Experimental Study of Air Conditioning Control System for Building Energy Saving

Reducing energy consumption and ensuring thermal comfort are two important considerations in designing an air conditioning (AC) system. An AC system, originally operated on an on/off control mechanism, was retrofitted to enable the application of the new controllers. This paper deals with independent control methods for the AC system based on the thermostat on/off control, digital on/off control, digital on/off control with a personal computer (DPC) and fuzzy logic control (FLC). Measurements were made at a time interval of one minute for set point temperatures of 22, 23 and 24oC. The room air temperature, energy consumption and energy saving were analyzed for all control methods. The main objective is to determine the amount of energy savings when digital on/off control, DPC and FLC are applied to the AC system. The experimental results showed that these controls saved energy consumption and improved indoor comfort significantly for a building AC system compared to a thermostat on/off control method.