Study On The Life Cycle Consumption Of Energy And Resource Of Air Conditioning In Urban Residential Buildings In China

Focusing on some important problems in the green assessment, scheme design, establishment of energy efficient standards and policies for air conditioning in residential buildings, the life cycle energy consumption and resource consumption of air conditioning in the urban residential buildings of China has been investigated by the methods of survey, tests and simulation.The creative work of this dissertation are as follows:â‘ The energy consumption characteristics of different air-conditioning modes and the importance of occupant behavior on energy saving in residential buildings have been discovered through a lot of investigations and tests;â‘¡A new simple method, simulation induction method (SIM), for calculating the energy consumption of air conditioner in urban residential buildings has been developed. A new index, integrated operating energy efficiency rate (IOEER), has been put forward, which gives more accurate fundamental data for predicting the air-conditioning energy consumption;â‘¢The energy and resource consumption for different air conditioning schemes have been studied in consideration of material, component, equipment and system, based on the new calculation method of life cycle energy consumption developed for recyclable material; andâ‘£The regional application range of different energy-efficiency-grade room air conditioners (RAC) has been proposed, according to the life cycle energy consumption and the cost analysis.The main conclusions of present study are listed as follows:â‘ The main air-conditioning characteristics in urban residential buildings is gained. The total energy consumption of the air conditioning is rather lower, since most of RAC in the households operate in short period of time. The air-conditioning energy consumption difference of different households is quite large, only few households consume the largest part of the total energy. The air conditioning operating pattern is the most important influencing factor of the energy consumption. One of the best way to reduce the RAC energy consumption is to improve the air conditioning behavior pattern of the households;â‘¡The best air-conditioning scheme for Chinese urban residential buildings is the split air conditioning mode, according to the operating energy and producing energy consumption, material resource consumption, primary cost and operating cost comparing results with other air conditioning schemes;â‘¢The life cycle energy consumption of the energy efficient RAC may increase for many households in Chinese north areas and some households with low energy consumption in other areas. So the standard of RAC energy efficiency should be determined according to the climate and economic developing level of different areas; andâ‘£The life cycle cost of energy efficient RAC is quite higher than that of the common RAC, therefore, some political allowance should come on to encourage the application of energy efficient air conditioners.The research results of present paper will benefit to the green assessment, scheme design, establishment of energy efficient standards and policies for air conditioning in Chinese urban residential buildings.