An investigation into the choice of air-conditioning design conditions for Malaysian offices and their effect on energy consumption in Malaysia
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Date
2002-04
Authors
Ismail, Mohd Rodzi
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Abstract
Correct design conditions are essential requirements in designing airconditioning
systems to achieve system efficiency and comfort for the users.
As Malaysia depends on year round air-conditioning for the majority of its
office buildings, use of appropriate outside and inside design conditions is
crucial.
The current outside design conditions for Malaysia, recommended by
authorities such as ASHRAE and CIBSE, are based on weather data more
than 40 years old. During this period the earth's climate has possibly changed
due to influences such as global. warming. Current inside design conditions
are obtained from international standards, which give figures based on studies
carried out for the temperate climates of Europe and North America. These
figures may not be appropriate for pt3ople acclimatised to continuous tropical
weather, and therefore adopting these figures as inside design conditions for
tropical climate regions may lead to overcooling and energy waste.
Therefore, an investigation has been carried out to re-examine the Malaysian
situation with the aim of identifying appropriate current outside and inside
design conditions. For the outside conditions, use is made of the most recent
weather data, applying the various recognised methods. Opportunity has also
been taken to look for evidence of the effects of glc•bal warming. The results of
this exercise using recent weather data has confirmed the established figures,
and does not seem to have revealed any significant global warming effects.
Thus, the validity of the current outside design conditions for Malaysia are
verified.
With regard to inside conditions, a study has been conducted in Malaysia to
check that the current recommended inside design conditions, which were
probably drawn up to satisfy the comfort needs of Europeans and Americans,
correspond with the expectations of the average native Malaysian. This study
of Malaysian thermal ··comfort has been conducted in 11 Malaysian airconditioned
offices, with over 500 workers· questioned. The data has been
analysed on the ASHRAE comfort rating scales, comparing it to the measured
inside air temperature. Results indicate that the neutral air temperature for the
whole sample is 24.7°C, which compares well with the figures found in other
studies of air-conditioned environments in tropical climates, and also is close
to the current recommended inside design temperatures. However the study
revealed that the actual inside air temperatures of the offices studied were.
below these recommended design temperatures, and therefore these offices
were being overcooled.
The effect on Malaysian offices air-conditioning energy consumption brought
about by adoption of the newly found comfort temperature as the
recommended set-point temperature is investigated. This revealed a possible
saving of around 17% of the electrical energy currently used, which
approximately equals to a 2.6% saving of the total Malaysian electricity bill,
equal to an annual monetary saving of RM3420 million or Sterling £855 million
or US$136amillion. ·
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Keywords
Design conditions , Malaysian offices and their effect , Energy consumption in Malaysia