American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

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A Comparative Study of Energy Consumption for Residential HVAC Systems Using EnergyPlus

Received: 02 November 2016    Accepted: 05 January 2017    Published: 24 January 2017
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Abstract

Energy conservation and sustainability have become an attractive field for research due to the growth in population and continuing search for better living standards. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for almost half of consumed energy in buildings and around 10 to 20% of total energy consumption in developed countries. In general, the trend of installing central HVAC systems increases in residential and commercial buildings. In this research, a study of energy consumption of HVAC systems in residential buildings has been conducted with the aim to compare those systems from an energy consumption point of view. The final goal of this research is to reduce energy requirements of residential buildings sector to save energy and reduce carbon emission. A medium size residential building in the city of Tripoli, Libya, was selected as a case study. EnergyPlus building simulation software along with OpenStudio software were used to model the house and HVAC systems. The results show that the virtual component “ideal air loads” used in EnergyPlus is very easy to use, however, its calculated energy consumption is overestimated compared to other models. Therefore, using that component can be misleading and may result in high monthly and annually energy consumption results. The results also show that in a residential building, unitary systems consume the least annual energy consumption compared to other models. It was concluded that variations in energy consumption of the considered HVAC systems decrease as the coefficient of performance (COP) increases and visa verse.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16
Published in American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (Volume 2, Issue 2, March 2017)
Page(s) 98-103
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Residential Buildings, Energy Consumption, HVAC Systems, Coefficient of Performance, EnergyPlus

References
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[10] Albayyaa H, Hagare D, Saha S. Comparative study of energy consumption for air conditioning between residential buildings with two different subflooring systems. ISEC Press, 2016.
[11] Zhou X, Hong T, Yan D. Comparison of HVAC system modeling in EnergyPlus, DeST and DOE-2.1E. Building Simulation 2014. doi: 10.1007/s12273-013-0150-7.
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[14] DOE. EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Software. USA Department of Energy 2016. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/ buildings/energyplus (accessed September 17, 2016).
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[16] Shabunko V, Lim CM, Mathew S. EnergyPlus models for the benchmarking of residential buildings in Brunei Darussalam. Energy and Buildings 2016. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.03.039.
[17] Alghoul SK, Alrijabo HG. The Effect of Alternative Double Glazed Windows on Buildings Energy Consumption. International Journal of Engineering Papers 2016; 1: 18–24.
[18] Fumo N, Mago P, Luck R. Methodology to estimate building energy consumption using EnergyPlus Benchmark Models. Energy and Buildings 2010; 42: 2331–7. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.07.027.
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Author Information
  • Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya

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    Samah K. Alghoul. (2017). A Comparative Study of Energy Consumption for Residential HVAC Systems Using EnergyPlus. American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 2(2), 98-103. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16

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    Samah K. Alghoul. A Comparative Study of Energy Consumption for Residential HVAC Systems Using EnergyPlus. Am. J. Mech. Ind. Eng. 2017, 2(2), 98-103. doi: 10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16

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    AMA Style

    Samah K. Alghoul. A Comparative Study of Energy Consumption for Residential HVAC Systems Using EnergyPlus. Am J Mech Ind Eng. 2017;2(2):98-103. doi: 10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16,
      author = {Samah K. Alghoul},
      title = {A Comparative Study of Energy Consumption for Residential HVAC Systems Using EnergyPlus},
      journal = {American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering},
      volume = {2},
      number = {2},
      pages = {98-103},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmie.20170202.16},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajmie.20170202.16},
      abstract = {Energy conservation and sustainability have become an attractive field for research due to the growth in population and continuing search for better living standards. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for almost half of consumed energy in buildings and around 10 to 20% of total energy consumption in developed countries. In general, the trend of installing central HVAC systems increases in residential and commercial buildings. In this research, a study of energy consumption of HVAC systems in residential buildings has been conducted with the aim to compare those systems from an energy consumption point of view. The final goal of this research is to reduce energy requirements of residential buildings sector to save energy and reduce carbon emission. A medium size residential building in the city of Tripoli, Libya, was selected as a case study. EnergyPlus building simulation software along with OpenStudio software were used to model the house and HVAC systems. The results show that the virtual component “ideal air loads” used in EnergyPlus is very easy to use, however, its calculated energy consumption is overestimated compared to other models. Therefore, using that component can be misleading and may result in high monthly and annually energy consumption results. The results also show that in a residential building, unitary systems consume the least annual energy consumption compared to other models. It was concluded that variations in energy consumption of the considered HVAC systems decrease as the coefficient of performance (COP) increases and visa verse.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    T1  - A Comparative Study of Energy Consumption for Residential HVAC Systems Using EnergyPlus
    AU  - Samah K. Alghoul
    Y1  - 2017/01/24
    PY  - 2017
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    T2  - American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
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    AB  - Energy conservation and sustainability have become an attractive field for research due to the growth in population and continuing search for better living standards. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for almost half of consumed energy in buildings and around 10 to 20% of total energy consumption in developed countries. In general, the trend of installing central HVAC systems increases in residential and commercial buildings. In this research, a study of energy consumption of HVAC systems in residential buildings has been conducted with the aim to compare those systems from an energy consumption point of view. The final goal of this research is to reduce energy requirements of residential buildings sector to save energy and reduce carbon emission. A medium size residential building in the city of Tripoli, Libya, was selected as a case study. EnergyPlus building simulation software along with OpenStudio software were used to model the house and HVAC systems. The results show that the virtual component “ideal air loads” used in EnergyPlus is very easy to use, however, its calculated energy consumption is overestimated compared to other models. Therefore, using that component can be misleading and may result in high monthly and annually energy consumption results. The results also show that in a residential building, unitary systems consume the least annual energy consumption compared to other models. It was concluded that variations in energy consumption of the considered HVAC systems decrease as the coefficient of performance (COP) increases and visa verse.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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