Ip, K; Miller, A and Shum, F (2003) Evaluation of indoor air quality and energy use in air conditioned office buildings. In: Greenwood, D J (ed.) Proceedings of 19th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2003, Brighton, UK.
Abstract
Poor indoor air quality is a common problem in air conditioned office buildings in particular where the room air distribution has not been fully considered and fresh air supply has been reduced for the purpose of energy saving. Recent advances in technology and better understanding of indoor air quality issues have however led to the development of air conditioning systems that can provide better indoor air quality in office buildings. This research has evaluated the energy consumption of two groups of air conditioning systems relative to different levels of indoor air quality. The two groups of air conditioning systems considered were all air and the displacement ventilation systems. Both are capable of providing indoor air quality that complies with the ASHRAE standard. Computer models of these two systems were established and APACHE simulation software was used to evaluate their dynamic thermal and energy performance when different percentages of air are re-circulated. The ventilation decay equation, using carbon dioxide as the key indoor air quality indicator, was then used to evaluate the level of air quality. The results indicated that all air systems with over 20% air re-circulation would not achieve the recommended level of air quality. Re-circulating air would therefore not be an acceptable means of energy saving although an alternative is to incorporate heat recovery as an integral part of the air conditioning system. Displacement ventilation was found to provide the best indoor air quality. Results showed that the operating energy of displacement ventilation with chilled ceiling is only slightly higher than a comparable variable air volume system and further consideration should be given to their more widespread use in offices.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | air-conditioning energy; displacement ventilation; indoor air quality; thermal simulation |
| Index terms: | carbon dioxide, office building, air conditioning, ventilation, circulation, energy performance, air quality, recovery, energy use, energy consumption, energy-saving, indoor air quality |
| Subjects: | operations management, energy systems, environmental health, air quality, urban design, climate science, environmental engineering, construction type |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Construction Technology, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here