Conference Year
2016
Keywords
passive chilled beam, experiment
Abstract
This study compares the performance of a system employing passive chilled beams with a conventional air system in a typical open plan office setting. Both energy efficiency and thermal comfort are taken into account as performance indicators. A typical single duct variable air volume system, widely used in large office buildings, was considered as a conventional system; a combination of the air system and passive chilled beams was considered as a typical passive chilled beam system. Measurements from full-scale experiments conducted in open plan offices (Living Labs of the Center for High Performance Buildings at Purdue) are used to develop a data-driven passive chilled beam model that can predict the total cooling capacity as well as surface temperatures under different operating conditions. In simulating the performance of the two systems, the same operative temperature was used in order to have a fair comparison. Additionally, the effect of radiation cooling of the passive chilled beam was investigated. The overall results showed about maximum 10-21% total electrical energy savings (5-23% reduction in chiller and 55% reduction in supply fan electrical energy) and thermal comfort improvement of 0.3-0.4 on a PMVscale (12-15% on a PPD scale) associated with the passive chilled beam system, depending on the system configuration. The radiation cooling of the passive chilled beam is not significant, since the effective surface area for radiant exchange with the room is much less than the surface area for convective heat transfer and temperature differences are relatively low.Â