A review of the advance of HVAC technologies as witnessed in ENB publications in the period from 1987 to 2014

• Published in: Energy and buildings 2016-10, Vol.130, p.33-45
• Main Authors: Huang, Yu, Niu, Jian-lei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Heat recovery ventilation; Indirect evaporative cooling; Radiant cooling; Solid and liquid desiccant; Stratified air-conditioning; Thermal energy storage
• ISSN: 0378-7788
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.08.036

•A review on advanced HVAC systems development during 1987–2014 in ENB is presented.•Mechanism investigation, model development and verification/calibration are collected.•Equipment development, IEQ control effect and practical case studies are summarized.•Limits and future application potentials of each technologies are discussed. As one of the leading journals in building energy studies, Energy and Buildings has witnessed the great efforts in the research community and professional society in advancing the state-of-the-art of HVAC systems since its founding. In this paper, a critical review on the development of advanced, energy-efficient HVAC systems in the past 30 years is presented. Specifically, attention is paid on stratified ventilation, heat recovery ventilation, thermal storage, indirect evaporate cooling technology, and the independent control of temperature and humidity design which involves radiant cooling system and solid/liquid desiccant system. The review covers, but is not limited to, mechanism investigation, numerical model development, experimental verification/calibration, and equipment development. Areas that have not yet been studied in-depth were exposed. The limits and future application potentials of each technology were also discussed.