A Detailed Analysis of the Part Load Ratio and Cooling Energy Characteristics of Chiller Operation in an Office Building

Commercial buildings account for significant portions of the total building energy in Korea, and thus, a variety of research on chiller operation has been carried out. However, most of the studies were carried out on the chiller itself, i.e., the part load ratio characteristics and the corresponding electricity energy consumption patterns were not analyzed in existing studies. In this study, the part load ratio and the operating characteristics of the vapor compression chiller were analyzed within an office building equipped with the conventional variable air volume system. As a result, significant portions of total operating hours, cooling load, and energy consumption turned out to be in the part load ratio range of 0 through 50%. Thus, energy consumption was significantly affected by the chiller COP at low part load conditions, indicating that chiller operation at the part load is an important factor in commercial buildings.