TY - JOUR
T1 - Nationwide HVAC energy-saving potential quantification for office buildings with occupant-centric controls in various climates
AU - Pang, Zhihong
AU - Chen, Yan
AU - Zhang, Jian
AU - O'Neill, Zheng
AU - Cheng, Hwakong
AU - Dong, Bing
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported in this paper was supported by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency –Energy ( ARPA-E ) under the award number DE-AR0000936 . We appreciate Dr. Yulong Xie, Mr. Jeremy Lerond ( Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ), and Mr. Joe Arnstein (Taylor Engineering) for providing technical support on the simulation plan and infrastructure development.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - The occupant-centric control (OCC) is receiving an increasing attention since it could reduce building heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system energy consumptions while not affecting the occupant thermal comfort. This paper aims to quantify the nationwide energy-saving potential of implementing the occupant-centric HVAC controls in typical office buildings. First, the medium office and large office from the Department of Energy (DOE) Commercial Prototype Building Models (CPBM) were enhanced to have detailed layouts and dynamic occupancy schedules. Then, a comprehensive simulation plan was created by incorporating the multiple zone-level and system-level occupant-centric building HVAC controls recommended by the updated ASHRAE Standard 90.1 – 2019 and ASHRAE Guideline 36 – 2018. Three control scenarios with different occupancy sensing methods were identified in this simulation plan. A nation-wide parametric analysis, which includes two building types, three occupancy sensing scenarios, two building code versions, and 16 U.S. climate zones, was carried out. The simulation results of the key control variables and HVAC energy consumption suggest that generally, both the occupancy presence sensor and occupant counting sensor could achieve energy savings for the office buildings in the majority of the scenarios. However, compared with the occupancy presence sensor, which could support both the temperature setpoint reset and operational breathing zone airflow rate reset for the unoccupied zones, the occupant counting sensor only brings a marginal benefit. Besides, a higher HVAC energy-saving ratio could be achieved in the heating-dominated zone, since the energy reduction brought with the minimum outdoor airflow rate reset is stronger in the heating mode.
AB - The occupant-centric control (OCC) is receiving an increasing attention since it could reduce building heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system energy consumptions while not affecting the occupant thermal comfort. This paper aims to quantify the nationwide energy-saving potential of implementing the occupant-centric HVAC controls in typical office buildings. First, the medium office and large office from the Department of Energy (DOE) Commercial Prototype Building Models (CPBM) were enhanced to have detailed layouts and dynamic occupancy schedules. Then, a comprehensive simulation plan was created by incorporating the multiple zone-level and system-level occupant-centric building HVAC controls recommended by the updated ASHRAE Standard 90.1 – 2019 and ASHRAE Guideline 36 – 2018. Three control scenarios with different occupancy sensing methods were identified in this simulation plan. A nation-wide parametric analysis, which includes two building types, three occupancy sensing scenarios, two building code versions, and 16 U.S. climate zones, was carried out. The simulation results of the key control variables and HVAC energy consumption suggest that generally, both the occupancy presence sensor and occupant counting sensor could achieve energy savings for the office buildings in the majority of the scenarios. However, compared with the occupancy presence sensor, which could support both the temperature setpoint reset and operational breathing zone airflow rate reset for the unoccupied zones, the occupant counting sensor only brings a marginal benefit. Besides, a higher HVAC energy-saving ratio could be achieved in the heating-dominated zone, since the energy reduction brought with the minimum outdoor airflow rate reset is stronger in the heating mode.
KW - Demand-controlled ventilation
KW - EnergyPlus
KW - Large-scale simulation
KW - Occupant-centric controls
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115727
DO - 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115727
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090230049
SN - 0306-2619
VL - 279
JO - Applied Energy
JF - Applied Energy
M1 - 115727
ER -