TY - JOUR
TI - Energy and economic analysis of an auditorium’s air conditioning system with heat recovery in various climatic zones
AU - Papakostas Konstantinos T
AU - Tiganitis Ioannis
AU - Papadopoulos Agis M
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2018
VL - 22
IS - 13
SP - 933
EP - 943
PT - Article
AB - In many heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) applications, heat recovery devices are installed, aiming at reducing energy consumption. Especially in buildings requiring a high percentage of outside air for ventilation, there is a high potential for heat recovery from exhaust air. Climatic conditions are an important parameter which affects the recovered heat and the payback period of the heat recovery device. In this paper, a 250 person auditorium is used as a model to estimate the applicability of an air-to-air fixed-plate heat exchanger installed in the air handling unit of the HVAC system. The application is considered for four cities, representative of climatic zones A, B, C, D of Greece, which also represent typical Mediterranean climate conditions. Zone A, Crete and Southern Greece, is similar to Nicosia (Cyprus) and Palermo (Sicily), Zone B, with Athens, corresponds to Rome (Italy) and coastal Spain, Zone C with Thessaloniki is similar to the Toulon (France) and Split (Croatia) and Zone D, with its continental climate is more like Milan (Italy) and Lyon (France). An energy analysis with the modified bin method energy calculation was performed to calculate (a) the heating and cooling energy that can be recovered, (b) the reduction in HVAC equipment, and (c) the expected payback period. For the specific climatic conditions examined, it was proven that: heating energy consumption decreased by 31 to 40%, depending on occupancy, while electric energy consumption didn’t change notably; the payback period does not exceed 24 months, depending on climate zone and occupancy.