Effect of thermal energy storage in energy consumption required for air conditioning system in office building under the African Mediterranean climate

In the African Mediterranean countries, cooling demand constitutes a large proportion of total electrical demand for office buildings during peak hours. The thermal energy storage systems can be an alternative method to be utilized to reduce and time shift the electrical load of air conditioning from on-peak to off-peak hours. In this study, the Hourly Analysis Program has been used to estimate the cooling load profile for an office building based in Tripoli weather data conditions. Preliminary study was performed in order to define the most suitable operating strategies of ice thermal storage, including partial (load leveling and demand limiting), full storage and conventional A/C system. Then, the mathematical model of heat transfer for external ice storage would be based on the operating strategy which achieves the lowest energy consumption. Results indicate that the largest rate of energy consumption occurs when the conventional system is applied to the building, while the lowest rate of energy consumption is obtained when the partial storage (demand limiting 60%) is applied. Analysis of results shows that the new layer of ice formed on the surface of the existing ice lead to an increase of thermal resistance of heat transfer, which in return decreased cooling capacity.