Quantifying CO2 Emissions and Energy Production from Power Plants to Run HVAC Systems in ASHRAE-Based Buildings

Recent evidence available in the literature has highlighted that high-energy consumption rate associated with air conditioning leads to undesired “overcooling” condition arid-climate regions. To this end, study quantified effects of increasing cooling setpoint temperature on reducing energy and CO2 emissions mitigate overcooling. DesignBuilder software was used simulate performance a generic building operating under currently adopted ASHRAE HVAC criteria. It found by 1 °C will increase operative approximately 0.25 reduce annual electricity required for each m2 an occupied area 8 kWh/year. This accounts reduction 8% compared (i.e., t_s = 26 °C) emission roughly 4.8 kg/m2 °C. The largest occur October, reduced rates approximately–1.3 kWh/m2 −0.8 °C, respectively.