Can PCS help us save energy? Initial assessment using dynamic energy and CFD analyses

This study is the first step towards a broader research intent: developing and optimising a Personal Comfort System for tertiary sector working environments. The entire industrial sector, and in particular offices, have seen changes in working habits, with a large increase in smart working to prevent COVID infection. The chance to partialise the HVAC system and maintains the rooms in an under-conditioned state is the obligatory way towards reducing energy waste, providing each workstation with an independent system that guarantees the operator's comfort conditions. The first step of the analysis was conducted simulating a general scenario and adopting conservative assumptions in order to predict the potential energy savings and the required PCS power. BES and CFD were coupled, using the outputs of the dynamic energy simulations in its most energy demanding timestep as input for the fluid dynamics analysis. The results showed energy savings between 15 and 20%, which is likely an underestimation of the potential savings due to very conservative assumptions and looking at the data from the few field analyses available in literature. Moreover, the operators' localised thermal comfort conditions improved, moving from a slightly cold to a neutral situation. Despite the conservative hypothesis, the results are promising, showing several opportunities for further analysis and improvement, as well as possible ways for its optimisation.