ENERGY SAVING STUDY IN A HOTEL HVAC SYSTEM

Energy conservation is one of the key issues for environmental protection and sustainabledevelopment. Currently, about 17% of the total energy is being consumed for heating, ventilation, airconditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration in Hong Kong. Therefore, energy saving in the HVAC systemsof buildings is an important topic. In this paper, a study on the energy saving in a hotel HVAC systemwas carried out. The cooling load features of the hotel were analyzed. Retrofitting strategy of theHVAC system in the hotel was then designed. It included replacement of the chillers and pumpsfollowed by adopting a newly designed control scheme based on the pattern of the cooling load. Thecontrol scheme consisted of controls of the chillers, pumps and cooling towers. An intelligent algorithmwas developed to ensure the chillers work at the highest COP under different conditions. It was foundthat with the new system, about 63% to 74% of the chiller/pump system energy could be saved in thathotel. The result shows that for buildings such as hotels, a good control on the operation of the chillersand pumps is crucial.