Improvement in Energy Performance of a HVAC System Working with Nanofluid

Abstract

In the present work, a HVAC system in a residential building, operating with water firstly, followed by a nanofluid named Maxwell, has been experimentally monitored to evaluate the improvement in energy performance. Particularly, a robust measurement and verification equipment has been installed on the chillers and the pumps firstly, next a baseline data for a 30-day period has been acquired, by operating the HVAC system with water, then the same data have been measured for a 30-day nanofluid operating period, and finally the baseline data were compared to the nanofluid data. All collected data have been normalized according to the ambient temperature conditions, since this parameter plays a significant role in chiller performance and energy consumption. Furthermore, in order to ensure an objective, transparent and conservative evaluation of energy-conservation measures, the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) was applied. The present experimental demonstration has evaluated chiller energy consumption and pump energy consumption as well as coefficient of performance (COP) resulting in a mean decrease in chiller energy use of about 16.85%.