/OCDH) and relative energy consumption index were proposed. A method to quantify and evaluate the impact of occupant behavior on the energy consumption of air conditioners was built. The occupant behavior was divided into three levels: Saving-level (S-level), Comfortable-level (C-level) and Lavish-level (L-level), based on the OCDH/OHDH. Furthermore, the energy consumption targets of diverse sub-zones are obtained, considering the indoor thermal comfort, occupant behavior and adaptive passive techniques. A case study demonstrates that the relative energy consumption index can avoid an unreasonable judgment caused by only focusing on energy consumption while neglecting indoor thermal comfort.