A Case Study of Quantitative Energy Efficiency of Personalized Ventilation in the Tropics

This paper provides information of energy efficiency potential of Personalised Ventilation (PV) systems used in conjunction with a secondary Mixing Volume (MV) air-conditioning system in the tropics. The energy consumption and the acceptability of PV at selected combinations of indoor ambient temperatures of 26 C and PV air supply temperatures of 20 or 23 C, is compared with that of sole mixing ventilation in which the indoor air temperature was controlled at 23 C. Direct and quantitative comparisons were made by calculating energy consumptions of major air-conditioning components such as cooling coils and air fans under different indoor conditions in the experiment chamber, which simulated typical office conditions. It was found that PV system in conjunction with a secondary air-conditioning system operating to maintain a setpoint of 26 C ambient temperature had 29.5% less cooling load and consumed 27% less electricity energy than sole mixing ventilation system did at 23 C ambient temperature. A high correlation between cooling load and electricity energy consumption was also observed (R2=0.82).