National Gunsan University announced on the 19th that Professor Shin Dae-wook from the Department of Architectural Engineering and his research team, including Ph.D. candidate Lee Yoo-jin, have developed a technology to simultaneously control cooling and heating in large complex buildings to save energy and enhance thermal comfort.

The research team applied a 'load-reset-control' method to a simultaneous cooling and heating system utilizing a heat pump, proposing a way to balance the cooling and heating loads and minimize the use of auxiliary equipment. They utilized a stratified hot/cold water tank to evaluate the building's load in real-time and dynamically adjust indoor temperatures within a comfortable range.

According to the experimental results, the energy-saving effect was up to 58.58% higher compared to conventional fixed temperature control methods, with the most efficiency achieved when the cooling and heating load ratio was 1.8:1. Furthermore, there was an improvement in thermal comfort based on ASHRAE and ISO 7730 standards.

This research was supported by the Korea Research Foundation and was published in the latest issue of the international academic journal, Journal of Building Engineering. Gunsan University expects that this technology will contribute to the realization of zero-energy buildings and carbon neutrality in the future.