Evaluation of the performance of ventilative cooling systems with different control parameters

Abstract

To evaluate the performance and energy savings of different ventilative cooling systems, three mixed forms of ventilative cooling were described and the most promising rule-based heuristic control criteria were used as applicable control strategies based on various control parameters. Parametric analyses including the ventilative cooling set-points and control frequencies have been conducted. EnergyPlus was used to perform the aforementioned analyses based on a typical office building. Case studies verified that the use of different control parameters led to different indoor air environment and energy performance in a certain climatic zone. Then, the percentages outside the range indexes (POR) of the three mixed forms of ventilative cooling with various control parameters in five representative climatic zones in China were calculated, the results demonstrated that the ventilative cooling performance was mainly related to the ventilative cooling form in HSCW, HSWW, and temperate climatic zones. While in cold and severe cold climatic zones, it was mainly affected by selection of control parameters and its corresponding set-points. It can provide guidance for the selection of ventilative cooling scheme capable of maintaining indoor environment level with a low energy consumption in different climatic zones of China.