Potential energy savings in air-conditioning building systems, due to the improvement of outdoor air

Abstract

In Mediterranean countries, air-conditioning in buildings can represent up to 80% of their total energy consumption and for this reason most of the energy saving policies are focused to the improvement of the efficiency of these facilities. On the other hand, the relationship between the building and its outdoor space determine both the energy consumptions of the HVAC system and the energy saving potential by the improvement due to microclimatic changes. This relationship can be grouped in three main groups: influence on the energy needs, on the ventilation thermal loads and on the HVAC system efficiency. This paper presents an overview of these dependencies putting emphasis on those variables able to generate a microclimatic change. A case study is also presented for a real building and real measurements coming from an experimental campaign. In order to quantify the expected energy savings, only the effects over the reduction of ventilation thermal loads and the improvement of the HVAC efficiency have been taking into consideration. The results show an expected savings of approximately 9% regardless of the climate in which the building is located.