Cooling load reduction of building by seasonal nocturnal cooling water from thermosyphon heat pipe radiator

Abstract

In this study, a concept of using thermosyphon heat pipe to extract heat from water in a storage tank to generate cooling water was proposed. Heat pipe condenser was attached with an aluminum plate and acted as a thermal radiator while its evaporator was dipped in the water storage tank. Cooling water in the tank could be produced during the nighttime and used to serve the cooling load in a room during the daytime. A heat transfer model to calculate the water temperature and the room temperature during both the nighttime and daytime was developed. The input data were ambient temperature, dew point temperature, area of the radiator, volume of cooling water and room cooling load. The experiment was setup to verify the heat transfer model. A 9.0 m2 tested room with six cooling coils, each of 0.87 m2 was installed at the ceiling, was constructed along with the 1.0 m3 water storage tank. A 500–2000 W adjustable heater was taken as an artificial load inside the room. A 6.36 m2 radiator is installed on a 45° tilting roof of the tested room. The simulated results agreed very well with those of the experimental data. With the developed model, a simulation to find the sizing of the radiator area and the volume of cooling water for cooling water production during winter of Chiang Mai, Thailand was carried out. The cooling water was used for cooling during summer in an air-conditioned room with different cooling loads. The parameters in terms of room temperature, radiator area, volume of cooling water, cooling load and UA of cooling coil were considered to carry out the percent of cooling load reduction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.