A Study on Control Strategy for Air Conditioning of Western Exposed Rooms in Subtropical Region

Recently, energy saving has been a major issue in all aspects. In buildings, air conditioning is one major part of power consumption. In this study, we examined the effect of an intermittent control strategy for air conditioning on energy saving in western-exposed rooms under subtropical weather conditions. The strategy applied periodic deactivation and reactivation to the air conditioners. Room temperatures, power consumption, and readings from sensors of air conditioners of two identical rooms were monitored and analyzed. For indoor temperatures, we found that the deactivation of the air conditioner for 15 min resulted in temperature peaks that were 4 to 5 °C higher than the control room. The reactivation of the air conditioner was able to cool down the room within 10 min based on the built-in sensor. However, due to the location and resolution of the sensor, the overall temperature from the four temperature and humidity sensors was still higher than the target setting, which may cause thermal discomfort. For power consumption, the strategy led to power peaks while reactivating, but the summation was 2.9% lower.