At present, variety of environmental problems are considered to have global effects. Therefore, a positive approach toward energy conservation is desirable in the field of building construction, as well. Under the concept of sustainable building and its assessment, not only thermal comfort and indoor air quality but also energy efficiency has been recognized as an essential factor for an environmentally conscious design, and a highly accurate prediction method is also required for an optimized HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system design for buildings. On the other hand, there are several methods for energy conservation in building designs, and the installation of an energy recovery ventilator is one of the effective solutions to reduce ventilation load. This study outlines a coupled numerical simulation procedure with a combination of BES (building energy simulation) and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) in order to reduce the consumption of energy owing to air conditioning in office buildings, by employing energy recovery ventilators. The first floor of a two-story office building was selected for analysis. There were seven heat pump air conditioning systems and four duct type ventilation systems with energy recovery ventilator units on that floor. From the numerical simulation results, it was confirmed that the location and distribution of the energy recovery ventilator had predominant effects on the energy consumption.
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