Using Observed Data During Early Design To Simulate Building Mechanical System Energy Performance

Using Observed Data During Early Design To Simulate Building Mechanical System Energy Performance Track Y : 17 Virtual Podium Topic Z : 17-6 Energy Gabriel Legorburu, Amanda D. Smith Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah IMECE2019-13885 Poster 17 Methods & Procedures Conclusions Project Objectives and Goals • Energy Modeling framework design phase modeling. for • A scalable energy model was developed for use with real-world data. early • Use real-world data to simulate internal building heat gains, occupancy and heat transfer through the building envelope. • The model is adaptable to many different functions by using data-sets from different building types. • Use actual meteorological data to assess the building mechanical system reaction to atmospheric conditions • Four different mechanical systems were considered for a 120,000 ft2 student housing building. • Combine physical and black-box models to represent mechanical equipment. • Lowest Operating Cost: Water Source VRF, Cooling Tower, Central Heating Plant. • Lowest Total Emissions: VAV AHU, Central Heating/Cooling Plant Case Study 120,000 ft2 Student Housing Building • VAV air Handlers connected to campus central heating/cooling plant • Lowest Direct Emissions: Air Source VRF • Air Source Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) • Water Source VRF connected to cooling tower and electric boiler Future Studies / Recommendations • Expand framework to include additional mechanical systems such as: groundsource VRF • Water Source VRF connected to cooling tower and electric boiler • Water Source VRF connected to cooling tower and central heating plant • Leverage machine learning to dynamically model the performance of central plant equipment Data and Results Central Heating Central Cooling Annual Operating Electricity Energy Costs Total Operating Cost Direct CO2 (lb) Indirect CO2 (lb) Annual Emissions Total Emissions CO2 (lb) VAV Air Handlers - Central Plant $19,650 $37,000 $24,000 $80,650 994,000 649,000 1,643,000 Air Source VRF Water Source VRF - Cooling Tower & Electric Boiler $0 $0 $67,000 $67,000 0 1,675,000 1,675,000 $0 $0 $103,000 $103,000 0 2,576,000 2,576,000 Water Source VRF - Cooling Tower & Central Plant Boiler $14,600 $0 $41,000 $55,600 741,000 1,396,000 2,137,000 Air Source VRF Electricity Consumption Over One-Year 400 Electricity Usage (kWh) Case Study - 120,000 ft2 Student Housing Building 350 • Consider Multi-objective optimization for selecting mechanical systems for groups of buildings 300 250 200 Acknowledgments 150 • University of Utah Facilities Management for assistance with the research and access to building energy data. 100 50 0 0 2000 4000 6000 Hour in Year 8000 • Colvin Engineering for funding this research.