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W
hile energy consumption and atmospheric carbon emissions from most building-related services
are falling, in the United Kingdom those associated with air conditioning (A/C) are growing as
more buildings become air conditioned1 due to increasing occupant expectations of thermal comfort.2
Future projections of UK market trends suggest increased use of A/C will continue, resulting in increased
national energy demand and its associated carbon emissions.3 This growth in carbon emissions conicts
with national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and the UK
governments additional goal to reduce emissions by 60% before 2050.4
In a consumer-led, knowledge-based is likely to involve the use of cleaner out at the Welsh School of Architec-
economy, a conict exists between the energy, improved integration of building ture,5 aims to improve understanding of
desire to restrict the use of air condition- and services design and promotion of the actual energy performance of
ing to reduce environmental impact and highly energy efcient A/C systems. To A/C systems.
the market demand for air conditioning achieve the latter goal, clear guidance is
About the Authors
on the grounds of enhanced productiv- required on the appropriate use of A/C
ity. In practice, to resolve this conict and which systems are the most energy G.N. Dunn is a research associate and I.P. Knight
is senior lecturer at the Welsh School of Architec-
we must explore new ways to reduce efcient in practice.
ture in Cardiff, Wales. E.R. Hitchin is technical
energy use and emissions resulting The research presented in this article, director at Building Research Establishment in
from air conditioning. The way forward along with other work being carried Watford, England.
Percent of Time
1 South East chiller heat pump & two-pipe fan coil with
electric reheat system. (R-407C) 40
Percent of Time
System Mean Winter Spring/Fall Summer 40
System 1: 50 kW
Packaged Chiller 24% 10% N/A 38%
& Fan Coil 20
System 2: 1,275 kW 94% 97% 91% 95%
Screw Chiller & Fan Coil
System 3: 100 kW 0
Packaged Chiller & 72% 70% 71% 75% 5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95
Fan Coil Percent of Full Load
System 4: 7.9kW Figure 2: System 21,275 kW chiller and fan coil.
14% 21% 2% 18%
DX Split
60
Table 2: Summary of system cooling operation time.
Percent of Time
40
Average System Load as a Percentage of Full-Load
System Percentage of Full-Load
System 1: 50 kW Packaged Chiller & Fan Coil 21% 20
System 2: 1,275 kW Screw Chiller & Fan Coil 19%
System 3: 100 kW Packaged Chiller & Fan Coil 8.3%
0
System 4: 7.9 kW DX Split 44%
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95
Table 3: Summary of average system loading. Percent of Full Load
Figure 3: System 3100 kW chiller and fan coil.
increased cooling hours of this system in winter implies the
system might be conicting with the separate heating system 60
in a few areas of the site.
Only System 4 used localized user controls, which coupled
Percent of Time
40
with the relatively well-informed occupants resulted in greatly
reduced hours of operation compared to the other systems, on
average operating only 14% of the time. This had a signicant 20
impact on the energy consumption of this system, though has
no impact on the instantaneous efciencies discussed later in 0
the article. 5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95
Percent of Full Load
Figure 4: System 4 7.9 kW DX split.
Measured Frequency of System Load
This section discusses the loads to which each system was the relationship between the cooling capacity of the system
subjected to over the monitoring period in relation to their and the load served, i.e., the sizing of the chiller plant.
cooling capacity. Figures 1 to 4 show the percentage of time Figures 1 to 4 show the wide range of cooling loads to which
various cooling loads were placed on each system during their the monitored systems were subjected, and also highlight how
operation over the monitoring period, expressed as a percent- infrequently the chillers are required to operate at or even
age of the systems full-load capacity. These frequency proles near their rated full-load capacity. On average these systems
of part-load operation are related, therefore, to the cooling operated between 8% and 44% of their full-load capacity as
loads placed on the system, when the various loads occur, and detailed in Table 3.
In Figure 2, the increased frequency of loads at 10%to 15% of performance compared to the current UK benchmarks of
the systems full load shows the importance of this component A/C system energy consumption6 in UK ofces.* The energy
of the load to the overall system performance. consumption of System 2 at 148 kWh/m2 was the only system
Further investigation of the data (not shown) revealed that to exceed the typical practice energy consumption benchmark
the majority of these loads occurred during the time when the and, therefore, would be considered a high-energy consum-
building was not occupied, which affected the average system ing site. However, as previously mentioned this was expected
load shown in Table 3. due to the high process loads and extended hours of opera-
Figure 4 illustrates the effect of local occupant control on tion at this site.
the system part-load prole, in which the A/C system was The energy consumption of Systems 1 and 4 were 18%
switched on only when required, eliminating the majority of below and 1% above the national good practice benchmark,
part-load operation at levels below 25% of the systems full- respectively. Therefore, both would be considered low energy
load capacity. consuming sites. System 3, on the other hand, would be consid-
Signicantly these gures also highlight the occurrence of ered a moderate energy-consuming site since its annual energy
plant oversizing, since Systems 1 and 3 had at least twice, and consumption of 58 kWh/m2 places it 36% below typical practice
in the case of System 3, possibly even three times, the cooling but 31% above good practice.
capacity they required over the monitoring period since they Table 4 shows the breakdown of energy consumption by
virtually never operated above 30% to 40% of their full load. subsystem components for the non-packaged systems. Signi-
cantly, the non-refrigeration components of all of the fan coil
System Energy Consumption systems consume around 60% of the total energy consumption
This section discusses the energy consumption of the A/C of the systems. This is what substantially reduces the overall
systems in terms of their annual energy consumption compared efciency of the entire A/C system when compared to published
to national benchmarks4 and the breakdown of energy consumed laboratory chiller test data for individual units.
by the various subsystems where obtained.
The measured total annual energy consumption of each of * The UK uses Action Energy Publication Energy Consumption Guide 19 as
its denitive guide to energy consumption in UK ofces. Further information can
the systems is detailed in Table 4, including each systems be found at www.thecarbontrust.co.uk/energy/pages/publication_search.asp.