Building Envelope Optimization and Cost-Effective Approach in HVAC to Support Smart Manufacturing

Abstract

To fulfill the demand for modern products, nowadays industries are growing and expanding their manufacturing units at very faster rate. But due to space constraints, there are some restrictions in expanding longitudinally so the only option is to expand laterally, i.e., increasing the number of floors. In many manufacturing units, there is a need to implement optimized and effective HVAC system. The main power consumers in most buildings are HVAC, apart from lighting systems which accounts nearly 60–65% of the total building load. The first step in energy savings on HVAC systems is to reduce the cooling load. The amount of electricity for air-conditioning systems used depends on the cooling load, i.e., the amount of heat the system must remove. In order to support the purpose of a smart and intelligent manufacturing process refining the measurement of heat loads using different methods, and enhancing the insulation used in the building envelope will result in enormous energy savings in HVAC by reducing the tonnage of heat load by creating a stronger and effective barrier to minimize the heat contribution from the air and results in saving money.