Energy Impacts of Infiltration and Ventilation in U.S. Office Buildings Using Multizone Airflow Simulation.
Energy Impacts of Infiltration and Ventilation in U.S.
Office Buildings Using Multizone Airflow Simulation.
(1490 K)
Emmerich, S. J.; Persily, A. K.
IAQ and Energy 98 Conference. Proceedings. October
22-27, 1998, New Orleans, LA, 191-203 pp, 1998.
Keywords:
office buildings; ventilation; air flow; simulation
Abstract:
With the exception of a few analyses of the impacts of
ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62-1989 and energy use in specific
buildings, the energy use in commercial buildings due to
infilitration and ventilation flows has received little
attention. However, as improvements have been made in
insulation, windows, etc., the relative importance of
these airflows has increased. The energy impacts of
infiltration and ventilation flows in U.S. ofice
buildings was estimated based on rhe analysis of a set
of 25 buildings developed to represent the U.S. office
building stock. The energy calculation was performed by
a bin method with infiltration flows determined by
multizone ai$ow modeling. The results show that
infiltration is responsible for about 13% of the heating
load and 3% of the cooling load for U.S. office
buildings. In newer buildings, infiltration is
responsible for about 25% of the heating load and 4% of
the cooling load due to the higher levels of insulation.
The total annual energy impact office infiltration in
U.S. ofice buildings is 60 PJ of heating energy (15% of
the total heating energy) and 6 PJ of cooling energy (4%
of the total cooling energy). It is also estimated that
heating and cooling energy use due to ventilation is 17
PJ at a rate of 2.5 L/s (5 cfm) per person and 138 PJ at
L/s (20 cfm) per person. The results also show the
potential energy savings due to tightening building
envelopes and better control of ventilation system
airflows. This calculation of the national energy
impacts of infiltration and ventilation in office
buildings is a rough estimate, with its accuracy limited
by the calculation method and input data. This paper
presents an intermediate step of this analysis, and an
improved estimate will be calculated with a combined
multizone airflow and building energy simulation model.
