Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943

Monitoring and analysis of an absorption air-conditioning system

M. Prez de Viaspre a , M. Bourouis a, , A. Coronas a , A. Garca b , V. Soto b , J.M. Pinazo b,1
a

Centro de Innovacin Tecnolgica en Revalorizacin Energtica y Refrigeracin (CREVER), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43006 Tarragona, Spain b E.T.S. Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain Received 30 December 2003; received in revised form 25 February 2004; accepted 2 March 2004

Abstract In the last few years, high-energy consumption due to air-conditioning has led to a growing interest in the efcient use of energy in buildings. Although simulation programs have always been the main tools for analyzing energy in buildings, the reliability of their results is often compromised by a lack of certainty to reect real conditions. The aim of this work is to monitorize and analyze the thermal behavior of an absorption-based air-conditioning installation of a university building in Tarragona, Spain. The existing monitoring system of the installation has been improved by implementing additional sensors and ow meters. The data has been stored during summer 2002 and used to assess the energy balance of the air-conditioning installation and the operational regime of the absorption chiller. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Air-conditioning; Absorption chiller; Energy management in buildings; Monitoring

1. Introduction The growing interest in the efcient use of energy in buildings has highlighted the need for new congurations and strategies for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HVAC). This is because in the European Union, buildings absorb approximately 36.7% of total energy consumption, and the systems of heating and air-conditioning are responsible for the most of this consumption [1]. To reduce this level of consumption and to optimize resources, numerous simulation tools have been developed in the last few years for managing energy in buildings. These are, for example, DOE2, TRNSYS, BLAST, TRACE, and ESP-r [25]. The rate and cost of energy consumption in buildings depend on the complex interaction between a large number of variables such as running time of the machines, combustible consumption, occupation, etc. These variables can only be evaluated using energy simulation tools [6]. Current studies for analyzing the use of energy in buildings continue to rely on the development of simulation tools that allow simulating energy management in buildings. However, these simulations are not always validated with experimental data. The cost and effort required to collect and
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-977-540205; fax: +34-977-542272. E-mail addresses: crever@crever.urv.es (M. Bourouis), jmpinazo@ter.upv.es (J.M. Pinazo). 1 Tel.: +34-963-877322; fax: +34-963-877329.

monitor real operational data of air-conditioning installations make it difcult to analyze real situations. Nowadays, there exist many air-conditioning installations in which temperatures, ows, pressures, valves, etc. are measured and stored for control purposes but rarely for calculating the energy efciency of the system or the real energy consumption of buildings. It is necessary to carry out and implement this second option for energy saving, detecting possible deviations on previous calculations, etc. The intelligent air-conditioning systems are also becoming more and more used in new buildings. There are some cases where the users can interact with these systems, by means of dialing telephone numbers or sending messages by cell phones. Nevertheless, in most cases this communication is unidirectional, that is to say, the user gives the order but its not known if this order is well-executed or not. For this reason, the interest of remote visualization of air-conditioning systems in buildings is increasing. In the last years, due to the environmental concern originated by the CFCs refrigerants and the increase of the overall temperature of the planet and the electricity demand, the interest in using absorption chillers/heaters in air-conditioning installations has increased. Moreover, the integration of this clean technology of air-conditioning in buildings is nowadays a research area of great interest. Dynamic models are required for simulating the real behavior of absorption chillers/heaters and their integration in buildings. However, experience and transitory-related

0378-7788/$ see front matter 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2004.03.005

934

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

Nomenclature Cf COP Cpas Cpw FB Ep Epi Eprod klp l LCP mnt mtot Mw Ql Ppn Qprod Qs t Tw T Tic Trc Tb Ti Tr e Vgas Ve X Wb Wr heat of phase change of water (kcal/kg) coefcient of performance specic heat at constant pressure of dry air (kcal/kg C) specic heat at constant pressure of water (kJ/kg K) by-pass factor pumps energy consumption (kWh) energy consumption of pipes (kWh) energy production (kWh) energy losses by pipes per unit of length (kW/m) pipe length (m) lower caloric power (kcal/N m3 ) airow not treated (kg) total airow (kg) nominal chilled water mass ow rate (l/s) latent heat (kcal/h) pumps nominal power (kW) cold production (kW) sensible heat (kcal/h) time (s) difference temperature between impulsion and return of chilled water (K) temperature of water after passing the battery ( C) impulsion temperature of water to air handling units ( C) return temperature of water to air handling units ( C) supercial temperature of the battery ( C) impulsion temperature of air ( C) return temperature of air ( C) specic volume of air (m3 /kg dry air) volume of consumed natural gas (m3 ) volumetric airow (m3 /h) percentage of water ow rate in the battery (%) specic humidity of air at the battery (g/kg dry air) specic humidity of air at the return (g/kg dry air)

Greek symbols p pumps efciency ()

models of absorption machines are largely limited to waterlithium bromide single-effect chillers driven by hot water. At the University of Colorado, a solar air-conditioning installation with an absorption chiller was tested [7]. The results showed a frequent regime of on/off cycles of the

chiller that operated with a 50% lower overall COP than the nominal case. Froemming et al. [8] designed and constructed a test bench at the University of Arizona to evaluate both the stationary and dynamic operation regimes of single-effect absorption chillers driven by thermal solar energy. Their results showed that the start up and the cyclic operational regime reduced the COP of almost 50% with respect to that of the stationary regime, and the number of on/off cycles was around 5.5. Much fewer data are available on the dynamic operation of waterlithium bromide double-effect direct-red absorption chillers. Koeppel [9] analyzed data about the operation of two of these chillers with capacities of 700 and 1400 kW, respectively. To calculate their capabilities at steady-state regime, he developed a model under the environment of the equation engineering solver (EES) [10]. Then, he derived a second model to be implemented in TRNSYS [11], using the performance results achieved with the rst model, in order to simulate with more accuracy the operation of the system and determine the optimal control strategies. The COP obtained for the 1400 kW chiller was 27% lower than that predicted by the steady-state model. Koeppel reported that the reduction in COP was due to a 30% lower ow rate of refrigeration water compared to its nominal value and insufcient heat transfer rates in the high pressure generator. Martnez [12] developed a simulation module for absorp tion cycles with different congurations under TRNSYS environment. He evaluated the operation curves and efciency of a simple-effect and a parallel ow double-effect absorption chiller as a function of the temperature and ow rate of the heating stream entering the generator, inlet temperature of the cooling stream at the absorber, and the inlet temperature of the chilled water at the evaporator. He concluded that the relationship between the COP of the chiller and the temperature of the cooling medium is lineal and strong. Later on, Martinez et al. [13] compared the results predicted by their simulation model with actual data of a 105 kW direct-red double-effect waterlithium bromide absorption chiller. They concluded that the consumption data obtained from the simulation with TRNSYS were 30% lower than those registered at the air-conditioning system. This difference was due to the effect of the transient performance of the absorption chiller, not considered by the model. Although absorption chillers are being more investigated there is still a need to study deeply their behavior when they are submitted to a transitory operational regime or integrated with other energy systems. The objective of this work was to analyze the energy behavior of an absorption-based air-conditioning installation of a university building. The dynamic behavior of the absorption machine is analyzed in cooling mode by evaluating the actual cooling rate of the chiller, the coefcient of performance (COP), the daily on/off cycles, etc. Then the energy balance of the integrated system formed the absorption

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

935

chiller, the distribution circuits, and the terminal units (air handling units and fan coils) is carried out. The installation has a monitoring system that registers in real time the measured variables by the sensors of temperature, relative humidity, water ow meters, valves, etc. implemented in the machine room, distribution circuits and terminal units. The existing instrumentation was not enough to carry out the energy balances of the installation, thats why we have implemented additional instrumentation such as gas meter and chilled/hot water ow meter of the absorption machine. The operational parameters of the air-conditioning installation were monitorised and stored with a frequency of 1 min during summer of 2002.

shows the location of the sensors and the parameters they measure. 2.1. Control and monitoring system The control and monitoring system of the air-conditioning installation consists basically of a local supervisor that monitors the different parts of the system and displays the information from the controllers. Also, we have developed an application which permits the transmission of data with a frequency of 1 minute and its storage in a data base MySQL implemented in a remote computer [1416]. This tool enables us to perform a follow-up study of the behavior of the system, nd any equipment failure, visualize the state of comfort in the various areas of the building, and store the real data of the system for subsequent treatment. 2.1.1. The local supervisor The local supervisor provides a complete interface of technical management of the building. It is a software for Windows 98, which permits to manage and control almost all air-conditioning operating parameters of the building. It allows us to visualize at real time the operating conditions of the machines room equipments (absorption chiller, boilers, pumps, . . . ), and those of the air handling units and fancoils (impulsion and return temperatures, relative humidity, etc.), as well as to schedule the equipments operation (Fig. 1). 2.1.2. The database In order to carry out the energy balances of the building, we have created a MySQL database to store the operation parameters prevailing in the air-conditioning installation. The data are collected from the controllers through the local supervisor application by means of a specic visual basic application. The transmission process of data to the remote server located in our research center (CREVER) comprises two parts, both coded in Java communication language: one is executed in the local supervisor and the other in the remote server. The operation data of the air-conditioning installation are stored in a MySQL database in the remote server by means of an application in Java which stores each value in its corresponding table and eld. It uses a JDBC driver that is able to execute SQL commands (Structures Query Language, standard for the access to great databases) from the Java application, these steps are executed every minute. The database consists of 12 tables each one with various elds. Each table corresponds to one component or group of components of the air-conditioning system of the building. The tables are basically; air handling unit, fan coil, boiler, absorption chiller, cooling tower, time, . . . For example, there is a table for the absorption chiller with their elds of return and impulsion temperatures, operating hours of the pump, etc. The design of the database allows us to perform numerous queries such to visualize a variable at

2. Description of the building and its air-conditioning system The building considered in this study belongs to the University Rovira i Virgili (URV) of Tarragona in Spain. The area of the building is 7252 m2 (90 m long and 14.2 m wide) with six oors, and it is divided into areas of classrooms (on three oors), services, library, conference and study rooms in the ground, rst and second oors. Cooling and heating for air-conditioning is supplied to 2490 m2 that represent the rst and second oors and part of the ground oor, thus representing 34% of the total area. The rest of the building has a water heating installation. The air-conditioning installation consists of a water water centralized system with a waterlithium bromide double-effect direct-red Yazaki CH-V100 absorption machine with a cooling capacity of 352 kW condensed by water of a refrigeration tower TEVA TVC 611. The system generates chilled or hot water, depending on the seasonal operating cycle, to cool or heat the air-conditioning circuits. The terminal units consist of six air handling units Airvent CL models A-E with constant volume of air and ve Horizontal Fan Coils Elyte Clivet model FOI. As a support system, it also has two high efcient gas boilers Adisa Duplex 360 for heating. The air-conditioning installation has also temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation sensors, as well as gas, water and electricity ow meters. Table 1
Table 1 Sensors implemented in the air-conditioning installation of the building Location Outdoor Measured parameters Outdoor temperature Outdoor relative humidity Solar radiation Return temperature and relative humidity Impulsion temperature Return temperature Impulsion and return temperatures of the absorption chiller and cooling tower Temperatures of chilled water to/from the secondary circuits of air-conditioning

Air handling units Fancoils Absorption chiller

936

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

Fig. 1. Scheme of the Yazaki absorption chiller in the local supervisor.

a concrete time, to consult the last value of one variable, etc.

3. Energy balance of the air-conditioning system One of our main objectives in this study was to acquire and analyze operational data of an absorption-based air-conditioning installation of a university building. This information is essential for establishing design criteria that allow the absorption machines to operate while making maximum use of their capabilities in order to improve the overall energy efciency of the system and therefore that of the building. The equations of the energy balance in the absorption unit are herein summarized. 3.1. Absorption chiller Yazaki CH-V100 The absorption chiller/heater installed in the building considered in this study is a Yazaki CH-V100 double-effect gas red that uses waterlithium bromide as working uid. The system for regulating the capacity of the machine is on/off and comprises a thermostat located in the water stream com-

ing from the terminal units (air handling units and fan coils). This thermostat starts the burner when the temperature of this stream exceeds a certain value due to an increase of the building thermal load. The nominal operating conditions of the absorption chiller/heater are reported in Table 2. The instantaneous cooling capacity of the chiller is obtained by multiplying the ow rate of chilled water of the primary cirTable 2 Nominal conditions of the Yazaki absorption chiller CH-V100 Cooling capacity (kW) Heating capacity (kW) Coefcient of performance Cooling mode Heating mode Consumption of combustible (kW) Summer Winter Chilled water temperature inlet/outlet ( C) Hot water temperature inlet/outlet ( C) Nominal chilled/hot water ow rate (l/s) Cooling water temperature inlet/outlet ( C) Nominal cooling water ow rate (l/s) 352 292 1.0 0.83 352 352 12.5/7.0 48.5/55.0 15.3 29.5/35.5 25.4

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e Table 3 Nominal conditions of the air handling units Airvent CL CL-A Dimensions (mm) Maximum air ow rate (m3 /h) Capacity (kW) Inlet temperature of air ( C) Outlet temperature of air ( C) Inlet relative humidity (%) 900 1200 3950 4800 34.9 26.7 14.7 63 CL-B 1200 1600 5000 11000 72.2 26.0 14.3 61 CL-C 1400 1700 5450 14500 90.7 26.0 14.7 61 CL-D 1400 1700 5000 15000 82.6 25.8 15.4 60 CL-E

937

1150 1600 4700 11000 93.0 27.2 14.4 65

cuit by the specic heat of water and by the difference temperature between the impulsion and return streams of the primary circuit (Eq. (1)). Qprod = Mw Cpw Tw (1)

Eprod = Mw Cpw Tw t

(2)

The cold supplied by the absorption chiller to the air-conditioning installation is calculated from the instantaneous cooling capacity and the frequency of data storage (Eq. (2)).

3.1.1. Coefcient of performance: COP The coefcient of performance of the absorption chiller is dened as the quotient of the refrigeration effect and heat input to the high pressure generator calculated from gas consumption and lower caloric power (LCP) of gas (Eq. (3)). COP = Eprod Vgas LCP (3)

Fig. 2. Scheme of an air handling unit in the local supervisor.

938

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

3.2. Distribution and terminal units 3.2.1. Air handling units The building considered in this study has six air handling units which are installed in the services area, the library, study room, and two classrooms. There are ve different models (AE) having nominal capacities in the range 3493 kW (Table 3). From these units we have measured with a frequency of 1 min the impulsion and return temperatures of air, return relative humidity, percentage of opening valve controlling the mass ow rate of chilled water entering the cooling battery, and percentage of opening sluices of exterior air controlling the free cooling. The operation mode of the air handling units consists of passing air through a battery in which chilled/hot wa60

ter is circulated (refrigeration/heating mode) and thus cooling/heating the air that it has to be circulated forward to the room, until the set point temperature is reached. The set point temperature for all air handling units is 23 C both in winter and summer. When the set point temperature is reached, the water valve of the battery closes and the airow recirculates (Fig. 2). The calculation of the cold/heat supplied by the air handling units requires the determination of the sensible heat and latent heat transferred by these units through the battery. In our case, the battery consists of a humid coil because its supercial temperature is lower than the dew point temperature of air. In that situation the air is cooled and dishumidied. Ideally the temperature of air leaving the unit is equal to the supercial temperature of the battery. At these conditions, air cannot retain the same amount
70 67

55

64 61

50

58 55

45

52

40

46 43

35

40 37

30

34 31

25

28 25

20

22 19

15

16 13

10

10 7

4 1

0
16 -ju 18 l -ju 22 l -ju 24 l -ju 26 l -ju 30 l 01 jul -a 05 go -a 07 go -a g 09 o -a 13 go -a 15 go -a 20 go -a 22 go -a 26 go -a 28 go -a 30 go -a 03 go -s 05 ep -s 09 ep -s 12 ep -s 16 ep -s 18 ep -s 20 ep -s 25 ep -s 27 ep -s e 01 p -o 03 ct -o c 07 t -o 09 ct -o 11 ct -o 15 ct -o 17 ct -o 21 ct -o 23 ct -o 25 ct -o 29 ct -o ct

-2

Date
cycles on/off Functioning time ratio (%)

Fig. 3. Number of on/off cyclesoperating time of the absorption chiller during 16th July30th October of 2002.

Operating time of the absorption chiller (%)

49

Number of on/off cycles

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

939

of steam as at the entrance even at saturated conditions [17]. Looking at the psychometric chart the equivalent dew point temperature can be determined from the return temperature and relative humidity. Then, the supercial temperature of the battery and the latent heat can be calculated. The temperature of the battery has to be equal or lower than the dew point temperature to take off the latent heat. Moreover, a positive value of the latent heat means that there is no latent heat in the process as it is not possible to supply humidity to the ambient. The sensible heat is obtained by multiplying the nominal airow rate by the temperature difference between the impulsion and return streams (Eq. (4)). Qs = Ve Cpas (Ti Tr ) e (4)

The daily energy consumption is obtained multiplying the nominal power of the pumps by the efciency and the daily working period (Eq. (9)).
3

Ep = p t
i=1

Ppn

(9)

The heat losses in the circuit pipes are calculated using the pipes length and the characteristics of isolating material (Eq. (10)). Epi = klp lt (10)

4. Results and discussion In this paragraph, the collected operational data of the air-conditioning installation were analyzed by evaluating the operation of the Yazaki absorption machine in cooling mode, and by assessing the energy balance of the integrated system consisting of the chiller, the distribution circuits, and the terminal units (air handling units and fan coils). 4.1. Evaluation of the operation of the absorption chiller Fig. 3 shows the number of sudden starts and stops (on/off cycles) of the absorption chiller throughout the day. The average number of cycles was 36, which is fairly high considering that this corresponds to about three to four starts of the chiller every hour. This is because the chiller is oversized and the demand for air-conditioning is low. This gure also shows the time-relation in which the chiller produces chilled water. 41% of the time the absorption chiller is running, and during the remaining time it is in stand-by waiting for a higher air-conditioning demand. The operation sequence of the absorption chiller consists of; a start up early in the morning followed by an operation cycle of 1530 min, and a stop when the chilled water temperature reaches 7 C, and then successive start up/operation/stop cycles to maintain the return temperature of the primary circuit in the range 710 C. As the demand for air-conditioning of the building is low in relation to the cooling capacity of the chiller, the on/off cycles are frequent and short (between 4 and 9 min). Also, there were fewer on/off cycles in the rst fortnight of August than in the second fortnight of July. This was because the average external temperature was higher in July than in August and the chiller had to start and stop more often to reach the target thermal conditions of chilled water. Fig. 4 shows the daily average cooling capacity of the absorption chiller during the period of study. The average daily capacity is 68 kW, that is, 19% of the nominal value. Cooling capacity is highest during the rst cycle of operation, which is the time between the rst start-up of the chiller early in the morning, after the system has been stopped during the night, and the second start-up. The average cooling capacity of the rst cycle of operation is around 51% of the nominal

Regarding the calculation of latent heat (Eq. (8)), we have to determine previously the supercial temperature of the battery considering the impulsion and return water temperatures of the air handling units and the opening percentage of the valve (Eqs. (5) and (6)). Then we obtain the by-pass factor, that is, the rate of dry air no treated with respect to the total dry air (Eq. (7)). XT + (100 X)Tic = 100Trc Tb = 1 + FB = Ql = Tic + T 2 (5) (6) (7)

mnt Ti Tb = mtot Tr T b Ve Cf (1 FB)(Wb Wr ) e

(8)

3.2.2. Fancoils The fancoils units installed in the building are Clivet type FOI (horizontal fancoil without cabinet) and there are two different models of 3.5 and 4.5 kW of power, respectively. In this case, the return air temperature (room temperature) and the percentage of opening valve controlling the rate of chilled water entering the battery were monitored. 3.2.3. Ducts and distribution pumps An energy balance of the distribution circuits of the air-conditioning installation can be assessed including the energy consumption of the pumps and energy losses in pipes. The air-conditioning installation has three distribution pumps for chilled/hot water of the Yazaki absorption machine, cooling water of refrigeration tower, and distribution circuit to the air handling units and fancoils. The power of these pumps are 7.5, 7.5 and 4 kW, respectively, while the efciency is 0.7 according to the operation curve provided by the manufacturer.

940
350

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

300

Cooling Capacity (kW)

250

200

150

100

50

0
16/07/02 23/07/02 30/07/02 06/08/02 13/08/02 20/08/02 27/08/02 03/09/02 10/09/02 17/09/02 24/09/02 01/10/02 08/10/02 15/10/02 22/10/02 29/10/02

Date

Nominal cooling capacity

Daily cooling capacity

1st.Cycle cooling capacity

Fig. 4. Daily and rst cycle cooling capacity of the absorption chiller during 16th July30th October of 2002.

capacity of the chiller. These maximum values never reach the nominal capacity because the machine is clearly oversized. Fig. 5 shows the cooling capacity of the absorption chiller during the rst 3 h of a typical day of July. In this g350,00

ure we can observe clearly the high number of on/off cycles of the chiller. The numerical values of the coefcient of performance (COP) of the absorption chiller are shown in Fig. 6. The

300,00

250,00 Cooling Capacity (kW)

200,00

150,00

100,00

50,00

0,00 0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Time (minutes)
Fig. 5. Instantaneous cooling capacity of the absorption chiller in a typical day of July 2002.

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

1,2 1,1 1 0,9

941

COP
0,8 0,7 0,6 0,5

16/07/02

23/07/02

30/07/02

06/08/02

13/08/02

20/08/02

27/08/02

03/09/02

10/09/02

17/09/02

24/09/02

01/10/02

08/10/02

15/10/02

22/10/02
15/10/02

Date
nominal Cop

1st. Cycle Cop

Morning Cop

Daily Cop

Fig. 6. Coefcient of performance (COP) of the Yazaki absorption chiller during 16th July30th October of 2002.
3500

3000

2500

Energy (kWh)

2000

1500

1000

500

0
16/07/02 23/07/02 30/07/02 06/08/02 13/08/02 20/08/02 27/08/02 03/09/02 10/09/02 17/09/02 24/09/02 01/10/02 08/10/02 22/10/02 29/10/02

Date
Overall consumption
Air-handling units

Fancoils

Pumps

Pipes

Fig. 7. Energy rates of the distribution circuits and terminal units of the air-conditioning installation.

29/10/02

942

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e

daily COP, the morning COP between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., and that of the rst operation cycle of the chiller are considered. This gure shows that the daily COP and the morning COP are similar, ranging from 1.02 to 1.14 in the second fortnight of July, from 0.60 to 1.12 in August, from 0.68 to 1.12 in September, and from 0.33 to 0.89 in October. COP decreased considerably in October due to the low demand for air-conditioning. This fact implies an increase of the thermal energy consumption of the chiller with respect to the cold production, lowering then the COP. The inlet temperature of cooling water was around 45 C lower than the nominal value (Table 2) during the second fortnight of July. This explains why the values of COP are slightly higher in this fortnight than in the rst fortnight of August. COP during the rst operating cycle ranges from 0.52 to 0.83 in July, from 0.63 to 0.80 in August, from 0.2 to 1.35 in September, and from 0.27 to 0.84 in October. 4.2. Energy balance of the whole air-conditioning installation The energy balance of the air-conditioning installation is carried out to quantify the energy losses in the distribution circuits and how the cold supplied by the absorption chiller is used in the terminal units (air handling units and fan coils). Fig. 7 shows the energy consumption of the air handling units, fancoils, and pumps, and the energy losses in pipes. The air handling units with a 60% of the total energy consumption have the most important part while the fancoils represent 18%, energy losses in pipes and pumps represent the remaining 22%. The cold supplied by the absorption chiller is in average slightly lower than the sum of the cold supplied by the terminal units and energy losses in the distribution circuits. This is mainly due to the use of nominal values for air ow rates and the calculation approach used for determining the battery supercial temperature. In fact, a posterior experimental characterization of the operation of the air handling units showed that the actual cold supplied by these units is slightly lower than the calculated values.

proved by integrating systems that increase the inertia of the air-conditioning installation such as chilled water storage or by operating the chiller at partial load. During the rst operating cycle of the chiller, that is the rst hour of the day, the cooling capacity is maximum and the duration of the cycle is the longest (between 10 and 30 min). This is because the air-conditioning system is stopped throughout the night and then the chiller has to cool down the whole building. This is when an energy evaluation closer to the stationary state can be carried out because, as previously mentioned, the subsequent operating cycles only last 5 min in average. Higher COPs than the nominal value provided by the manufacturer are mainly due to two factors. First, the thermal conditions of the inlet cooling water are more favorable than those of the nominal case. Second, the errors associated with the calculation of the cold supplied by the absorption chiller and the gas consumption have to be considered. The relative error for both parameters is 11 and 10%, respectively. These values seem to be quite high but indeed are acceptable for this kind of equipments.

References
[1] B. Argello, M. Vlez, Nonlinear control of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system with thermal load estimation, IEEE Trans. Control Sys. Technol. 7 (I) (1999) 5663. [2] T. Hong, J. Zhang, Y. Jiang, IISABRE: an integrated building simulation environment, Building Environ. 32 (3) (1997) 219224. [3] N.J. Blair, J.W. Mitchell, W.A. Beckman, Demonstration of TRNSYS use in building simulations, Proc. Building Simul. 95 (1995) 701 708. [4] B. Kim, L. Degelman, An interface system for computerized energy analyses for building designers, Energy Buildings 27 (1) (1998) 97 107. [5] J. Hensen, J. Clarke, Integrated simulation for HVAC performance prediction: state-of-the-art illustration, in: Proceedings of the International ASHRAE/CIBSE Conference Dublin 2000 2020 Vision, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers/Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, Atlanta, CD-ROM, 2000. [6] S. Hayter, P. Torcellini, R. Judkoff, Optimizing building and HVAC systems, ASHRAE J., December (1999) 4649. [7] D.S. Ward, T.A. Weiss, G.O.G. Lf, Preliminary performance of CSU solar house I heating and cooling system, Sol. Energy 18 (1976) 541548. [8] J.M. Froemming, B.D. Wood, J.M. Guertin, Dynamic test results of an absorption chiller for residential solar applications, ASHRAE Trans. 85 (1979) 777786. [9] E. Koeppel, The modelling, Performance and Optimal Control of Commercial Absorption Chillers, MS Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 1994. [10] S. Klein, F. Alvarado, EESEngineering Equation Solver, Middleton, WI, F-Chart Software, 1993. [11] Solar Energy Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, 2000, TRNSYS Ref. Manual. [12] P. Martnez, Simulacin en estado estacionario de sistemas de absor cin mediante adaptacin del programa TRNSYS. Aplicacin con la mezcla H2O-LiBr, PhD Thesis, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, 1999.

5. Conclusions The Yazaki absorption chiller is clearly oversized with respect to the air-conditioning demand of the building considered in this study. The maximum average cooling capacity of the absorption chiller during its rst operating cycle was 221 kW for the whole period of study when the nominal capacity is 352 kW, that is, around 63% of the nominal value. This oversize in the cooling capacity causes a high number of on/off cycles during the operation of the absorption chiller. The average daily number of on/off cycles is 36 and the average operating time of each cycle is about 5 min, and 59% of the scheduled operation time the chiller is in stand-by. Hence, the operation of the chiller can be im-

M. P rez de Viaspre et al. / Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 933943 e [13] P.J. Martnez, A. Garca, J.M. Pinazo, Performance analysis of an air conditioning system driven by natural gas, Energy Buildings 35 (2003) 669674. [14] M. Prez de Viaspre, Estudio de los sistemas de produccin de energa trmica por absorcin en la gestin energtica de un edicio universitario, MS Thesis, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain, 2002. [15] M. Prez de Viaspre, M. Bourouis, J. Montorns, A. Coronas, A. Garca Laespada, V. Soto, J. Pinazo, Evaluacin energtica del sis tema de calefaccin y climatizacin por absorcin de un edicio uni-

943

versitario, in: Proceedings of the First Spanish Congress of Sciences and Technologies of Refrigeration, CYTEF, Cartagena, Spain, 2002. [16] J. Montorns, M. Bourouis, M. Prez de Viaspre, A. Coronas, C. Daz de Argandoa, J. Domingo, Supervisin del estado de clima tizacin de edicios universitarios a travs de la Web, in: Proceedings of the XV Spanish Congress of Mechanical Engineering, Cdiz, Spain, 2002. [17] J. Pinazo, Manual de Climatizacin Tomo I: Transformaciones sicromtricas, Servicio de Publicaciones Universidad Politcnica de Valencia SPUPV-95.819 (1995).