Energy, Materials and Person-hour Savings through a New Decentralized Power Supply for HVAC in Large Buildings. A Case Study: A Shopping Center in Spain

Abstract

Currently, heating and cooling systems used for achieving thermal comfort in commercial buildings represent a significant energy consumption. Traditionally, power supply installations of these Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Systems (HVAC) present low efficiency. In these installations the power is supplied from the substation to the HVAC system by low voltage cables. Due to the long distances of the power distribution, the system suffers considerable energy losses. This paper proposes a decentralized power supply installation based on a power distribution at medium voltage, which achieves not only significant energy savings, but also important savings in material and person-hours. These improvements entail substantial savings in cost and CO2 emissions.