Indoor Thermal Environment and Energy Characteristics with Varying Cooling System Capacity and Restart Time

San Jin, Chanuk Lee, Dongsu Kim, Donghoon Lee and Sunglok Do
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San Jin: Department of Building and Plant Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Chanuk Lee: Department of Building and Plant Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Dongsu Kim: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Donghoon Lee: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Sunglok Do: Department of Building and Plant Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: Office cooling systems are controlled with on/off control according to typical occupancy patterns. During unoccupancy, the cooling systems remain switched off to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. During occupancy, however, the cooling systems are in operation to decrease the indoor air temperature, which is increased during unoccupancy, to the cooling set-point temperature. The time required to decrease the indoor air temperature to the cooling set-point temperature is defined as the “recovery time”. According to the recovery time, the indoor thermal comfort at the occupancy start time may worsen, and unnecessary energy may be consumed. Moreover, a cooling system capacity affects the recovery time and the energy consumption because the amount of heat that the cooling system can remove varies according to its size. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the indoor thermal environment and the energy consumption according to the capacity and the restart time of the cooling system. This study implemented a building system energy simulation using EnergyPlus to evaluate the indoor air temperature, recovery time, and energy consumption of the cooling system while varying the capacity and restart time. As a result, the recovery time was between 49 and 425 min. and energy consumption varied between 419.0 and 521.4 kWh for various capacities. The recovery time was between 26 and 153 min. and energy consumption was between 426.0 and 439.0 kWh for various restart times.

Keywords: office cooling system; recovery time; indoor thermal environment; energy consumption; restart time; capacity; energy simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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