Air conditioning in the region of Madrid, Spain: an approach to electricity consumption, economics and CO₂emissions

An understanding of electricity consumption due to residential air conditioning (AC) may improve production and environmental impact strategy design. This article reports on a study of peak and seasonal electricity consumption for residential air conditioning in the region of Madrid, Spain. Consumption was assessed by simulating the operation of AC units at the outdoor summer temperature characteristics of central Spain. AC unit performance when operating under part load conditions in keeping with weather conditions was also studied to find cooling demand and energy efficiency. Like wise final electricity consumption was computed and used to calculate energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Cooling demand, when family holidays outside the region were factored into the calculations, came to 1.46x10⁹ kWh. Associated seasonal electricity demand was 617x10⁶ kWh and seasonal performance of AC units around 2.4. Electricity consumption in the whole region was observed to peak on 30 June 2008 at 5.44x10⁶ kW, being the load attributable to residential AC 1.79x10⁶ kW, resulting about 33% of the total peak consumption. The seasonal cost per household was about €156 and the total equivalent warming impact was 572x10³t CO₂. The method proposed can be adapted for use in other regionsThis study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Projects INVISO, sub-project SP3 “Sustainable power generation in housing” and ENE2010-20650-C02-01. Author A. Gonzalez-Gil is grateful to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) for its support while he worked toward his PhD. The authors also wish to thank J. Cabetas from Iberdrola de Distribución Eléctrica S.A.U. for the information furnishedPublicad