BUILD SIMUL (2016) 9: 429–441

DOI 10.1007/s12273-016-0280-9

Influence of household air-conditioning use modes on the energy

performance of residential district cooling systems

Research Article
Xin Zhou1 (), Da Yan2, Xiaohang Feng2, Guangwei Deng3, Yiwen Jian4, Yi Jiang2

1. School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

2. School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
3. Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences Group, Shanghai 610041, China
4. Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract Keywords
During technical evaluations of cooling systems in residential buildings, it is necessary to consider AC usage model,
the influence of the household air-conditioning (AC) use modes. In other words, how the load distribution,
occupants control the AC, for instance, when it is turned on, what the temperature setting is, and residential district cooling system,
how long it is used. Field measurements and spot interviews indicate that AC usage by residents uncertainty analysis,
should be environmental, event and random related. A reduced-order AC conditional probability energy performance
(CP) model was developed in this study to describe AC usage. The AC CP model was integrated
with a building energy modeling program (BEMP) to reflect the interaction of the AC operation
Article History
Received: 22 November 2015
and the indoor environment. With consideration of stochastic AC use modes, the uncertainty of
Revised: 19 January 2016
user compositions was studied. Additionally, simulation results revealed that AC use modes and
Accepted: 22 January 2016
user compositions can cause up to a 4.5-fold difference in the system efficiency of district cooling
systems. The Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient were applied in this study to describe the load
© Tsinghua University Press and
distribution in a quantitative manner. Through a comparison with the constant schedule definition
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
model, the study also identified inclusion of the stochastic feature of AC use modes and their
2016
compositions in simulations as being important to the technical evaluation of district cooling
systems.

1 Introduction part of the total energy consumption and the associated

greenhouse gas emissions (Tanimoto et al. 2008). In China,
There is a growing concern regarding energy consumption it is estimated that buildings stocks will account for about

Building Systems and

in buildings, due to the rapidly increasing trend of energy
use worldwide. Energy consumption of residential and com-
mercial buildings has increased between 20% and 40% in
developed countries (Pérez-Lombard et al. 2008). Energy
use in residential buildings of different countries ranges
between 16% and 50%, and the worldwide average energy
consumption of the residential sector accounts for about
30% of the total energy usage (Meyers et al. 2003; Morelli
2001; Boardman 2004; Ueno et al. 2006; Araujo et al. 2001;
Kamal 1997; Lenzena et al. 2006). Therefore, energy require-
ments for residential buildings have drawn a great deal of
attention. In particular, great attention has been directed
towards the cooling consumption, which is an important
E-mail: zhou-x06@seu.edu.cn
35% of total energy consumption in 2020, 65% of this being
consumed by the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning Components
(HVAC) system (Lam et al. 2008). The cooling consumption
of residential buildings is influenced by many factors,
including building envelope, building equipment, climate,
and so on. Amongst these factors, the type of air-conditioning
(AC) system plays an important role in the building con-
sumption and system efficiency (Peng et al. 2012). Therefore,
increasing attention is directed towards reducing energy
consumption in residential buildings, resulting in the
development and implementation of new technologies.
Integrated application of energy-saving technologies
in residential communities can improve energy utilization
430
and allocation of regional energy resources. District cooling
systems are one such system that has become increasingly
popular in recent years (Zhang et al. 2009). District cooling
systems can provide cooling for many buildings at the same
time (Chow et al. 2004b). These cooling systems use large,
efficient refrigeration equipment, so less installed capacity
is required compared to split AC systems (Chow et al.
2004c; Shimoda et al. 2008; Soederman 2007; Ortiga et al.
2013). In addition, they are capable of using renewable
energy sources, such as underground water or seawater, as
the cooling source. From the perspective of energy use
and urban landscape, district cooling systems have great
potential value (Rezaie and Rosen 2012; Chow et al. 2004a).
Most of the studies listed above have assumed that district
cooling systems would improve system performance and
consume less energy in practical applications.
The application of district cooling systems in residential
buildings is in its early stages of deployment, with a very
limited number of projects implemented (Pardo et al. 2013).
Some studies have investigated the applicability of district
cooling systems in residential buildings theoretically, and
its broad application prospect has been considered (Jing et
al. 2014; Chen et al. 2001; Al-Qattan et al. 2014). However,
in China, most of the district cooling systems have not
performed at their optimal efficiencies. Several researchers
(Long et al. 2003; Chen et al. 2008; Building Energy Research
Center in Tsinghua University 2013) have conducted energy
consumption surveys in residential buildings located in
different districts of China (Fig. 1).
The residents of these surveys are typical of each city, so
occupant behavior of the same city should not differ much
(Building Energy Research Center in Tsinghua University
2013). Regardless of the building location, the energy
consumption of district cooling systems in residential
buildings is larger than that of split AC systems by as much
as ten times. Despite this fact, most of these studies exclusively
focus on the energy consumption of one AC system type.
Few investigations have been conducted regarding the reason
Fig. 1 Electricity consumption of district cooling systems and split AC systems in residential buildings
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4
for differences in the energy consumption of the two types
of the AC systems.
Theoretical analyses of district cooling systems often
differ greatly from actual operating experiences, especially
when important factors that influence the district cooling
system are ignored. Many studies have focused on the
physical modeling of the district cooling system, including
the cooling plants, pumps, and fans (Nagota et al. 2008; Chow
et al. 2004a). Some researchers have acknowledged that the
building thermal load has an important effect on the district
cooling system performance (Chow et al. 2004b; Nagota et
al. 2008; Shimoda et al. 2008). Many studies have shown that
occupant behavior is one of the most important factors (Hoes
et al. 2009) influencing the building thermal load, energy
consumption, and technical suitability (Yan et al. 2015).
Many models with consideration for occupant behavior have
been developed, such as the occupant movement model
(Richardson et al. 2008; Page et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2011;
Zhao et al. 2014; Feng et al. 2015; D’Oca and Hong 2015),
the window opening model, and the appliance usage models
(Nicol 2001; O’Doherty et al. 2008; Reinhart 2004; Rijal et
al. 2007; Wei et al. 2014). In China, AC is usually manually
controlled. Therefore, the AC use mode is an important
part of occupant behavior, and has a significant impact on
the building thermal load. AC use modes refer to how the
occupants control the AC, e.g. when the AC is turned on,
what the temperature setpoint is, and how long the AC is
used (Peng et al. 2012).
Therefore, it is necessary to consider the influence of
AC use modes during the technical evaluation of cooling
systems. Few studies have focused on the influence of AC
use modes on the energy savings of district cooling systems.
Moreover, besides AC use modes, uncertainty of user
compositions has been largely neglected in the existing
studies, a factor found by this study to be important in the
performance of the district cooling system.
This paper discusses the influence of AC use modes
and user compositions on the energy consumption and
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4
system performance of district cooling systems in residential
communities. A reduced-order AC conditional probability
(CP) model was developed to describe AC usage. Meanwhile,
the AC CP model is integrated with a building energy
modeling program (BEMP) to reflect the interaction of AC
operation and the indoor environment. The uncertainty of
user compositions is studied to investigate the influence
of AC use modes and user compositions on the energy
consumption and system performance of the district
cooling system. The applicability of district cooling systems
in residential buildings was analyzed with consideration
for the influence of stochastic AC use modes and user
compositions.
2 Methodology
Field measurements and computer simulations were used
to analyze the influence of AC use modes on energy
performance of district cooling systems. The research
methodology is shown in Fig. 2. First, a reduced-order AC
CP model was developed based on field measurements.
Second, an AC usage survey was conducted in a residential
community to figure out the typical parameters of the AC
CP model. Five typical AC use modes were summarized.
Then using the BEMP, a residential community model with
Fig. 2 Research methodology
Fig. 3 Curve fitting result in a typical family (Ren et al. 2014)
431
12 buildings was built. The uncertainty of user compositions
was studied, and typical cases were analyzed to figure out
the influence of AC use modes and user compositions on
the load feature and system performance of the district
cooling system.
2.1 AC usage CP model
The field investigation was conducted in a residential
community in Henan Province, China. The climate was
characteristic of monsoon season, with warm temperate
conditions. The residential community included 12
multifamily buildings with 294 households. The residential
community was equipped with ceiling cassette units, which
are a common type of fan coil unit (FCU). An AC unit
metering system was installed, which recorded the on–off
state and run time of the FCU each day. Five households
with typical FCU run times were chosen due to their
representative FCU run times (maximum, upper quartile,
medium, lower quartile and minimum values in the
community). Field measurements were conducted in these
households from Jul. 15 to Sep. 15, a two-month span in
the cooling season during which AC is most frequently
used in Chinese residential buildings. The indoor dry bulb
temperatures were measured every five minutes in the living
rooms and bedrooms of these five households, and spot
interviews about AC usage patterns were also conducted. A
more detailed description about the measurement acquisition
can be found in Ren’s study (Ren et al. 2014).
Based on data analysis and previous research (Ren et al.
2014), an AC CP model was developed to describe the AC
usage quantitatively. The model was composed of three parts:
the AC turning on model, the AC turning off model, and the
AC setting temperature model. The curve fitting results of
432 Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4

a typical family are shown in Fig. 3. A detailed application
and verification of this AC CP model was previously
conducted (Ren et al. 2014).
The AC turning on model is an environmental trigger
model, and is related to the indoor temperature. The
measurement results show the environment trigger model
to be single valued, with y∈[0,1] and an S shaped growth
pattern that satisfies the probability transformation
relationship: 1−y(n)=(1−y(1))n , where n is the time step.
Therefore, a reduced-order discrete Weibull cumulative
function (Weibull 1951) was chosen for its probabilistic
characteristic. The statistical model is assumed to have the
form:
ìï1 - e-( x-u) , x ³ u
k
Pon = ïí (when occupied)
ïïî 0, x <u
in which, Pon is the probability of turning on the AC, x is
the indoor temperature measured in °C, and u and k are
parameters of the equation.
Based on the survey, most residents were office workers,
and turning off the AC was mainly related to the occupancy.
Therefore, it was assumed that the AC turning off model
was an event-triggered model related to the time of the day
(Ren et al. 2014). Similarly, this can be described by the model:
ìï1 - e-(t-m)n , t ³ m
Poff = ïí
ïïî 0, t <m
during the interview, in which few residents expressed
dissatisfaction with the indoor thermal environment. Some
standards such as ASHRAE Standard 55 (ASHRAE 2010) and
ISO 7730 (ISO 2005) set indoor comfort classes depending
on comfort indicators (PMV and PPD). These were mainly
developed from steady state (Fanger 1970) environments;
however, in residential buildings the domestic scene is
far from steady state, and nearly all forms of adaptations
applied to residential buildings. Additionally, the price for
consumed energy increases the acceptable temperature
range (Peeters 2009). Therefore, adaptive approaches have
revealed that residents are able to feel comfortable in a wider
range of conditions than those prescribed by applying the
PMV index (Frontczak and Wargock 2011; Jones 2000; de
Dear and Brager 2002).
(1) Five typical AC use modes are summarized in Table 1.
Use mode A corresponds to residents who use AC units in
the most thrifty way; for example, turning on AC units when
the indoor temperature is above 29 °C, turning off AC units
before bed (about 11:00 p.m.), and keeping the AC setpoint
at a higher value (around 28 oC). The AC setpoint of use
mode B is lower than that of use mode A (around 26 °C).
For use modes C through E, residents tend to use the AC
units more frequently, and keep indoor temperatures at
lower values (about 27 °C, 26 °C, and 24 °C for use modes C
through E, respectively). Use mode E corresponds to residents
who use the AC units in the least thrifty way, often keeping
the AC units running all the day long and setting the indoor
(2)
temperature to a low value about 24 °C.

in which, Poff is the probability of turning off the AC, t is Table 1 Typical AC use modes
the time of the day (t∈[0,24]), and m and n are parameters AC use Room
of the equation. mode type Pon Poff Pt
The AC setting temperature model is a normal Living ì
ï
ï 1- e -( x -29 )2.5
, x ³ 29 ì
ï
ï 1- e-( t -23 )10
, t ³ 23 1 -
( T-28 ) 2

í í e 0.5
room ï 0,
ï x < 29 ï 0,
ï t < 23 0.5 2π
distribution model, and is described below: A
î î

ïì1 - e-( x-29 )2.5 , x ³ 29

ï ì
ï
ï 1 - e-( t-23 ) , t ³ 23
10

1 -
( T-27 ) 2

Bedroom íï 0, x < 29
í
ï t < 23
e 0.5
(T -μ )
2 ï
î î 0,
ï 0.5 2π
1 -
Pt = 2σ 2 (3) ì
ï 1 - e-( x-30 ) , x ³ 30 ì
ï 1 - e-( t-23 ) , t ³ 23
10 10
e Living ï ï 1 -
( T-26 )2

σ 2π í í e 0.5
room ï
î 0,
ï x < 30 ï
î 0,
ï t < 23 0.5 2π
B
ïì1 - e-( x-29 )2.5 , x ³ 29
ï ì
ï
ï 1 - e-( t-23 ) , t ³ 23
10

1 -
( T-26 ) 2

in which, Pt is the probability of setting the indoor tem- Bedroom íï 0, x < 29

í
ï 0, t < 23
e 0.5
ï
î ï
î 0.5 2π
perature to temperature T, T is the temperature setpoint ì
ï 1 - e-( x-29 ) , x ³ 29
2.5
ì
ï 1 - e-( t-23 ) , t ³ 23
10
( T-27 ) 2
Living ï
í ï
í
1 -
measured in °C, and μ and σ are parameters of the equation. e 0.5
room ï
ï
î 0, x < 29 ï
ï
î 0, t < 23 0.5 2π
C
( T-27 ) 2
1 -
Bedroom Pon=1 Poff=0 e 0.5
0.5 2π
2.2 Typical AC use modes
Living 1 -
( T-26 )2
Pon=1 Poff=0 e 0.5
room 0.5 2π
Surveys about AC use modes were conducted in all 294 D
( T-27 ) 2
1 -
households of which 210 effective questionnaires were Bedroom Pon=1 Poff=0
0.5 2π
e 0.5
received. The residents were asked when at home, what Living 1 -
( T-24 )2
Pon=1 Poff=0 e 0.5
ambient conditions would cause them to turn on the AC, room 0.5 2π
E
and what temperatures make them feel comfortable. Bedroom Pon=1 Poff=0 1 -
( T-24 )

e 0.5
2

In addition, the thermal comfort issue was considered 0.5 2π

Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4 433

Based on the results of the questionnaire survey and
field measurements, only about 5% of the residents used
the AC units in the dining room, kitchen and other spaces.
Simultaneously, more than 60% of the households had AC
units only in the bedroom and living room. Therefore, only
the AC usage in the living rooms and bedrooms were con-
sidered in our study. This phenomenon was also detected
in Yoshino’s study (Yoshino 2006).
2.3 Combined model
The DeST (Designer’s Simulation Toolkits) software was
used for the simulations. DeST is a BEMP (building energy
modeling program) developed at Tsinghua University in
the late 1980s, aimed at aiding teaching, research, and the
practical use of building energy analyses and simulations in
China (Yan et al. 2008; Zhang et al. 2008). DeST has been
widely used in China, with some applications in Europe
and Japan. It has been applied in around 25 million square
meters of building design and commissioning applications.
More than 4000 users currently use DeST as a building
simulation tool (Yan et al. 2008). The results from compara-
tive tests on building loads and HVAC system calculations
show small differences from those of DeST, EnergyPlus and
DOE-2 (Zhu et al. 2013; Zhou et al. 2014).
The AC usage CP model was integrated with the DeST
software to reflect the interaction of the AC operation and
the indoor environment, as shown in Fig. 4. At each time-
step, three uniform-distribution random numbers between
0 and 1 were generated (a, b, and c). These were used as
an indoor environment and energy consumption simulation.
Then indoor environment parameters and occupancy in-
formation from DeST would be passed to the AC usage CP
model to determine the AC states for the next time step.
2.4 Modeling and validation
A residential community model with 294 households in 12
buildings was built with the DeST software. This community
was based on the investigated residential community in
Henan Province, China. All the buildings in the community
had a similar architectural design, and key characteristics
of buildings are shown in Table 2. This data comes from
the design document of the community, which includes the
architectural design and structural design. The layout and
orientation of the buildings is shown in Fig. 5.
The validation data was measured from Jul. 1 to Sep. 30,
2011. The outdoor dry bulb temperatures are shown in
Fig. 6, with the lowest outdoor dry bulb temperature being
13.7 °C, the highest being 36.3 °C, and the average being
24.8 °C.
Table 2 Key characteristics of buildings in the communities
Characteristics Community A
Number of floors of each building 5
Number of households 294
Net site area (m2) 28000
2
Habitable floor area (m ) 41200
Average window–wall ratio 0.5

inputs to the AC usage CP model. If the random number Average external wall area (m2/building) 1971
−1
a/b was larger than Pon /Poff, then the AC units were turned Air change rate (h ) 0.5
on/off. The random number c was used as an input to the Thermal transmittance of building envelope U (W/(m2·K))
inverse function of the cumulative probability distribution External wall 1.84
of Pt, in order to find the corresponding value of the AC Windows 2.5
setpoint temperature. Therefore, based on the random Attic floor 0.6
number, environmental parameters, and occupancy, the
AC usage CP model was used to calculate the on–off states
and the setpoint temperatures of the AC units in each
household. DeST took this AC information and performed

Fig. 4 Combined model Fig. 5 Layout of the residential community

434
Fig. 6 Outdoor dry bulb temperatures
The FCU metering data for the 5 typical households
(see Section 2.1 for details) was used to calculate the daily
AC usage hours for each household. Then, this number was
used to divide all the households of the community into the
5 typical AC use modes. The AC use mode assignments are
summarized in Table 3. As previously mentioned, AC use
mode A corresponds to the most thrifty AC usage, and AC
use mode E corresponds to the least thrifty AC usage (see
Table 1).
During the simulation, the cooling capacity of these
FCUs was auto-sized according to the cooling load in each
zone. For each FCU unit, a constant volume fan and an
on–off valve were used to supply air and chilled water. The
fan pressure rise was set to 600 Pa (Korolija et al. 2011). The
indoor temperature was controlled by a local thermostat
which influenced the state of the on–off valve, and in this
way, the water flow rate through the cooling coil was
adjusted to respond to the zone demand. When there was
no need for cooling, the fan coil was switched off. There
Table 3 Proportions of different AC use modes
Use mode Not used A B C, D, E
Proportion 60% 10% 10% 20%
Fig. 7 Comparison between simulation result and measured data
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4
was no central ventilation system, and the ventilation rates
through the window changed between 0.5 (Yoshino 2006)
and 10, according to the load requirements and the weather
conditions (Yan et al. 2008).
A district cooling system was applied to the residential
community model. Three chillers with the same capacity were
chosen for the peak load, and their rated COP (coefficient
of performance) was set to 5. The operating units of the
chillers were adjusted to keep the equipment working at a
maximum load ratio. The supply chilled water temperature
was set to 7 °C. In addition, several important control
measures were used on the waterside. The water pumps
had variable speeds with the frequency ranging from 30 Hz
to 50 Hz. The operating units and speed were adjusted to
keep the temperature differences between the supply and
return water as close to the design value (5 °C) as possible.
Meanwhile, the pump heads were used to satisfy the water
flow rate requirement of each AC unit. To emphasize the
operation of chillers and pumps, the heat gain by heat
conduction and pump works was ignored. The part-load
performance curves of the chiller and pump in DeST can
be found in (Zhou et al. 2013).
Based on the information above, the cooling activity of the
residential community from Jul. 1 to Sep. 30 was simulated.
Meanwhile, the actual cooling consumption was obtained
from the property management company of the residential
community. Figure 7(a) shows that the total measured
cooling consumption for the residential community had
an error of 9% with respect to the simulated results. The
hourly cooling consumption of three typical days is shown
in Fig. 7(b), where it is depicted that the simulation results
and measured data have similar trends.
2.5 Case study
The validated model was used to analyze the district cooling
systems with different combinations of AC use modes during
the cooling season (July to September). The uncertainty of
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4 435

user compositions was analyzed in this study. Each household
was represented by one typical AC use mode. The ratios of
the five typical AC use modes change at a 10% interval, and
the sum of the total ratio of the five AC use modes cannot
be larger than 100%. For example, the ratios of the five AC
use modes of the first case were (0, 0, 0, 0, 10%), and the
ratios of the five AC use modes of the second case were (0,
0, 0, 0, 20%). A total number of 3003 cases were simulated
in this study, as shown in Fig. 8. This figure shows a total of
3003 columns, each corresponding to a case in which a
certain user composition is applied with different ratios of
AC use modes A (most thrifty AC usage) through E (least
thrifty AC usage) in the five subgraphs. With different user
compositions, the load profiles had different characteristics,
leading to different influences on energy consumption and
performance of the district cooling system.
Five user compositions (shown in Table 4) were taken
as typical cases and analyzed in this study. In each case, a
certain AC use mode was taken by most of the residents.
Therefore, Case 1 corresponds to the most thrifty AC usage
case, and Case 5 corresponds to the least thrifty AC usage
case. Through analysis of the five cases, the influence of AC
use modes on the load feature and the performance of the
district cooling system was revealed in detail.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Uncertainty analysis of user composition
With different user compositions shown in Fig. 8, the system
energy efficiency ratio (EER) was calculated, as described
by Eq. (4):
Qc
EER= (4)
Echiller + Epumps
in which, Qc is the cooling consumption in kWh, Echiller is
the electricity consumption of chillers, and Epumps is the
electricity consumption of pumps.
The 3003 results were classified into 5 groups, shown
in Fig. 9. In Series 1, most households used AC use mode A
(the most thrifty AC usage), and similarly, Series 2 to 5 were
households primarily using AC use modes B through E,
respectively.
From the comparison of system EERs of different series
in Fig. 9, it can be concluded that when most people use
AC use modes A or B, namely the more thrifty AC usage,
the uncertainty of system performance was more obvious.
With different kinds of user compositions, the system EERs
changed from 1 to 4.5 in Series 1 and 2. When most people
used AC use modes C or D, the uncertainty of system
performance decreased, and the change range of the system
EER was limited between 2 to 4.5. Meanwhile, when most
households used AC use mode E, namely the least thrifty
AC usage, the system performance was quite steady, and
the system EER was around 4.5.
The results above demonstrate that AC use modes and
user compositions have a significant influence on the system
performance of district cooling systems. When different AC
use modes are dominant, the uncertainty range of the system
performance was substantially different.

3.2 Influence of AC use modes on load features

In order to investigate the influence of AC use modes and

Fig. 8 Study cases user compositions on the load feature, the cases described
in Table 4 were simulated and analyzed as follows. The
Table 4 Typical cases Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient (Corrado 1921) were
Household composition applied to evaluate the unevenly distributed load feature in
AC use mode a quantitative way. The uneven distribution of the load
Simulation cases A B C D E feature had two aspects.
Case 1 90% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5%
1. Load distribution among different households at a given time
Case 2 2.5% 90% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5%
Case 3 2.5% 2.5% 90% 2.5% 2.5% Taking a typical hour (12:00, July 9) as an example, the
Case 4 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 90% 2.5%
Lorenz curve and the corresponding Gini coefficient are
shown in Fig. 10. The x-axis represents the cumulative share
Case 5 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 90%
of the number of households in the order of lowest to highest
436
Fig. 9 Uncertainty analysis of the influence of user compositions on system EER
load requirement, and the y-axis represents the cumulative
share of load requirements. The load requirement is expressed
as a dimensionless number equal to the load needed at the
designated moment divided by the rated load. When the
Lorenz curve deviates from the 45° line, the load distribution
significantly differs between different households. In addition,
if the Lorenz curve lies along the 45° line, it means that all
the users have the same load requirement. The Gini coefficient
can be thought as the ratio of the area that lies between the
line of equality and the Lorenz curve over the total area under
the line of equality. So larger Gini coefficients correspond
to more uneven load distributions.
From Fig. 10, it can be seen that, at this typical hour,
with different user compositions, the uneven degree of the
load distributions is different. From Case 1 (the most thrifty
case) to Case 5 (the least thrifty case), the differences in
load requirements amongst different households decreases.
Fig. 10 Load distributions among air units at a typical moment
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4
The uneven cooling load distributions influenced the opera-
tion of water pumps greatly. Taking Case 1 as an example,
the different AC usages amongst different households led
to uneven cooling load distributions. Therefore, only a few
AC units were in operation. To satisfy the users’ thermal
comfort, the pumps had to work at a relatively high speed
to provide enough water head, causing them to significantly
deviate from their rated working point. With the user com-
position in Case 1, the efficiency of the chilled water pumps
at this moment was only 0.67 (rated value 0.75), and the
transport factor of chilled water pumps (equal to the cooling
consumption divided by the electricity consumption of the
chilled water pumps) was only 16. At the same moment,
the efficiency of the chilled water pumps in Case 5 was 0.72,
and the water transport factor was 42.
The distribution of Gini coefficients at different times
during the whole cooling season is shown in Fig. 11.
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4
Fig. 11 Distribution of Gini coefficients in the cooling season
In Fig. 11, the line in the box represents the mean value
of the Gini coefficients during the cooling season. The edges
of the boxes are placed at the 25% and the 75% quartiles.
The vertical lines show the 95% and 5% quartiles. From
Case 1 to Case 5, the Gini coefficient becomes increasingly
smaller, therefore showing that the load requirements
become more evenly distributed amongst households, a
trend that is beneficial for the operation of water pumps.
2. Load change amongst different times
The Lorenz curves and the Gini coefficients are also used to
reflect load changes amongst different times, as shown in
Fig. 12. In Fig. 12, the x-axis represents the cumulative share
of the number of time-steps in the order of lowest to highest
load requirement, and the y-axis is the cumulative share of
load requirements. This load requirement is equal to the
total load requirement of the system divided by the maximum
load supplied by the cooling equipment operating at the
corresponding time-step. From Case 1 (the most thrifty
Fig. 12 Load distribution amongst different times
437
case) to Case 5 (the least thrifty case), the Lorenz curve
deviates from the line of equality, and the Gini coefficient
becomes smaller. This results means that for the user
composition of Case 1, the load distribution across different
times is uneven and deviates more from the rated condition,
which causes the actual operation of the chillers to differ
greatly from the design intention. The chillers worked at
low load ratios more than in the other four cases, which led
to poor system performance.
3.3 The applicability of district cooling systems
The five simulation cases in Table 4 are analyzed in detail
to compare the energy consumption and system efficiencies
for different user compositions during the cooling season.
As Fig. 13 shows, there were large differences between the
cooling rates of the five user compositions. The cooling
consumption rate of Case 5 (the least thrifty case) was nine
times that of Case 1 (the most thrifty case). These differences
were also reflected in the amount of electricity consumed by
the district cooling system. As Fig. 14 shows, the maximum
electricity consumption was four times that of the minimum
electricity consumption. Since AC use modes differed
amongst different households, the traditional design method
that assumes AC use modes of different households are
the same yields results that differ greatly from reality. The
differences in AC usage mean that the cooling requirements
are different for different households during the same time
of day, and this uneven distribution of cooling loads creates
438 Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4

Fig. 13 Influence of AC use modes on the cooling consumption Fig. 15 Influence of AC use modes on the AC efficiency

Fig. 14 Influence of AC use modes on the AC electricity Fig. 16 Influence of AC use modes on the chiller and pump
consumption efficiencies

difficulties in operating the district cooling systems. Therefore, AC usage has an important effect on district cooling
the huge influence of the AC use modes on cooling and system evaluations. The use of split AC systems in the same
electricity consumption should be considered when evaluating residential community was also simulated. The average
the suitability of district cooling systems. COP (coefficient of performance) of the split AC system
Comparing the electricity consumption (Fig. 14) with the was assumed to be 2.3 during the cooling season (Devotta
system efficiency (Fig. 15) provides a better understanding et al. 2005; Building Energy Research Center in Tsinghua
of the district cooling system operation. As Fig. 14 and Fig. 15 University 2013). Figure 17 compares the electricity con-
show, the district cooling system electricity consumption is sumption of the district cooling system and a split AC system
the highest with the user composition of Case 5 (the least for the various user compositions. When most residents
thrifty case), but the efficiency is also the highest. Similarly, use AC use mode A (Case 1, the most thrifty case), the split
the system efficiency decreases as the electricity consump- AC system consumes less electricity. However, when most
tion decreases. As Fig. 16 shows, the chiller and pump users use AC use mode E (Case 5, the least thrifty case), the
efficiencies gradually increase from Case 1 to Case 5, which
leads to the system efficiency trend shown in Fig. 16. This
result reveals that for district cooling systems, high system
efficiency corresponds to high electricity consumption.
Thus, the district cooling system needs suitable conditions
for high system efficiencies. When the load ratios are larger
and more centralized, the district cooling system is more
efficient. Under low load ratios and decentralized load
distributions, the operation of the district cooling system
should be limited, and advanced technologies, such as an
economizer, should be employed to improve the performance
of the district cooling system. Without this, the system would Fig. 17 Electricity consumption rates under different user
be inefficient and wasteful of energy. compositions
Zhou et al. / Building Simulation / Vol. 9, No. 4
district cooling system is better. The simulation results in
this case also indicate that the results would differ for
different AC usage trends. Thus, reasonable evaluations of
these systems require consideration of the influence of AC
usage. Without this, the evaluation results could potentially
lead to energy waste and investment losses.
3.4 Influence of the stochastic feature of AC usage
Another interesting finding is that for a single AC use mode
simulated with the constant schedule definition model, the
performance of the district cooling system is always better
than that of the split AC system, as shown in Fig. 18. The
schedule definition model is one of the most general models
used to describe occupant behavior (Peng et al. 2012),
which uses constant schedules to describe the on–off states
of AC units and the corresponding setpoint temperatures.
The influence of stochastic AC use modes and user com-
positions on consumption differences of the two AC systems
is compared in Fig. 19. Without consideration of stochastic
AC use modes and user compositions, the ΔElectricity
consumption is always negative. When stochastic AC use
Fig. 18 Electricity consumption rates without consideration of
stochastic AC use modes and user compositions
Fig. 19 The influence of stochastic AC use modes and user com-
positions (Note: ΔElectricity consumption=2 × (District cooling −
Split AC)/ (District cooling + Split AC) × 100%)
439
modes and user compositions are involved, a shift from
positive to negative occurs.
These results show that it is the unevenly distributed
cooling load feature that causes the actual operation situation
of the district cooling system to differ from that of the
design intent. Both stochastic AC use modes and their
compositions are highly influential elements of the system
design. In order to achieve a better and more reasonable
performance of district cooling systems, it is necessary
to take the uncertainty analysis of AC use modes into
consideration during the design phase.
4 Conclusions
This study investigates the influence of AC use modes on
the energy consumption and system efficiency of district
cooling systems in residential buildings through use of
simulations and field measurements in a residential com-
munity. A reduced-order AC CP model was developed to
describe the AC usage in the residential community, and 5
distinct AC use modes, namely AC use mode A (the most
thrifty AC usage) through mode E (the least thrifty AC
usage), were categorized. Using this organizational approach,
the uncertainty of user compositions was analyzed. The
main conclusions of this paper are summarized below.
(1) The influence of different combinations of AC use
modes on energy savings, and the practicality of district
cooling systems were thoroughly analyzed. The uncertainty
of user compositions was analyzed, and the simulation
results revealed that AC use modes and user com-
positions can lead to a 4.5-fold difference in the system
efficiencies of the district cooling system. When different
AC use modes are dominant, the uncertainty range of
the system performance changes drastically.
(2) The distributed characteristic of the cooling load
requirements among different households and different
times plays an important role in the performance of the
district cooling system. The Lorenz curve and Gini
coefficient can effectively describe the distributed load
feature in an quantitative way. The unevenly distributed
load feature had a high Gini coefficient and resulted in
vastly different operational activity of the chillers and
water pumps than that of the original design.
(3) Higher cooling load ratios and centralized load distri-
butions result in reduced energy usage of district
cooling systems. Conversely, low cooling load ratios
and decentralized load distributions result in inefficient
operation and advanced technologies should be employed
to save energy.
(4) When only one AC use mode is considered and the
stochastic feature of AC use modes is ignored, then the
440
simulated performance of the split AC system yields
better results than the district cooling system, which
may not be true in reality. Therefore, consideration of
the influence of both the stochastic AC use modes and
their compositions in the simulation process is critical
for better system design and more effective equipment
investments.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the Natural Science Foundation
of Beijing, China (No. 8142022).
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