Energy efficient HVAC design of buildings using locally available materials

Abstract

In today’s world, around 50% of the electrical is energy consumed in the buildings, andheating and cooling cost accounts nearly half of a typical home's energy cost. So, it is very important that the heating ventilation and air-condition (HVAC) system of the building is made energy efficient. The aim of this research work is to design efficient building HVAC system using locally available materials. Traditionally, ASHRAE Cooling Load Temperature Difference (CLTD) method is used. This method can only assess cooling load at a given time. However, in this present work,EnergyPlus simulation tool is used which gives dynamic load estimation based on hourly contribution of the cooling load components and therefore peak load can be optimized. Hence, building design parameters such as wall, shading, window etc. can be optimized. Moreover, locally available materials can be used in simulation which is the main motive of the work. In this research, a cooling load assessment is done on a standard prototype building and the result of it is tabulated and compared with CLTD method. Then the building is modified by changing the wall and glasses from single pane to double pane, shading devices are put on the window and the roof surface is shaded by PV panel. Then again, the simulation is done and all the results are analyzed. The results are plotted to show the energy savings due to the changes. It could be concluded from the graphs that these changes cause significant reduction of the peak cooling load. Economic analysis is also carried out to estimate the payback period for the additional costs of the components.