Computer simulation for better design and operation of large office building air-conditioning

The paper deals with the use of computer simulations both for the design support of a new buildings and HVAC system development and for the optimisation of the system control strategy in the building. This is presented on a real office building in Prague. For a new large bank head office in Prague, computer simulations were carried out to find solutions for reducing the required cooling capacity, verify the fan-coil capacity design, and optimise the external gassing for atriums. Because the design included exposed concrete ceilings, the idea was to apply building thermal mass and find out a way to operate the building. The cooling capacity was initially estimated at 3 MW and simulations proved possibility of decreasing it to 81% for the whole building. Other simulation helped designers to optimise, roof glazing and shading for atria, with stress on thermal comfort in open corridors. The building and HVAC system monitoring and meassurements to confirm the simulation based design changes are presented in the paper.