Abstract
Abstract In this study, we investigated a desiccant assisted air conditioning system that includes borehole heat exchangers for direct cooling and solar energy for desiccant regeneration. We developed a system model and ran simulations of this model for five cities in the United States. Our research shows that the system can provide sufficient latent and sensible cooling throughout the cooling period. Depending on the location, a maximum Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio of up to 7.66 (kW/kW) is achieved. We further investigated the utilization of borehole heat exchangers within a desiccant assisted hybrid air conditioning system by comparing their energetic, economic and environmental performance to a vapor compression chiller that utilizes R410A as refrigerant. We found that electricity savings of more than 50% and CO2 equivalent emission savings of up to 91% are possible, while the geothermal system is not cost competitive at most of the investigated locations.
Highlights
Worldwide sales of air conditioning devices increased considerably during recent years [1]
Solar energy [5,6], heat supplied by a geothermal well [7], waste heat of a CHP engine [8,9] or heat rejected through the condenser of a vapor compression cycle (VCC) [10,11] were used to regenerate the desiccant wheel
As the latent load is mainly handled by the desiccant wheel, the number of solar panels is increased until 95% of the operating time meets the comfort criterion
Summary
Worldwide sales of air conditioning devices increased considerably during recent years [1]. Validated with the experimental data, they used a numerical model to study the suitability of direct geothermal cooling of office buildings at different locations They concluded that geothermal heat exchangers can be applied in warmer Mediterranean climates, even though the cooling capacity decreases with increasing soil temperature. The authors present experimental results for a stationary point and identified a high potential for primary energy savings They reported that comfort conditions could not be maintained for some rooms of the investigated building during hotter days of the cooling period. The air handling unit supplies ventilation to a reference room, which is equipped with cooling ceilings to remove sensible loads They measured a Seasonal Efficiency Rate of 6.6, which allows the temperature level to maintain a comfortable level within the reference room throughout the entire cooling period. To further evaluate the utilization of BHXs within the system, we compared them to a VCC from an energetic, economic and environmental perspective
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