GEOCOOLING: Experimental Investigation of Tank Thermal Energy Storage Ground Heat Sink and Fan Coil Units to Cool Homes in the Philippines

PhD Candidate: Mr Emmanuel David Ampil Litonjua

Supervisory Panel

Abstract

Climate change is occurring and it has been aggravated by the steep increase of energy consumption of the 1970’s which spewed an unprecedented amount of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases (GHGs), into the atmosphere by means of fuel combustion.  Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings comprise part of the operational energy requirements of the building and construction industry amounting to about 30% of the worldwide energy use.

In Southeast Asia’s emerging economies, the potential for burgeoning growth in the air conditioning industry is expected as wages increase and temperatures soar due to climate change, this is also true for the Philippines, where it is feared that the air conditioning demand will come from inefficient systems procured at a fraction of the cost of newer more efficient systems.  GHG emissions will increase not only from combustion of fossil fuel for energy generation but also due to ozone-depleting substances and their replacement refrigerants that do not deplete the ozone layer but have high global warming potential unless mitigation strategies in line with the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) along with the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Vienna Convention) are respected.

The key to cutting emissions of GHGs is not to irrationally restrain the procurement of air conditioning units but to drastically improve the efficiency of these equipment—one of the alternatives listed in the International Energy Agency’s report on the future of cooling is the use of a ground source heat pumps.  This research will attempt to go further and will experiment on a cooling system in the Philippines that is similarly ground coupled but without the use of a heat pump.

Sources of Funding

Candidature Support Funds, Western Sydney University for instruments and own funds for the experiment in the Philippines

Biography

Emmanuel D. A. Litonjua has been a registered architect in the Republic of the Philippines since 1988.  He finished his Bachelor of Science in Architecture at the University of the Philippines. After four years, he then completed his Master of Architecture in Advanced Building Technology at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1989. Emmanuel worked in firms in Buffalo, New York and in New York City before going back to the Philippines where he was asked to teach at the University of the Philippines by the former dean of the College of Architecture. Concurrent with his full-time teaching duties, he managed his own architectural practice, an architecture-planning partnership and his family’s real estate business. He also actively participated in his professional organization, the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) and was elevated to its College of Fellows in 2009 for service to the academe and the UAP. Shortly after completing one of his projects, the UP Integrated School (https://upd.edu.ph/academics/up-integrated-school/), he left for Sydney and has been tutoring at the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment since 2016 and has been doing projects under his sole trader company, Oz Drafter, since 2017.

Education

• Master of Architecture in Advanced Building Technology, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA (1989)
• Bachelor of Science in Architecture, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Philippines (1985)

Professional Affiliations

• Fellow, United Architects of the Philippines
• Registered Architect, Professional Regulation Commission (Republic of the Philippines)

Research Interests

• Architecture

Contact

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