THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
MASTER OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT (MEM)
DMX9404 HVAC and Building Lighting
ACADEMIC YEAR 2020
Assignment

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Write your name and registration number clearly on your completed assignment
2. Upload your completed assignment (only PDF Format-Max File size 3MB) to Openlearn
LMS
3. Last date of submission is 04th March 2020 (Wednesday) at 23.59 h

Selection of Energy efficient air conditioning system to your own house

Assume that you want to install an efficient air conditioning system for your own house. At the
same time you are an energy consultant having the knowledge of air conditioning system design
and also aware of navel techniques of optimizing the energy use.

Conduct a technical analysis for an energy efficient air conditioning system that is suitable to be
installed in your house following the steps given bellow.

Step 1: Conducting a Building Survey

Collect following information regarding your house and tabulate the data.

 Location (altitude, latitude, and city) and orientation of the Building

 Details of nearby shading effects (structures, Trees, hills etc)
 Reflective surfaces (lakes, roads, parking etc)
 Physical dimensions (plan, and elevation)
 Ceiling (areas that has ceilings and ceiling heights)
 Column and beams (general lay outs)
 Construction materials (walls, roofs, ceilings, floor, and partitions)
 Windows and doors (locations, sizes, materials)
 People (number, duration of occupancy)
 Lighting (wattage at peak)
 Appliances’ wattages (fans, fridge, cookers etc.) and usage time of the day
 Power and water services (location, capacity, current monthly consumption during last
12 months)

Step 2: Air conditioning load estimation

Estimate air conditioning load to provide a basis for equipment selection (i.e. the peak load shall
be estimated). Consider all heat coming into the building from outdoor and heat generated
within the building. For the cooling load estimation do the following.

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 i. Provide following data (with the reference for each)
o Climate zone
o Design condition
o Limits of Noise level
ii. Define thermal zones
iii. Calculate the cooling load through the roof
iv. Calculate the cooling load through exterior wall
v. Calculate the cooling load through glasses (windows/glass façades etc)
vi. Calculate the cooling load through ceiling, partitioning, floor (if applicable)
vii. Calculate the cooling load due to people
viii. Calculate the cooling load due to lights
ix. Calculate the cooling load due to appliances
x. Calculate the cooling load due to infiltration
xi. Calculate the cooling load due to fresh air
xii. Provide a summary of the cooling load calculation for each thermal zones indicating the
total loads (both sensible and latent) loads. Show the grand summary as well

Step 3: Equipment selection

 Based on the cooling load calculation, propose different alternatives (Minimum two
and maximum three) applicable to this case
 Obtain the equipment catalogues from Internet and select the equipment based on
your estimated cooling capacities (for all the alternatives)
 Calculate monthly energy consumption for the alternatives you proposed
 Select the best system giving reasons

END

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