Cooling coil design improvement for HVAC energy savings and comfort enhancement

In designing an energy-efficient HVAC system, several factors being to play an important role. Among several others, the performance of cooling coil which is embodied through its configuration, directly influence the performance of HVAC systems and should be considered to be crucial. This paper investigates and recommends design improvements of cooling coil geometry contributes for a central cooling system by using a simulation-optimisation approach. An actual central cooling plant of a commercial building in the hot and dry climate condition is used for experimentation and data collection. An algorithm was created in a transient system simulation program to predict the best design. Available experimental results were compared to predicted results to validate the model. Then different models of several new designs for cooling coil were constructed to evaluate the potential of design improvements. Afterwards, the computer model was used to predict how changes in cooling coil geometry would affect the building environment conditions and the energy consumption of the HVAC components. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.