Comparative research on different air conditioning systems for residential buildings

Two types of air conditioning (AC) systems generally exist, namely, centralized and decentralized AC systems. This study focuses on three actual engineering projects of residential communities where centralized AC systems are adopted. The applicability of centralized AC systems in residential buildings is discussed and analyzed. In addition, the key elements that lead to different building energy consumptions and system efficiencies between centralized and decentralized AC systems in residential buildings are investigated. This study shows that in residential buildings, at the point where the centralized feature of the system meets the decentralized feature of users’ load, the problems of high energy consumption and low energy efficiency could easily occur.