Energy Assessment of VRF Systems Integrated with ERV and DOAS under Variable Supply Air Temperatures in Tropical Office Buildings

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-805-4_31How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cooling Load; DOAS; Energy Use Intensity; ERV; VRF

Abstract

Ventilation significantly affects HVAC energy consumption in hot-humid tropical office buildings, yet the comparative performance of energy recovery ventilation (ERV) and dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS) under different supply air temperatures remains insufficiently understood. This study evaluates the combined effects of ventilation strategy and supply air temperature on the energy performance of a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air-conditioning system serving a tropical office building. Four operating scenarios were investigated using the hourly analysis program (HAP), consisting of VRF integrated with ERV and VRF integrated with DOAS operating at supply air temperatures of 18 ℃ and 14 ℃. The results show that the DOAS configuration effectively reduced the cooling load imposed on the VRF indoor units by pre-conditioning outdoor ventilation air. However, this benefit was offset by the additional energy required for outdoor air treatment, leading to an increase in the annual energy use intensity (EUI) from 169.5 to 176.0 kWh/m²·year (3.8%) compared with the ERV configuration. Decreasing the DOAS supply air temperature from 18 ℃ to 14 ℃ produced only marginal improvements in indoor thermal conditions while increasing cooling energy demand, indicating diminishing energy returns under tropical operating conditions. These findings demonstrate that lower terminal cooling loads do not necessarily result in lower whole-building energy consumption. The study highlights the importance of integrated ventilation-system optimization and showing that ERV offers superior overall building energy performance. The study also provides practical engineering guidance for selecting ventilation strategies that balance cooling load reduction and whole-building energy efficiency in tropical office buildings.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Adi Winarta
AU  - I Kadek Dwiki Andika Putra
AU  - I Nyoman Suamir
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/08
TI  - Energy Assessment of VRF Systems Integrated with ERV and DOAS under Variable Supply Air Temperatures in Tropical Office Buildings
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Green Tourism Applied Science - Engineering Applied Science 2026 (ICOSTAS-EAS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 292
EP  - 302
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-805-4_31
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-805-4_31
ID  - Winarta2026
ER  -