Abstract

Abstracts Game theory is a decision-making tool that focuses on the strategic planning for cooperative or non-cooperative (conflicting) problems by two or more agents. All agents’ decisions directly affect the outcomes (pay-offs) received by each of them. Strategic operation of the equipment in the mechanical room of any commercial building can have a significant energy-saving impact. Chillers and boilers are the two primary energy-consuming equipment in cooling and heating systems. Regular centrifugal chillers consume energy when electricity is used to run the refrigeration cycle inside the chiller (mainly consumed to operate compressors). At the same time, hot water boilers consume natural gas to heat the building’s air conditioning and water. It is important to remind here that in large commercial buildings, throughout the year, both chillers and boilers are required to operate at the same time — for the building cooling, heating, reheating, and water heating needs — and not just chillers for hot seasons and heating for cold seasons. Absorption chillers are a different type of chiller that, instead of consuming electricity at compressors, uses heat for the compression process of the cooling generation cycle. A pump in this system consumes a much lower quantity of electricity relative to the compressor in vapor-compression cycles. The aforementioned will result in a considerably larger consumption of natural gas and a significantly lower consumption of electricity instead. It is also customary for designers to have at least two chillers (each at capacity higher than 50% capacity of the whole system) for each building to keep at least a level of backup capacity when one of the chillers is out of commission due to required service or due to unexpected system failure.

In the current paper, the authors will use the rules of game theory to make the most energy-efficient scheduling decisions for energy saving in a typical air conditioning system when utilizing two different types of chillers in one building. The authors will compare the overall energy consumption of a typical system using two centrifugal chillers, two absorption chillers, or one of each, and recommend the most efficient strategy for the building.

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