C09 - Reducing Energy Consumption through Laminated Glazing Based HVAC System Design for an Academic Building in the UAE ✓ Most Recent

https://doi.org/10.63044/eb24gou9

In the Gulf countries, the steady rise in energy consumption in academic and industrial buildings calls for intensified research on how to save energy. The bulk of energy consumption in these buildings is due to ventilation and air conditioning systems. Therefore, it is necessary to develop building management systems that simultaneously reduce energy consumption and provide comfortable conditions for their occupants. The main objective of this work is to propose a method to reduce energy consumption and improve air quality by replacing the split electric cooling system with whole fan-based ventilation and cooling system. To apply this idea, this paper studies the “G block” laboratory building at the British Applied College located in Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates, as an example. First, a scalable multi-room building model is created in MATLAB/Simulink using the Simscape toolbox. Then, a ventilation solution is designed to replace the existing split air conditioning system. To further enhance energy savings, it has been proposed to replace monolayer window glass with laminated glass. A brief literature review of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), ionoplast (SGP), and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) has been performed. Each of them is tested as windows interlayer’s and a comparative study on their influence on the internal temperature has been established. The simulation results show the promising efficiency of the proposed arrangement as a quick and low-cost solution to reduce energy consumption and provide healthy ventilation in similar buildings.