Energy Saving in the hotal HVAC system

Energy conservation is one of the key issues for environmental protection and sustainable development. Currently, about 17% of the total energy is being consumed for heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration in Hong Kong. Therefore, energy saving in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems of buildings is an important topic.

Energy conservation in a hotel HVAC system

The cooling load features of the hotel were analyzed. Retrofitting strategy of the HVAC system in the hotel was then designed. It included replacement of the chillers and pumps followed by adopting a newly designed control scheme based on the pattern of the cooling load. The control scheme consisted of controls of the chillers, pumps and cooling towers. An intelligent algorithm was developed to ensure the chillers work at the highest COP under different conditions. It was found that with the new system, about 63% to 74% of the chiller/pump system energy could be saved in that hotel. The result shows that for buildings such as hotels, a good control on the operation of the chillers and pumps is crucial.

Since the International Oil Crisis in 1973, energy has become such an important issue that strongly affects people's lives and the policy of every country. Enormous efforts have been devoted in the past decades on energy resources and energy efficiencies. Currently, a large amount of energy is being consumed by heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings. According to the statistics from the Hong Kong SAR government, about 17% of the total energy, which is about 30% of the electric energy (Chow 2006) is being consumed by HVAC systems in buildings. Therefore, energy conservation of HVAC systems in buildings will clearly have a sizeable impact on total energy consumption.