IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i5p2493-d1088864.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Air Conditioning Operation Strategies for Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in Taiwan’s Elementary Schools

Author

Listed:
  • Ling-Yi Chang

    (Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan)

  • Tong-Bou Chang

    (Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, National Chiayi University, Chiayi 600, Taiwan)

Abstract

The Executive Yuan in Taiwan plans to install air-conditioning (A/C) in all elementary schools within two years. However, besides the associated energy consumption and environmental issues, the use of A/C will inevitably result in the doors and windows of the classroom being closed, which will increase the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) within the classroom. An excessive indoor CO 2 concentration can result in reduced cognitive performance and an impaired learning efficiency. Therefore, the moderate introduction of external air into the classroom is essential to increase the air exchange rate (AER) and reduce the CO 2 concentration level. Accordingly, the present study conducts a numerical investigation into the effects of various A/C operation strategies on the CO 2 concentration within the classroom given different proportions of students remaining in the classroom during the recess. Overall, the results indicate that the optimal usage strategy is to operate the A/C over the full school day (08:00~15:50 p.m.) in conjunction with a mechanical ventilation system providing a fresh air exchange rate of 5 l/s for every person in the room. However, the use of a mechanical ventilation system inevitably incurs an additional hardware and energy consumption. Thus, an alternative recommendation is also proposed, in which the windows are opened and the air conditioner is turned off at every recess and during the lunchtime period. It is shown that the resulting CO 2 concentration in the classroom is still consistent with the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) regulations and the thermal comfort of the students is achieved for more than three-quarters of the school day.

Suggested Citation

  • Ling-Yi Chang & Tong-Bou Chang, 2023. "Air Conditioning Operation Strategies for Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in Taiwan’s Elementary Schools," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-19, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2493-:d:1088864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2493/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2493/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kusiak, Andrew & Tang, Fan & Xu, Guanglin, 2011. "Multi-objective optimization of HVAC system with an evolutionary computation algorithm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 2440-2449.
    2. Wang, Yang & Zhao, Fu-Yun & Kuckelkorn, Jens & Liu, Di & Liu, Li-Qun & Pan, Xiao-Chuan, 2014. "Cooling energy efficiency and classroom air environment of a school building operated by the heat recovery air conditioning unit," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 991-1001.
    3. Yew Khoy Chuah & Jun Jie Yang, 2020. "A Integrated Dedicated Outdoor Air System to Optimize Energy Saving," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-12, February.
    4. Nina Szczepanik-Scislo & Jacek Schnotale, 2020. "An Air Terminal Device with a Changing Geometry to Improve Indoor Air Quality for VAV Ventilation Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Turanjanin, Valentina & Vučićević, Biljana & Jovanović, Marina & Mirkov, Nikola & Lazović, Ivan, 2014. "Indoor CO2 measurements in Serbian schools and ventilation rate calculation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 290-296.
    6. Xamán, J. & Ortiz, A. & Álvarez, G. & Chávez, Y., 2011. "Effect of a contaminant source (CO2) on the air quality in a ventilated room," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 3302-3318.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katarzyna Ratajczak & Łukasz Amanowicz & Katarzyna Pałaszyńska & Filip Pawlak & Joanna Sinacka, 2023. "Recent Achievements in Research on Thermal Comfort and Ventilation in the Aspect of Providing People with Appropriate Conditions in Different Types of Buildings—Semi-Systematic Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-55, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Turanjanin, Valentina & Vučićević, Biljana & Jovanović, Marina & Mirkov, Nikola & Lazović, Ivan, 2014. "Indoor CO2 measurements in Serbian schools and ventilation rate calculation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 290-296.
    2. Guillermo Efren Ovando-Chacon & Sandy Luz Ovando-Chacon & Abelardo Rodríguez-León & Mario Díaz-González, 2023. "Numerical Study of Indoor Air Quality in a University Professor’s Office," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Tureková, Ivana & Marková, Iveta & Sventeková, Eva & Harangózo, Jozef, 2022. "Evaluation of microclimatic conditions during the teaching process in selected school premises. Slovak case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    4. Gil-Baez, Maite & Barrios-Padura, Ángela & Molina-Huelva, Marta & Chacartegui, R., 2017. "Natural ventilation systems in 21st-century for near zero energy school buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1186-1200.
    5. Lizana, Jesus & Serrano-Jimenez, Antonio & Ortiz, Carlos & Becerra, Jose A. & Chacartegui, Ricardo, 2018. "Energy assessment method towards low-carbon energy schools," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 310-326.
    6. Jing, Gang & Cai, Wenjian & Zhang, Xin & Cui, Can & Yin, Xiaohong & Xian, Huacai, 2019. "An energy-saving oriented air balancing strategy for multi-zone demand-controlled ventilation system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1053-1065.
    7. Kusiak, Andrew & Xu, Guanglin & Tang, Fan, 2011. "Optimization of an HVAC system with a strength multi-objective particle-swarm algorithm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5935-5943.
    8. Iivo Metsä-Eerola & Jukka Pulkkinen & Olli Niemitalo & Olli Koskela, 2022. "On Hourly Forecasting Heating Energy Consumption of HVAC with Recurrent Neural Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-20, July.
    9. Cui, Can & Xue, Jing, 2024. "Energy and comfort aware operation of multi-zone HVAC system through preference-inspired deep reinforcement learning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    10. Mahbub, Md Shahriar & Cozzini, Marco & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Alberti, Fabrizio, 2016. "Combining multi-objective evolutionary algorithms and descriptive analytical modelling in energy scenario design," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 140-151.
    11. Wang, Xinli & Cai, Wenjian & Yin, Xiaohong, 2017. "A global optimized operation strategy for energy savings in liquid desiccant air conditioning using self-adaptive differential evolutionary algorithm," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 410-423.
    12. Feng, Tong & Lin, Zhongguo & Du, Huibin & Qiu, Yueming & Zuo, Jian, 2021. "Does low-carbon pilot city program reduce carbon intensity? Evidence from Chinese cities," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    13. Aurora Greta Ruggeri & Laura Gabrielli & Massimiliano Scarpa, 2020. "Energy Retrofit in European Building Portfolios: A Review of Five Key Aspects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-38, September.
    14. Maria Hurnik, 2025. "Testing Method for Non-Isothermal Radial Wall Jets from Ceiling Diffusers Used in Building Ventilation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-13, January.
    15. Fusheng Ma & Changhong Zhan & Xiaoyang Xu, 2019. "Investigation and Evaluation of Winter Indoor Air Quality of Primary Schools in Severe Cold Weather Areas of China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, April.
    16. Kusiak, Andrew & Xu, Guanglin, 2012. "Modeling and optimization of HVAC systems using a dynamic neural network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 241-250.
    17. Wang, Jiaming & Rezgui, Yacine & Zhao, Tianyi, 2025. "Collaborative optimization method for solving the diffusion and allocation issues in complex variable flow rate HVAC systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 378(PA).
    18. Mutaz Suleiman & Ahmed Elshaer & Muntasir Billah & Mohammed Bassuony, 2021. "Propagation of Mouth-Generated Aerosols in a Modularly Constructed Hospital Room," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-14, October.
    19. Sha, Huajing & Xu, Peng & Yang, Zhiwei & Chen, Yongbao & Tang, Jixu, 2019. "Overview of computational intelligence for building energy system design," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 76-90.
    20. Schibuola, Luigi & Scarpa, Massimiliano & Tambani, Chiara, 2018. "CO2 based ventilation control in energy retrofit: An experimental assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 606-614.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2493-:d:1088864. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.