Hybrid mixed ventilation system aided with personalised ventilation to attain comfort and save energy

Abstract

This study examined the effect of using a new control strategy for a hybrid mixed ventilation system aided with personalised ventilation (PV) units on thermal comfort and energy consumption. The natural ventilation (NV) was integrated with conventional vapor compression (VC). Meanwhile, PV units were operated to maintain the occupants’ thermal comfort when NV room temperature was lower than a threshold value. Simulations were performed using Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment for an office floor in Beirut while adopting the proposed control strategy. The case study was calibrated using measured energy consumption. The new cooling strategy resulted in operating the VC system for less hours and in 53% energy savings compared to the base case when only VC system was used.

Keywords

• mixed mode ventilation
• personalised ventilation
• hybrid cooling control strategy
• energy efficiency in ventilation
• thermal comfort
• indoor air quality