The Prospect for Using Airside Economizers in China

An airside economizer is an energy-efficiency measure for buildings; this air damper and automatic control scheme is considered one of the most popular energy-saving measures for mid-sized and large buildings' all-air or air-water air-conditioning systems. Airside economizers have been widely used as part of many air-conditioning systems for commercial, institutional, industrial, and large residential buildings in the United States and elsewhere, and researchers continue to study the airside economizer's control algorithms, setpoints, and performance in different climates and for various building occupancies. But in mainland China (PRC), HVAC engineers have not typically considered use of airside economizers, due to unfamiliarity or poor initial experiences with them. Also, because of failure of components or poor maintenance airside economizers can be energy wasters instead of savers thus further hurting their reputation in China. Although many cities in China are located respectively at similar longitudes and latitudes as cities of the U.S., the weather in China is different and often more humid than in much of the heavily populated regions of the U.S. Outdoor air pollution is also severe in more major industrialized cities of China than in the U.S. This paper analyses the usage prospect of airside economizer from a climate distribution perspective, and the air-quality situation and the typical "conventional" air-conditioning systems used in China.