Analysis of Heat Source System Degradation Due to Aging and Evaluation of Its Effect on Energy Consumption

Je-Hyeon Lee, Dong-Gyu Kim, Seok-Kwon Jeong and Young-hak Song ()
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Je-Hyeon Lee: Department of Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineering, Pukyong National University, Yongso-ro 45, Nam-gu, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
Dong-Gyu Kim: Department of Mechanical and Shipbuilding Convergence Engineering, Pukyong National University, Yongso-ro 45, Nam-gu, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
Seok-Kwon Jeong: Department of Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineering, Pukyong National University, Yongso-ro 45, Nam-gu, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
Young-hak Song: Department of Architectural Engineering, ERI, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju daero 501, Jinju City 52828, Republic of Korea

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 23, 1-17

Abstract: The performance of air conditioning systems deteriorate due to the natural aging and wear caused by operating the devices. This is termed “aging degradation,” and it results from a lack of appropriate maintenance which accelerates the degree of performance degradation. The performance degradation of an air conditioning system can cause problems such as increased energy consumption, deteriorated indoor heating environment, and shortened lifespan of air conditioning equipment. To prevent such problems, it is important to establish a long-term maintenance plan to recover degraded performance, such as predicting an appropriate maintenance time by identifying the real-time performance degradation rate based on a system’s operation data. In this study, the performance degradation rate, according to the operating time, was estimated using long-term operation data for devices constituting a heat source system, and the effect of performance degradation of the heat source system’s operation and energy consumption was reviewed using a simulation. The performance degradation rate of the target device was estimated by analyzing the variation trend of the calibration coefficient, which was calculated when the initial performance prediction model was calibrated through operating data. Using this approach, it was confirmed that the annual performance degradation rate was 1.0–1.4% for the heat source equipment, 0.4–1.2% for the cooling towers, and 0.8–1.3% for the pumps. In addition, a heat source system energy simulation calculated the 15-year performance degradation of the heat source equipment to be 34–52% and 7–19% for both the cooling towers and pumps. Due to the equipment performance deterioration, the number of operating heat source equipment and cooling tower fans, and the pump flow rate gradually increased every year, thus accelerating the performance deterioration even further. As a result, energy consumption in the 15th year increased by approximately 41% compared with the initial energy consumption.

Keywords: aging degradation; BEMS (building energy management system); heat source system; simulation; energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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