Energy Performance of a Desiccant and Evaporative Cooling-assisted Air-conditioning System under Various Climatic Conditions in China

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the energy performance of a liquid desiccant and evaporative coolingassisted 100% outdoor air system (LD-IDECOAS). To evaluate the cooling operation of the LD-IDECOAS, the energy consumption was compared to the conventional, variable air volume (VAV) system. Both LD-IDECOAS and VAV systems were used for air-conditioning an office building in three typical cities in China located in different climatic zones. To simplify the calculation process, the required thermal load of the model building was simulated using TRNSYS 17, and the energy consumption was calculated by a commercial equation solver program (EES). LD-IDECOAS uses significant amount of heat in terms of regeneration, which is applied to district heating. As a result, it has been confirmed that the energy consumption of LD-IDECOAS is lower than the energy consumption of the VAV system. The LD-IDECOAS can save approximately 68% of the annual energy consumption in conventional VAV systems during operation (Kim et al. 2014).