Experimental study on the direct evaporative air-cooling system with vermicompost material as the water storage medium

Abstract

Direct Evaporative Cooling (DEC) is a passive cooling technology widely adopted in places with hot-dry weather conditions to achieve indoor thermal comfort. The major drawbacks of the conventional DEC system are water stagnation in the sump where the water is stored and the continuous pump operation for the water circulation. In this study, vermicompost – a material with high porosity and water retention capacity is used to replace the pad, pump and sump of conventional air-cooler. The effect of velocity on the performance of a vermicompost based cooling system is compared with conventional air-cooler and the results are presented. The results show that vermicompost based cooling system operated at 2.7 ms−1 provides a cooling effect similar to a conventional air-cooler with 10 % deviation. The energy savings of this cooling system due to the elimination of the pump is about 21.7 %. This proposed cooling technology could be an energy-efficient method to provide passive thermal comfort in residential, commercial building sectors and further paves the way for sustainable cooling for applications like poultry, greenhouse and flower bouquet shop where cooled air with higher humidity is of great importance.