DOMESTIC AIR CONDITIONING - Occupant Use and Operational Efficiency

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research
Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor T Oreszczyn
Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources
University College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 March 2004

31 July 2006

29 months

£235,548

Management & business studies

London

Civil Engineering Responsive -- Process Environment and Sustainability

Professor T Oreszczyn, Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources, University College London

Project Contact, National Energy Services
Project Contact, Energy Saving Trust Ltd (The)

The research will first involve a desk-top study of domestic air conditioning sales in the UK (and interviews with key players in the field) to establish current and likely future market trends, future technological developments and details of system control, design and installation. This survey, along with the industrial partners, will be used to identify 300 premises, of various dwelling types and with a range of systems, for an occupant survey on purchase motivation, health status and usage patterns. From these, 150 premises will be identified for detailed monitoring over the summer, including full physical survey, collection of data for a BREDEM 8 calculation, environmental monitoring of internal spaces and the monitoring of system efficiency in a sub-set of 15 premises. Extreme weather monitoring will be carried out in another sub-set of 30 dwellings, including infrared thermography, pressure testing and the collection of occupant health status data. Sophisticated statistical analysis will be used to establish a number of weather normalised parameters, such as typical demand temperatures, hours of use, equipment CoPs and carbon emissions. A base temperature for cooling degree days will also be derived. In collaboration with others, a computer simulation study will test the validity of cooling algorithms for use in prediction models, such as BREDEM 8 12. Dissemination of results will be through a workshop held at the Bartlett and a final report, which will benefit from the workshop feedback.

07/03/07