Outside Cold Air Temperature Impact to Energy Consumption in Air Conditioning System Bangkok Metropolitan Area in 2019.

Abstract

Electrical consumption data from Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) was collected and compared between normal warm weather in November, 2019 and cold weather in December, 2019 for seven days.  Questionnaire asking target group as working people, elderly people and students and classified building type into office, single house, townhouse condominium or apartment with at least 100 samples each.  Then, 10 personal interviews was focus group for each building type.  It was found that air temperature in November 2019 was 23-33 degree Celsius while 18-28 degree Celsius in December (AccuWeather, 2020: TMD, 2019).  In December 2019, the outside air temperature was in comfort zone during the daytime while in the night time it was below thermal comfort.  It was found that nobody turned on air condition in the building both in the office during the daytime and in their residences during the night time.  Calculating electrical cost at 4.22 baht per kilowatt-hour (MEA, 2020) the energy reduced roughly about 1,000 MW per hour which cost about 4,220,000 baht hourly, 101,280,000 baht a day, or 708.96 million baht a week.  It equivalents to 1,000,000 ton of split-type air condition or 500,000 to of chilled water air condition system.