A SIMULATION ASSESMENT OF PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT HVAC SYSTEMS IN AN OFFICE BUILDING

摘要

The article reports on a simulation assessment of thernenergy consumption, the energy costs and thernenvironment impact of three HVAC systems used forrnspace heating, and space cooling of an office building inrnKragujevac, Serbia. Three analyzed HVAC systems arern(1) a system with a natural gas boiler and convectivernbaseboard heaters for water space heating and window airrnconditioners for air space cooling; (2) a system with arnnatural gas boiler and individual air reheaters for air spacernheating and a chiller plant for air space cooling; and (3)rnan air-to-air heat pump for air space heating, and cooling.rnThe systems were modeled and simulated by usingrnEnergyPlus software.rnThe analysis of the simulation results points out that thernfirst HVAC system has the highest energy efficiency, thernbest economy, and the lowest environmental impact. Thatrnis because this system uses water as a heating mediumrncompared to other systems that use air as a heating, andrncooling medium. In addition, this system uses natural gasrnas a fuel, which is a fossil fuel with the lowest impact tornthe environment.