02436nas a2200217 4500008004100000245013500041210006900176520163000245653002401875653002501899653002301924653002201947653003801969653004402007100001602051700001202067700001502079700001902094700001602113856008902129 2016 eng d00aA Comparative Study on Energy Performance of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems and Variable Air Volume Systems in Office Buildings0 aComparative Study on Energy Performance of Variable Refrigerant 3 a

Variable air volume (VAV) systems and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems are popularly used in office buildings. This study investigated VAV and VRF systems in five typical office buildings in China, and compared their air conditioning energy use. Site survey and field measurements were conducted to collect data of building characteristics and operation. Measured cooling electricity use was collected from sub-metering in the five buildings. The sub-metering data, normalized by climate and operating hours, show that VRF systems consumed much less air conditioning energy by up to 70% than VAV systems. This is mainly due to the different operation modes of both system types leading to much fewer operating hours of the VRF systems. Building simulation was used to quantify the impact of operation modes of VRF and VAV systems on cooling loads using a prototype office building in China. Simulated results show the VRF operation mode leads to much less cooling loads than the VAV operation mode, by 42% in Hong Kong and 53% in Qingdao. The VRF systems operated in the part-time-part-space mode enabling occupants to turn on air-conditioning only when needed and when spaces were occupied, while the VAV systems operated in the full-time-full-space mode limiting occupants’ control of operation. The findings provide insights into VRF systems operation and controls as well as its energy performance, which can inform HVAC designers on system selection and building operators or facility managers on improving VRF system operations.    


 

 

10abuilding simulation10acomparative analysis10aenergy performance10afield measurement10aVariable Air Volume (VAV) Systems10aVariable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems1 aYu, Xinqiao1 aYan, Da1 aSun, Kaiyu1 aHong, Tianzhen1 aZhu, Dandan uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/comparative-study-energy-performance02814nas a2200349 4500008003900000245007400039210006900113260001100182490000800193520171300201653003701914653005101951653001402002653003202016653003202048653002602080653002202106653001502128653001502143653001302158653002002171653002402191100001902215700002202234700001702256700002002273700002802293700002002321700001502341700002302356856008502379 2015 d00aCommercial Building Energy Saver: An energy retrofit analysis toolkit0 aCommercial Building Energy Saver An energy retrofit analysis too c9/20150 v1593 a

Small commercial buildings in the United States consume 47% of the total primary energy of the buildings sector. Retrofitting small and medium commercial buildings poses a huge challenge for owners because they usually lack the expertise and resources to identify and evaluate cost-effective energy retrofit strategies. This paper presents the Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES), an energy retrofit analysis toolkit, which calculates the energy use of a building, identifies and evaluates retrofit measures in terms of energy savings, energy cost savings and payback. The CBES Toolkit includes a web app (APP) for end users and the CBES Application Programming Interface (API) for integrating CBES with other energy software tools. The toolkit provides a rich set of features including: (1) Energy Benchmarking providing an Energy Star score, (2) Load Shape Analysis to identify potential building operation improvements, (3) Preliminary Retrofit Analysis which uses a custom developed pre-simulated database and, (4) Detailed Retrofit Analysis which utilizes real-time EnergyPlus simulations. CBES includes 100 configurable energy conservation measures (ECMs) that encompass IAQ, technical performance and cost data, for assessing 7 different prototype buildings in 16 climate zones in California and 6 vintages. A case study of a small office building demonstrates the use of the toolkit for retrofit analysis. The development of CBES provides a new contribution to the field by providing a straightforward and uncomplicated decision making process for small and medium business owners, leveraging different levels of assessment dependent upon user background, preference and data availability.

10aBuilding Technologies Department10aBuilding Technology and Urban Systems Division10abuildings10abuildings energy efficiency10aCommercial Building Systems10aconservation measures10aenergy efficiency10aenergy use10aenergyplus10aExternal10aRetrofit Energy10asimulation research1 aHong, Tianzhen1 aPiette, Mary, Ann1 aChen, Yixing1 aLee, Sang, Hoon1 aTaylor-Lange, Sarah, C.1 aZhang, Rongpeng1 aSun, Kaiyu1 aPrice, Phillip, N. uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/commercial-building-energy-saver