A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PORTABLE AIR-CONDITIONER AND WINDOW AIR-CONDITIONER IN RESIDENTIAL BEDROOM

Abstract

With the predominant use of air-conditioners in Singapore, achieving good indoor air quality (IAQ) has become an essential issue. As people spend longer hours in an air-conditioned environment, in particular, during the sleeping period, it is vital to investigate the thermal conditions and IAQ of an air-conditioning bedroom. This study seeks to assess the IAQ status of one bedroom served by window air-conditioner with ventilation damper opened (VDO); window air-conditioner with ventilation damper closed (VDC); and portable air-conditioner. Window and split air-conditioners are commonly installed in residential bedrooms. However, in order to overcome the limitation of not being able to compare the air-conditioners within the same location, this study proposes to use portable air-conditioner in place of split-air conditioner. Objective measurements were conducted to evaluate the IAQ parameters and a comparative analysis was made. Experimental results established that when the source of contaminants is found to have originated from indoors, window air-conditioner unit with an open ventilation damper provide better IAQ than portable air-conditioner. This is because the lack of fresh air provision with the use of portable air-conditioning system will ultimately result in the build-up of contaminants. This is supported by the higher range of data collected after occupancy for the parameters of CO2 and formaldehyde when the source of contaminants was found to have generated from indoors. However, the reverse holds true when pollutants are generated outdoors. Appropriate recommendations have been proposed to improve the performance of the current ventilation damper and the IAQ of residential bedroom.