Characterising the energy performance of centralised HVAC&R systems in the UK

Abstract

Heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems account for more than 60% of the energy consumption of buildings in the UK. However, the effect of the variety of HVAC&R systems on building energy performance has not yet been taken into account within the existing building energy benchmarks. In addition, the existing building energy benchmarks are not able to assist decision-makers with HVAC&R system selection. This study attempts to overcome these two deficiencies through the performance characterisation of 36 HVAC&R systems based on the simultaneous dynamic simulation of a building and a variety of HVAC&R systems using TRNSYS software. To characterise the performance of HVAC&R systems, four criteria are considered; energy consumption, CO2 emissions, thermal comfort and indoor air quality. The results of the simulations show that, all the studied systems are able to provide an acceptable level of indoor air quality and thermal comfort. However, the energy consumption and amount of CO2 emissions vary. One of the significant outcomes of this study reveals that combined heating, cooling and power systems (CCHP) have the highest energy consumption with the lowest energy related CO2 emissions among the studied HVAC&R systems.

A fuzzy multiple attribute decision making tool for HVAC&R systems selection with considering the future probabilistic climate changes and electricity decarbonisation plans in the UK

“…The alternative HVAC&R systems are theoretically installed in the reference office building and their technical and economic performance and environmental impacts are assessed using the TRNSYS software, version 17 (Klein et al, 2009) together with an estimation of the initial, operational and on-going maintenance costs. The detailed specification of the prototypical building and the numerical simulation of the different HVAC&R systems are described in Shahrestani et al (2013). Here, it should be noted that HVAC&R systems are designed to match the cooling and heating loads calculated by TRNSYS.…”

Evaluation of a Simplified Calculation Approach for Final Heating Energy Use in Non-residential Buildings

“…As argued by [9,10] an integrated approach is therefore better suited, where a dynamic simulation is set up that includes both the building and the system. Though holistic studies on HVAC system performance characterisation are rather rare [11], this approach has been successfully adopted in a few studies, illustrating the influence of the building and the building use on the HVAC system efficiency.…”

Influence of building surface solar irradiance on environmental temperatures in urban neighborhoods

“…Experimental and numerical modeling methods allow solutions of this equation system representing actual neighborhoods. Experimental methods entail wind tunnel measurements or placement of sensors in the urban environment to measure air temperature, wind velocity, and solar intensity among other variables (Shahrestani et al, 2013;Srebric et al, 2015). The experimental methods accurately represent local temperatures and wind speeds, but the measurements are limited to areas covered by the sensors.…”