Hybrid mixed ventilation system aided with personalized ventilation to attain comfort and save energy

Abstract

This study examined the effect of using a new control strategy for a hybrid mixed ventilation system aided with personalized ventilation (PV) units on thermal comfort and energy consumption. The proposed system integrated natural ventilation (NV) with mechanical air conditioning (AC) to reduce the AC usage. Meanwhile, PV units were operated to maintain the thermal comfort of occupants when NV room temperature was lower than a set threshold value. Building performance simulations were performed using Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment for an office floor of a building in Beirut in which the cooling mode operation was based on the proposed cooling control strategy. The case study was calibrated using measured energy consumption. Simulation results showed that it was feasible to operate the AC system for less hours. The adopted cooling strategy resulted in 61percent energy savings compared to the base case AC as the only means of cooling and ventilation.