Abstract
This study investigates the impact of refrigerant undercharge on indoor temperature and HVAC system performance in residential buildings. Simulation models for typical residential buildings in Orlando, FL and Indianapolis, IN were developed using the ResStock database. A refrigerant undercharge fault model was then applied to the simulations with varying levels of fault intensity. The paper offers an extensive analysis, revealing that variations in supply air temperature, equipment runtime, and cooling energy consumption due to the level of refrigerant undercharge faults are notably significant on a summer representative day. Similarly, on a winter representative day, changes in supply air temperature and runtime are significant as well as changes in supplemental heat energy consumption. We find that occupants may remain oblivious to these faults during the cooling season, particularly when the HVAC system is oversized; in that case, supply air temperature data could help detect a fault. Another challenge is that during the heating season, when the supplemental heater operates, it is difficult to identify a refrigerant undercharge fault using only indoor and supply air temperature data. This study finds that supply air temperature, equipment runtime, and supplemental heater energy consumption data can help in detecting refrigerant undercharge faults.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 114667 |
| Journal | Energy and Buildings |
| Volume | 321 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 15 2024 |
Funding
This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy \u2019s (DOE\u2019s) Office of Science and Building Technologies Office (BTO). This research used resources of Oak Ridge National Laboratory \u2019s Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. This work was funded by fieldwork proposal CEBT105 under BTO activities BT0302000 and BT0305000 . This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC under contract DEAC05-00OR22725 with DOE. The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science and Building Technologies Office (BTO). This research used resources of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. This work was funded by fieldwork proposal CEBT105 under BTO activities BT0302000 and BT0305000. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC under contract DEAC05-00OR22725 with DOE. The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes.
Keywords
- HVAC system operation
- Heat pump
- Refrigerant undercharge fault
- Residential building
- Supplemental heater