CH-2448 -- Alternate Control Strategies for Home Air Conditioning ✓ Most Recent

Presently, there is an intense effort to deal with the overall energy problem. Efforts are being directed to investigate alternative forms of energy and energy conservation. But not only are these of extreme importance, the additional problem of supplying peak power must also be addressed. The number of brown-outs and black-outs in recent years attest to its severity. This problem has often occurred during the summer months as a consequence of the enormous air-conditioning load imposed upon the electric utilities. The demand for increased power capability is well recognized, and the difficulties of obtaining additional capacity are a matter of record. The utilities are faced with escalating costs and problems related to ecology.

It is apparent that schemes for reducing these peak power requirements should be examined. While several possibilities exist, this paper deals only with the question, "Is it possible to reduce the peak electrical power requirement by changing the method of control of existing home air conditioning?" This paper represents the first step necessary to answer this question and represents a summary and an extension of the work performed by Sheng-Hsia Huang as reported in Ref 1. In this study, we are not concerned with the detailed design of new control devices. Rather, different control strategies have been assumed and the numerical results compared and assessed to provide meaningful answers to the proposed question.

Each of these control strategies is an idealization. For example, if the strategy is one of maintaining constant temperature, then the analysis produces the required cooling loads in a continuous manner. Obviously, this is unlike the actual operation of air-conditioning equipment and, further, does not account for the dead band associated with thermostatic control.

Peak load requirements of a single residence, operating with the same hardware but different controls, would not be altered. But, the peak power results which are presented in this paper can be interpreted as those occurring due to the widespread use of these alternate controls. On the other hand, new homes utilizing different controls could be cooled by units with reduced capacity, as will be shown. Further, it should be evident that no specific air-conditioning equipment has been assumed for this study.