On optimization of thermal sensation satisfaction rate and energy efficiency of public rooms: A case study

For sustainability, many studies have been conducted on energy saving for HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) systems. In a public place, different persons may have different thermal comfort requirements. Few studies are done so far for energy saving in a public place with HVAC systems that can accommodate many persons with thermal sensation differences for different persons being taken into account. In this work, during the summer from May to September in 2016, an investigation for energy saving is done in a large library room at Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China. In such a large room, the temperature in different areas is different and many students with different thermal sensations study in the room at the same time. Under such an environment, to save energy as well as maximize the total thermal satisfactory rate, a large number of experiments are carried out. Based on the collected data, methods are given to predict the indoor temperature for each reading area and thermal satisfactory rate under the current indoor temperature. Then, an efficient algorithm is developed to maximize the thermal satisfactory rate for the entire room by optimizing the input temperature of the ACC (air-conditioning control) system such that energy can be saved. Results show that, under the worst situation, by comparing with the manual control, the daily electricity saving is about 93 kWh and the electricity saving during the period from May to September is about 13,950 kWh. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.