Feasibility analysis for a novel dew point air cooler applied in warm and humid climate: a case study in Beijing

Abstract

The air humidity and temperature greatly impact the water evaporation efficiency. It is commonly doubted whether the evaporative cooling technology is suitable for the humid climate as well as the public’s care about the water consumption for cooling. This paper provids a feasibility study for the use of a DPC (dew point air cooler) in Beijing, a representative city in warm and humid climate. The overall analyses include an hourly cooling performance analysis in a typical cooling day, annual energy performance prediction and economic analysis based on an experimentally validated simulation tool. With detailed analyses of the real weather data all year round, it is found the outdoor air must be dehumidified to meet the humidity requirement in most of the cooling hours for any air conditioning means. Thus, the superiority of evaporative cooling would be prominent comparing to the conventional mechanical cooling. The water consumption is little especially considering the fact that the conventional power generation consumes large quantity of water and the DPC saves large sales of power. The results proved the feasibility for the DPC applied in Beijing. The success in application of the proposed DPC in the warm and humid region promises more opportunities of the dew point cooling technology.