Operation of hvac system for energy savings and economic analysis

In recent years, energy savings in air-conditioning (A/C) systems has become one of the hot topics of applied energy towards innovative management and efficient utilization of the operating systems. Achieving thermal comfort with minimum energy consumption is the main concern for innovative designing of an air conditioning system. The A/C system is one of the chief contributors to energy consumption in warm and hot environments. An innovative design of an A/C operating system is essential to satisfy a high thermal performance and maintain the desired thermal comfort level. The aim of this work is to introduce innovative design of an operating system to simulate and experiment the thermal performance of A/C units for two identical houses located in Dhahran area of Saudi Arabia. In this case, the thermal model for both houses has been developed incorporating two different air-conditioning operating systems. In the analysis, several physical properties and parameters, such as climate conditions and heat gain/loss, have been taken into account inside the house. Matlab/Simulink software is used to simulate the ON/OFF and the VFD air conditioning controller systems. LabView platform with the data acquisition is utilized for the experimental work to monitor the real time climate and electrical power data.