Measurement and Simulation of Energy Use in an Office Building with Hybrid Ventilation

The objective of this work is to demonstrate the consequences on energy use by adjusting control parameters in a building with hybrid ventilation and displacement air supply. The interest for hybrid ventilation has increased during the last years. Hybrid ventilation has mostly been used in schools, but near Trondheim in Norway an office building with displacement ventilation was erected during 2002. The building has a culvert embedded in the ground and under the building, and displacement ventilation in the office rooms. For more than a year the building�s energy use for heating, ventilation and electric equipment has been monitored. In addition, measurements of room temperatures and the presence of people were carried out. These latter parameters are important in order to calibrate a simulation model. The energy use seemed to differ from what was expected in the design phase. To study why the calculated energy use differed from the measured values, simulations were carried out with an integrated simulation model using ESP-r. The results show that the allowed temperature swing in the room has significant influence on the energy use. The simulations indicate that it is possible to save up to 25 % of the total energy use for heating by adjusting the allowance in temperature swing. In comparison, improving the heat exchanger efficiency by 10 %, the energy savings were 7-11 %. The improved energy performance did not significantly affect the thermal comfort.