Energy evaluation and energy savings analysis with the 2 selection of AC systems in an educational building

Abstract

This paper presents an energy performance assessment on an educational building in Barranquilla, Colombia. The electricity consumption performance was assessed using the software DesignBuilder for two different Air Conditioning (AC) systems. The current electricity intensity is 215.3 kWh/m2-year and centralized AC systems with individual fan coils and a water chiller share 66% of the total consumption and lighting at 16%. The simulation of the AC technology change to Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) resulted in an improvement of 38% in AC energy intensity with 88 kWh/m2-year and significant savings in electricity consumption and life-cycle cost of AC systems in buildings.