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| 4.18 MB | Adobe PDF |
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Sales of air conditioning are growing rapidly in buildings, more than tripling between 1990
and 2016. This energy use for air conditioning comes from a combination of rising temperatures, rising
population and economic growth. Energy demand for climate control will triple by 2050, consuming
more energy than that currently consumed altogether by the United States, the European Union
and Japan. This increase in energy will directly impact water consumption, either to directly cool a
condenser of an equipment or to serve indirectly as a basis for energy sources such as hydroelectric
power that feed these heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Knowing the unique
and growing importance of water, a new index, Total Water Impact (TWI) is presented, which allows
a holistic comparison of the impact of water use on water, air and evaporative condensation climate
systems. 200 and 500 TON (tons of refrigeration) air-cooled and water-cooled systems are theoretically
compared to evaluate the general water consumption level. The TWI index is higher in the smallest
water condensing system. That is, holistically, water consumption is higher in the water condensing
system than in the air condensing system. Thus, this index provides a new insight about energy
consumption and ultimately, about sustainability.
Description
Keywords
HVAC Water-cooled condenser Air-cooled condenser Evaporative TWI