Air conditioning system optimization for energy management: A case study

Due to the operational characteristics of the air conditioning systems, unnecessary energy is likely to be used for maintaining acceptable indoor environmental quality. Two control strategies are examined for optimum operation of the air conditioning system with variable supply air flow rate. The conventional strategy is based on fixed temperature set point and the proposed strategy is based on variable temperature set point. The optimization problem for both control strategy is formulated based on the cost of energy consumption and constrained by system and thermal space transient models. The optimization problem is solved using genetic algorithm. The optimization models are applied to a case study for the Library building in Phase 3 at Institut Teknologi Brunei for the assessment of its energy performance and potential energy conservation opportunities. Based on these results, it is apparent that there is a potential for improving energy performance and justification to employ the suggested measures for achieving energy savings and minimize energy consumption.