Monitoring and evaluation of replacing low-efficiency air conditioners with high-efficiency air conditioners in single-family detached houses in Austin, Texas

The US DOE initiated this project to evaluate the performance of an air conditioner retrofit program in Austin, Texas. The City's Austin's Resource Management Department pursued this project to quantify the retrofit effect of replacing low-efficiency air conditioners with high-efficiency air conditioners in single-family detached homes. If successfully implemented, this retrofit program could help defer construction of a new power plant which is a major goal of this department. The project compares data collected from 12 houses during two cooling seasons under pre-retrofit and then post-retrofit air conditioner units. The existing low-efficiency air conditioners were monitored during the 1987 cooling season, replaced during the 1987--88 heating season with new, smaller sized, high-efficiency units, and then monitored again during the 1988 cooling season. Results indicated that the air conditioner retrofits reduce the annual air conditioner electric consumption and peak electric demand by an average of 38%. When normalized to the nominal capacity of the air conditioner, average demand savings were 1.12 W/ft{sup 2} and estimated annual energy savings were 1.419 kWh/ft{sup 2}. Individual air conditioner power requirements were found to be a well defined function of outdoor temperature as expected. In the absence of detailed data, estimates of the peak demand reductions of new air conditioners can be made from the manufacturer's specifications. Air conditioner energy consumption proved to be strongly linear as a function of the outdoor temperature as expected when taken as an aggregate. No noticeable differences in the diversity factor of the air conditioner usage were found. Analysis of the retrofit effect using PRISM yields estimates of the reduction in normalized annual consumption (NAC) and annual cooling consumption of 12% and 30%. 2 refs., 11 figs., 17 tabs.