Energy Savings in a Multi-Circuit Water-Cooled Packaged Unit  Air-Conditioning System

Hayati Abdullah; Oleolo Ibrahim; Mohammad Nazri Mohd Jaafar; Mohamad Maziah; Akmal  Baharain; Sapiah Sulaiman

Authors

Hayati Abdullah School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Oleolo Ibrahim School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Mohammad Nazri Mohd Jaafar School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Mohamad Maziah School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Akmal Baharain School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Sapiah Sulaiman Smart Digital Community Research Alliance Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Keywords:

Multi-Circuit, Water-Cooled Packaged Unit, Energy Savings

Abstract

Air-conditioning systems accounts for the highest portion of energy consumption in buildings, either commercial or residential. Thus, there is a need for energy savings while ensuring internal thermal comfort. The compressor utilizes about 90% of the energy being consumed by the air-conditioning system. Common practice in energy savings for air-conditioning systems includes the application of variable frequency drive of the compressor for capacity control. However, literature on capacity control for operational centralized multi-circuit systems are scarce. This paper presents a study on the application of a thermal control system known as the Advanced Thermal Control System or ATCS utilizing variable frequency drive technology on an installed and operational multi-circuit centralized water-cooled packaged unit air-conditioning system at an administration block in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The result shows energy savings of up to 33.0 % when compared to the baseline operation of the existing system.