B131

Energy conservation between natural ventilated and air-conditioned classroom in Taiwan

Brief:

The energy consumption of natural ventilated classrooms (NVs) is less than air-conditioned classrooms (ACs) in hot and humid Taiwan. Energy conservation is related with the thermal comfort of occupants in these classrooms. This study proposed an electronic questionnaire and instruments to facilitate the continuous monitoring of the physical parameters to investigate the satisfied level of thermal comfort of students in classrooms. The investigated results show the average clothing value (clo) around 0.7. During the hot days (clo<0.7), students’ acceptable range of temperature range in NVs was between 26.2℃–28.2℃ (neutral temperature=27.3℃, neutral humidity=59.9%) and 24.2℃–27.7℃ (neutral temperature =26.3℃, neutral humidity=57.2%) in ACs. During the cold days (clo≧0.7), students’ acceptable range of temperature in NVs was between 20.9℃–25.1℃ (neutral temperature = 23.0℃, neutral humidity=55.3%) and 22.0℃–25.4℃ (neutral temperature=23.7℃, neutral humidity=55.6%) in ACs. The maximum acceptable thermal temperature of students in NVs is 1℃ higher than that in ACs and 2℃ higher than the ASHRAE Standard 55. The result implies that turn on the ceiling fans in NVs can be saved 5.0kWh (95%) energy between NVs and ACs under the occupants’ acceptable temperature range to achieve the balance between the energy saving and comfortable environment.

Further information:

Lee MC, Wong LT, Mui KW, Chang CF, Lam WH. Energy conservation between natural ventilated and air-conditioned classroom in Taiwan (Paper HP0586), The 13th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, Indoor Air 2014, 7-12 July, Hong Kong.