The Feasibility Study of Employing an Ice Storage System in Air Conditioning Systems of Office Buildings in Warm Regions of Iran

Air conditioning systems account for a significant portion of electricity consumption in buildings. Therefore, the use of new technologies to reduce electricity consumption is essential for engineers and researchers. In this research, an ice storage system in combination with the air conditioning system of an office building has been investigated to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the air conditioning system. For this purpose, a building in Chabahar-Iran (as a region with a high cooling load required region) is considered. The building is simulated in TRNSYS software at the existing condition as well as with the added ice storage system to predict the performance of the systems. The study shows that ice storage system is more efficient in the partial load strategy than other examined strategies. It was also found that by using an ice storage system the total electricity consumption could be reduced about 37.89%, and the new system was able to transfer 37.9% of energy consumption from peak load hours to medium and low load hours. Economically, it is proved that by employing the ice storage system in the partial load strategy, a significant amount of reduction in electricity bill, about 62%, can be achieved.