ABSTRACT The level of health and comfort provided by heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) is measured according to the metrics of temperature and humidity for indoor air quality. In terms of design, the configuration and selection of components for an HVAC system in a building are important because they may result in different energy consumption levels. Thus, to save on electricity costs, an HVAC system should be designed to match the type and purpose of the building. The HVAC system in this article is designed for an average house in the city of Waterloo, Canada. Two popular HVAC systems installed in the house, one with an air-water HVAC system and the other with a heater and induction unit, were selected to compare the energy consumption and electricity costs. In order to control the temperature and humidity inside the house, dynamic models of temperature and humidity for HVAC systems were developed from a physics-based approach using mass and energy balance. The two models optimize the work input with the use of an artificial bee colony algorithm (ABCA). The optimized electricity cost results show that the HVAC system with a heater is more cost-effective than the HVAC with an induction unit, saving around 45 $CAD per annum.
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