Comparison of conventional mixing and displacement air conditioning and ventilating systems in US commercial buildings

Conference · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 UTC 1989

OSTI ID:6059781

Seppanen, O.; Fisk, W. J.; Eto, J.; Grimsrud, D. T.

During the last few years, a new displacement air distribution system with low velocity air supplied directly to the occupied zone and a displacement flow in the floor-to-ceiling direction has been introduced into office buildings in the Scandinavian countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate displacement air distribution systems and compare their performance to the performance of traditional variable and constant air flow systems in US office buildings. The loads of a typical large US office building were calculated in four representative US climates (Minneapolis, Seattle, Atlanta, El Paso) with the DOE-2.1C buildings simulation program. The hourly loads and hourly weather data were used as inputs for new computer programs that simulated system performance. Energy consumption, air quality, thermal satisfaction, and the cost of the systems were calculated for three buildings zones (south, north, core) in each climate. The displacement systems were simulated using results from recent laboratory measurements. The results indicate that displacement systems generally yield superior air quality and thermal comfort compared to conventional systems with air recirculation. The energy consumed by displacement systems with heat recovery or VAV flow control was similar to the energy consumption of conventional air distribution systems operated with recirculation. However, the first cost of displacement systems is substantially higher than the first cost of conventional systems when the maximum cooling load exceeds 13 Btu/h-ft/sup 2/ (40 W/m/sup 2/) and cooling panels are required. The energy consumption of the traditional VAV systems was low. However, indoor air quality can deteriorate significantly if the combination of minimum supply air flow and minimum outdoor air entry into the air handler do not bring an adequate amount of outdoor air to each region of the building. 29 refs., 11 figs., 7 tabs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 6059781
• Report Number(s): LBL-26816; CONF-890609-2; ON: DE89009056
• Conference Information: ASHRAE annual meeting, Vancouver, Canada, 24 Jun 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320106* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Equipment-- (1987-)
320107 -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Systems-- (1987-)
AIR CONDITIONING
AIR FLOW
AIR QUALITY
BUILDINGS
COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
FLOW RATE
FLUID FLOW
GAS FLOW
VENTILATION
VENTILATION SYSTEMS