Demand controlled ventilation for an existing office building. : - A LCC-comparison between DCV and CAV

Demand controlled ventilation has in this study been investigated in a life cycle cost (LCC) - perspective for an existing office property. The goal was to examine whether a complementary of the existing constant air volume (CAV)-system to a demand controlled ventilation (DCV) -system is profitable. This project has been executed on behalf of Fastpartner AB. The studied property is an office building of floor area 6000 in Stockholm, Sweden. Two different types of DCV systems were analyzed: C controlled ventilation and C with temperature controlled ventilation. The software IDA ICE was used in order to examine the energy consumption for district heating, district cooling and electricity for the air handling unit. The building has been modelled as accuracy as possible in order to represent the real building. In order to see the effect of various loading rate, simulations with three different occupancy levels for CAV and the DCV-systems was made. The occupancy levels represented organizations with high, low and medium occupancy. In the end nine simulations was made. The net present value method was used for each system in the LCC analyses. Costs for installation, purchase and maintenance have been taken into account. The results from the study showed that both of the DCV-systems gives a lower LCC than the existing CAV- system. The most profitable DCV-system is C with temperature- controlled ventilation, that presents a theoretical cost saving up to 250 000 kr. The variation of occupancy levels didn’t affect the outcome of LCC for C and temperature controlled ventilation, however C controlled ventilation showed a significant difference depending on low versus high occupancy level. Low occupancy level results in a higher cost saving. The fans for the air handling unit had the largest energy saving based on energy sector. Where a reduction up to 75 % can be achieved for C controlled ventilation at low occupancy level