Integration of variable refrigerant flow system and energy recovery ventilator in different construction climate zones in Vietnam: Case study of a primary school

The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system consumes a lot of electricity in the building to meet the demand for thermal comfort. The energy recovery ventilator (ERV) has been used in commercial, industrial, and residential buildings to save energy consumption for HVAC systems. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of ERV systems in different construction climate zones in Vietnam and the energy consumption of the sample primary school. We simulated the energy consumption of the sample building installed with the Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system and the ERV integrated with the VRF system (ERVVRF) by the OpenStudio model. The energy consumption of the sample building varied in different climate zones ranging from 129.76 kWh/m2 to 156.96 kWh/m2, following the decreasing order: Southern region > South Central region > North Central region > Northern Delta region > Northeastern midland and mountainous region > Northwest region > Central Highlands region. In most of the climate zones, except for the Central Highlands regions, installing the ERV-VRF system reduced the energy consumption of the sample building. The whole-building (HVAC) EUI saving of the ERV-VRF system depends on the outdoor climate, ranging from 1.19% (5.23%) to 3.29% (9.61%).