Performance analysis and optimisation of the chiller-air handling units system with a wide range of ambient temperature

Abstract

The integrated optimisation modelling for the chiller-air handling units system is developed for increasing the efficiency and energy utilisation of system. A building management system in the chillers network controls the cooling load to ensure the specified desired set temperature of the cooling air within the building can be satisfied. Unfortunately, the desired set point temperature of the cooling air is a fixed value and does not vary with the dynamic change of cooling demand with different ambient temperatures. Therefore, the power consumption of the chillers and the building cooling requirement with a wide range of different ambient temperatures is properly modelled by optimising the performance of chillers, air handling units, cooling towers, and water pumps. The linear programming model for the system is established to model a real representation of the chiller-air handling unit system. The result shows that the optimal coefficient of performance is greater by about 7%–10% than the current chiller system. The optimal power consumption of the chiller system reduces to 3%. Overall, the optimal decision solutions could be used as the potential improvement strategy to control the desired set point values in the building management system for efficient chiller-AHU system.