Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 20522058

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Energy and Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild

Cooling load reduction by using thermal mass and night ventilation

Lina Yang *, Yuguo Li
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history: Received 6 May 2008 Accepted 26 May 2008 Keywords: Cooling load Cooling load ratio Thermal mass Night ventilation Air-conditioning

We provide a quantitative understanding of the relationship between thermal mass and cooling load, i.e. the effect of thermal mass on energy consumption of air-conditioning in ofce buildings. A simple ofcebuilding model with air-conditioning at daytime and free cooling at nighttime is analyzed in detail to quantify the hourly and overall variation of cooling load of air-conditioning. As an important parameter, an increase of time constant can effectively reduce the cooling load, by as much as more than 60% when the time constant is more than 400 h. However, when the time constant is larger than 1000 h, a further increase may slightly increase the cooling load, as a too large time constant may also postpone the heat release of thermal mass until the daytime. For the most effective reduction of cooling load, the interior and exterior convective heat transfer numbers need to be matched. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Buildings consume more than 30% of the primary energy worldwide. In China, buildings account for 23% in 2003 of the total energy use and is expected to increase to 30% by 2010 [1]. 65% of the building energy consumption in 2003 in China was due to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning [1]. Hence, improving building energy efciency has become one of the critical issues for overall national energy strategy in China. The use of thermal mass in a building can reduce peak heating or cooling load, and subsequently building energy consumption, in particular when it is integrated with night ventilation. Thermal mass is dened as the thermal materials that can absorb heat, store it and release it later. Thermal mass includes building envelope, furniture, internal walls, etc. Thermal storage capacity of building mass is one of the factors describing the building thermal performance [2]. In naturally ventilated buildings, thermal mass is effective for reducing the air temperature uctuation [3]. Many studies investigated the relationship between thermal mass and indoor air temperature, and the effect of thermal mass and night ventilation on cooling load; as reviewed by Balaras [4]. 16 different simplied models for estimating the cooling load of a building, considering the buildings thermal mass, were summarized and compared in Ref. [4]. Parameters describing the effects of thermal mass include the effective heat storage capacity [5,6], diurnal heat capacity [7], thermal effectiveness parameter [8],

admittance factor [9], and total thermal time constant [10]. The effective layer thickness of external walls [11] and the surface area of thermal storage [12,13] also signicantly affect the thermal mass performance. Existing studies showed that the reduction in cooling load by using thermal mass vary between 18 and 50% [8,1416]. But these studies were mostly based on the laboratory monitoring or eld experiments, without systematic theoretical studies. Hence this paper aims to provide a detailed theoretical analysis on the relationship between use of thermal mass and reduction of cooling load. Through a simple building model, all parameters affecting the thermal mass performance are quantitatively evaluated and analyzed. 2. A simple building model Here only the warm climates are considered, while the results and analysis can also be easily extended to the cold climates. Fig. 1 shows a simple ofce-building model with daytime air-conditioning and night ventilation. The air temperature distribution in the building is uniform. Both internal and external thermal storage materials are modeled as a thermal mass wall. All building envelope except the thermal mass wall is perfectly insulated. As shown later, the location of thermal mass relative to insulation and effect of insulation may be analyzed by changing the interior and exterior convective heat transfer numbers. Thermal radiation between room surfaces is ignored. All heat gain (including solar heat gain) and heat generation in the building is lumped into one heat source term, i.e. E at daytime and no indoor heat gain is considered at nighttime. The temperature distribution in the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2816 2625; fax: +852 2858 5415. E-mail address: liyg@hku.hk (L. Yang). 0378-7788/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2008.05.014

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Nomenclature Ai Ao cm cp E g hi ho M qv Qcl t TE Ti Tm To Tset o T o DT interior surface area of thermal mass (m2) exterior surface area of thermal mass (m2) heat capacity of the thermal mass (J/kg K) heat capacity of air (J/kg K) heat generation rate (W) acceleration of gravity (m/s2) interior convective heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 K) exterior convective heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 K) mass of the thermal mass (kg) night ventilation rate (m3/s) cooling load (W) time (s) temperature rise due to internal heat gain (K) indoor air temperature (K) thermal mass temperature (K) outdoor air temperature (K) indoor air setting temperature at daytime (K) mean outdoor temperature (K) amplitude of outdoor air temperature uctuation (K)

Greek symbols b phase shift (s) li interior convective heat transfer number lo exterior convective heat transfer number j cooling load ratio jt total cooling load ratio r air density (kg/m3) t time constant (s) v frequency of outdoor temperature variation (1/s)

Fig. 1. A simple one-zone building model with periodic outdoor air temperature variation when: (a) daytime, the air-conditioning (AC) system is on and the indoor air temperature is kept constant and (b) nighttime, AC is off and the building is ventilated at a constant ventilation rate.

o are independent of time and DT o and T o ! 0; v is the where DT frequency of the outdoor temperature uctuation with a value of 2p/24 h1. Substituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (1), we get

thermal mass is also assumed to be uniform, i.e. Tm. This means that the thermal conduction process within the materials is much faster than thermal convection at surface. At daytime, the indoor air temperature is kept constant, i.e. Tset; see Fig. 1a. At nighttime, the ventilation rate, qv , is constant; see Fig. 1b. 2.1. Daytime The heat balance equations for thermal mass and room air are Mcm

vt

@T m o li T i lo DT o sinvt lo li T m lo T @vt

(4)

@T m ho Ao T m T o hi Ai T m T i 0 @t

(1)

Q cl hi Ai T m T i E 0

(2)

where Qcl is the heat removed by air-conditioning equipment, i.e. the cooling load. We assume that the outdoor temperature can be expressed by Fourier analysis as the sum of sinusoidal components of periods 24, 12, 8, 6 h, etc. We consider the main sinusoidal component of period 24 h. o DT o sinvt To T (3)

where t Mcm =rcp qv is the time constant based on a reference ventilation rate qv , which is chosen to be the night ventilation ow rate. lo ho Ao =rcp qv is the non-dimensional exterior convective heat transfer number, and li hi Ai =rcp qv the interior convective heat transfer number. Two convective heat transfer numbers li and lo measure the relative strength of interior and exterior convective heat transfer at the thermal mass surfaces. A small thermal resistance (large interior or exterior convective heat transfer number) represents the interior or exterior convective heat transfer is very effective compared to the ow mixing in the room. In such situations, the thermal mass is considered to be in thermal equilibrium with the room air or outdoor. The general solution of Eq. (4) is T m vt

q sinvt b1 lo li 2 v2 t 2 C 1 elo li =vtvt (5)

lo li T T lo li o lo li set o lo DT

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where Tset is the indoor temperature set point, which is maintained by the air-conditioning system (Ti = Tset = constant at daytime), and C1 is a constant. For the thermal mass, the phase shift b1 = tan1(vt/(lo + li)) with a value between 0 and p/2, i.e. 0 and o ! T set , however, the 6 h. Here the warm climates are dened as T o < T set ). analysis can also be extended to the cold climates (i.e. T Substituting Eq. (5) into Eq. (2) and we have the cooling load

mass.
vt1 jt R v t2

R vt2

jQ cl jdvt

vt1 jQ cl0 jdvt

(9)

2.2. Nighttime

9 8 > > = < li lo li lo o sinvt b1 C 1 li elo li =vtvt Q cl vt rcp qv T E To T set q DT > > l l 2 o i ; : lo l v2 t 2
i

(6)

where T E E=rcp qv is the temperature rise due to the heat source. A negative/positive Qcl means that cooling/heating is needed. Eq. (6) shows that the cooling load is the sum of three parts. The cl , which comprises the steady state cooling rst is the mean load Q load due to steady heat source, and the heat gain or loss through convective heat transfer due to the temperature difference between mean outdoor and indoor air temperature (as thermal conduction through the thermal mass is assumed to be innite). cl with its The second part is the periodic uctuating load DQ o , amplitude depending on the outdoor air temperature swing DT the convective heat transfer number (li and lo), and the time constant t. b1 is the phase lag of the cooling load swing with respect to the outdoor air temperature; and the third part (the exponent term) is due to initial condition and it decays to zero as time or exterior convective heat transfer increases, or time constant decreases. The cooling load increases as heat source (TE), or temperature o T set , or differences between indoor and mean outdoor air T uctuation of outdoor air temperature DT increase. On the other hand, the time constant t and the convective heat transfer coefcient with surrounding air (li and lo), are also important parameters affecting the cooling load. Undoubtedly, the peakcooling load can be reduced with heavy thermal mass, i.e. large time constant t. The phase shift of cooling load is b1 = tan1(vt/ (lo + li)) with a value between 0 and p/2 (i.e. 0 and 6 h). When there is no thermal mass, i.e. t = 0, we can easily obtain the cooling load Qcl0:   li lo li lo o sinvt To T set DT Q cl0 vt rcp qv T E1 lo li lo li (7) The effect of thermal mass can be seen from the lack of the time constant terms in Eq. (7). A cooling load ratio j = Qcl/Qcl0 is dened here to represent the ratio of cooling load in building with thermal mass to the load in building without thermal mass at daytime.

The two heat balance equations for the thermal mass and room air are Mcm

@T m ho Ao T m T o hi Ai T m T i 0 @t

(10)

rcp qv T o T i hi Ai T m T i 0
Let li li =1 li , we have
0

(11)

vt

@T m o lo l0 DT o sinvt (12) lo l0i T m lo l0i T @vt

The general solution of Eq. (12) is

lo l0i o q o sinvt b2 DT T m vt T 2 lo l0i v2 t 2 C 2 elo li =vtvt

0

(13)

where C2 is a constant. The phase shift b2 tan1 vt =lo l0i . The solution for indoor air temperature is o T vt i T

l0i lo l0i DT sinvt l0i q li o 2 lo l0i v2 t 2

0

o sinvt b2 l0i C 2 elo li =vtvt DT

(14)

2.3. Matching conditions We assume that in 24 h, the daytime is from t1 to t2. The thermal mass temperatures at t2 and t1 + 24 should be continuous. At t = t2, we have

q o T set li lo = lo li 2 v2 t 2 DT o sinvt b1 C 1 li elo li =vtvt T E1 li lo =lo li T Q cl j o sinvt Q cl0 T E1 li lo =lo li To T set li lo =lo li DT

(8)

The cooling load ratio is a time-dependent parameter. The smaller the ratio, the more energy saved. The cooling load ratio decreases when the heat source E, temperature difference between o T set , or the outdoor temperature indoor and outdoor air T o decrease. swings DT To understand the total energy conservation potential, the total cooling load ratio is introduced to represent the ratio of total cooling load in building with thermal mass to that without thermal

0 lo li o sinvt 2 b2 C 2 elo l i =vtvt2 o q DT T 0 2 2 2 lo li v t

o lo li lo DT T q T lo li o lo li set 2 l l v2 t 2
o i lo li =vt vt2

sinvt 2 b1 C 1 e

(15)

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Fig. 3. Proles of cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio as a function of the o T set : (a) cooling load temperature differences between indoor and outdoor air T ratio; (b) total cooling load ratio.

Fig. 2. The temperature proles of indoor air and thermal mass with different mean o 308:15 K; (b) T o 303:15 K; (c) T o 297:15 K. outdoor air temperatures: (a) T

and at t = t1 + 24, we have

lo l0i o sinvt 1 24v b2 o q DT T 2 lo l0i v2 t 2

C 2 elo li =vtvt1 24
0

o and temperature swing DT o ), the (mean outdoor temperature T interior and exterior convective heat transfer numbers (li and lo), and as well as the time constant t. For simplicity, we let t1 = 8:00, t2 = 18:00, v = p/12, room volume V = 32.4 m3 (4 m 3 m 2.7 m), lo = 30 (exterior convective heat transfer coefcient ho = 15 W/m2 K), li = 10 (interior convective heat transfer coefcient hi = 5 W/m2 K), t = 100 (como 7:5 K, E = 240 W (20 W/m2), mon concrete brick), DT Tset = 297.15 K (24 8C), and the reference night ventilation rate is 1 given by qv =V 1 h . Then the phase shift b1 is about 2.21 h at daytime and b2 = 2.68 h at night. The variation of cooling load can o 308:15 K be obtained by giving different outdoor climates, i.e. T o 303:15 K (30 8C); T o 297:15 K (24 8C, the reference (35 8C), T case). 3.1. Outdoor air temperature and cooling load The temporal proles of indoor/outdoor air temperature and thermal mass temperature are obtained for three different mean outdoor air temperatures; see Fig. 2. The maximum temperature of thermal mass at daytime occurs at around 16:00, then reach another maximum at 19:00 after the air-conditioning is turned off and if the outdoor air temperature was higher than indoor temperature during this period. Heat is released from the thermal mass at nighttime and thermal mass achieves its minimum temperature at around 4:00 in the following day. At nighttime the indoor air temperature reaches its minimum at around 3:00 while the minimum outdoor air temperature occurs at around 2:00. Also there is a gap for indoor air temperature between daytime and

lo lo li

o T

o lo DT T q sinvt 1 lo li set 2 lo li v2 t 2

li

b1 C 1 elo li =vtvt1

(16)

The two constants C1 and C2 are determined from Eqs. (15) and (16). The expressions are lengthy and are not given here. 3. Results and discussion As in Eqs. (8) and (9), the control parameters for the cooling load ratio include indoor air setting Tset, the outdoor air temperature

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Fig. 4. Proles of cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio as a function of outdoor air temperature swing: (a) cooling load ratio; (b) total cooling load ratio.

nighttime at the time 8:00 and 18:00 when the air-conditioning system is on or off. The gap is smaller when the mean outdoor air temperature is smaller. Fig. 3 shows the cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio as o T set . The higher the temperature difference, the affected by T larger the cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio. In Fig. 3a, the cooling load ratio is less than one for most of the hours due to heat storage. After the heat storage capacity of the thermal mass achieves its maximum at around 16:00, it begins releasing its heat, leading to an increase of the cooling load and the cooling load ratio becomes greater than one after 16:00. The slightly excessive energy consumption at later hours is tiny, which can be offset by the energy saving at earlier hours. Hence the total cooling load ratio can be less than one. The total cooling load ratio decreases as o T set difference reduces. The maximum energy saving of close T o T set 0 K. It is noted that when to 30% is obtained when T o T set 0 K, the cooling load ratio is negative at early hours as T the night ventilation reduces the indoor air temperature to be below the setting temperature of 24 8C. In this case the heating is needed rather than cooling. Large diurnal temperature variations benet thermal mass. Fig. 4 shows the effect of three different temperature swings of 5, 7.5, and 10 K. The cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio decrease as the temperature uctuation increases, as the amplitude of cooling load is proportional to the outdoor temperature swing as shown in Eq. (6). When the swing is larger, the reduced amplitude in the case with thermal mass is larger than that without thermal mass; see Eq. (8). The effect of indoor heat gain can also be shown (not done here). It is obvious that the cooling load is dominated by the heat gain when the daytime heat gain is large; hence the relative contribution of thermal mass is reduced.

Fig. 5. Proles of cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio as a function of time constant: (a) cooling load ratio; (b) total cooling load ratio.

3.2. Time constant/convective heat transfer and cooling load The time constant t is a very important parameter for describing the thermal properties of thermal mass. The magnitude of the time constant determines the heat storage capacity of thermal mass and phase shift of the peak-cooling load. The effect of the time constant t on the cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio is shown in Fig. 5. The cooling load ratio and the total cooling load ratio decrease rst and then increase as the time constant increases. When t = 0, both ratios equal to one. When the time constant t increases, the phase shift of thermal mass for both day and night time increases as time constant increases, hence the phase shift for the cooling load increases correspondingly, see Eq. (6). The peak cooling load is delayed and the energy saving is realized. On the other hand, since the amplitude of cooling load with thermal mass (see Eq. (6)) is inversely proportional to the time constant, the cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio decrease as the time constant increases. That is why the total cooling load ratio reduces when t < 1000 in Fig. 5. However, there is a slight increase in the total cooling load ratio when t > 1000 and increases to innity. This may be due to the fact that at nighttime, the heat release process of thermal mass also slows down due to the very large time constant but relatively smaller night ventilation, which may lead to that the thermal mass is kept at high temperature at night, and hence slightly increased cooling load next day. Hence due to the phase shift approaches the maximum value of p/2, i.e. 6 h for the time constant to approach innity; there is minor increase for the total cooling load ratio when the time constant is greater than 1000.

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Fig. 6. Proles of cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio as affected by the interior convective heat transfer number: (a) cooling load ratio; (b) total cooling load ratio. Fig. 7. Proles of cooling load ratio and total cooling load ratio as affected by the exterior convective heat transfer number: (a) cooling load ratio; (b) total cooling load ratio.

It is obvious that when there is a mismatch between the two convective heat transfer numbers, an increase of any one of them will not make any signicant impact. Figs. 6 and 7 show that neither small nor large convective heat transfer numbers reduce the cooling load ratio. For interior convective heat transfer number li, the zero value of this number means there is no heat transfer between indoor air and thermal mass. In this case, there is no thermal mass in building and the cooling load ratio or the total cooling load ratio are equal to 1; see Fig. 6. A zero exterior convective heat transfer number lo means there is no heat transfer between outdoor air and thermal mass. In this case, only interior thermal mass contributes. 4. Conclusions The effect of thermal mass on cooling load reduction in buildings is studied in detail using a very simple building model, which allows us to examine the hourly benets in using thermal mass and night ventilation. The cooling load ratio and the total cooling load ratio are introduced to represent the effect of thermal mass on cooling load reduction. Our analysis quantied the dependence of the cooling load on the thermal properties of thermal mass, including the time constant t and the convective heat transfer factors (both interior number li and exterior number lo), the outdoor air temperature, and as well as the indoor heat gain. Our results show that only appropriate amount of thermal mass in terms of both thermal properties and convective heat transfer together with suitable outdoor climates will benet most. The present work provides a simple model for designing thermal mass and night ventilation.

Acknowledgments The work was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR, China (Project No. 7154/05E). The authors thank Dr. Pengcheng Xu for his assistance in mathematical derivations. The work is a part of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Annex 44 project on Integrating Environmentally Responsive Elements in Buildings.

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