Evaluation of Ground-Source Variable Refrigerant Flow System for U.S. Office Buildings

Byung Chang Kwag and Moncef Krarti
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Byung Chang Kwag: Commercial Air Conditioning, LG Electronics USA, Alpharetta, GA 30022, USA
Moncef Krarti: Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering Department, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: This paper evaluates the energy performance of ground-source variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems to condition office buildings located in various U.S. climates. Specifically, the performance of the ground-source VRF systems was determined and evaluated against that achieved by conventional space heating and cooling systems, including packaged terminal air-conditioners (PTACs), water-source heat pumps (WSHPs), ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs), and water-source VRF systems. A comparative analysis shows that ground-source VRF systems require significantly lower source energy uses than other heating and cooling systems in all U.S. climates, ranging from 21% to 50% for PTACs, from 36% to 52% for WSHPs, from 22% to 49% for GSHPs, and from 4% to 19% for water-source VRFs. These results indicate that ground-source VRFs can be suitable heating and cooling systems for all U.S. climates when designing high-energy-performance commercial buildings.

Keywords: cost analysis; office buildings; variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems; ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs); ground-source VRF systems; water-source heat pumps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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