Energy saving potential of precooling incoming outdoor air by indirect evaporative cooling.

摘要

This paper investigates the energy saving potentials of using indirect evaporative coolers to precool incoming outdoor air as the first stage of a standard cooling system. For dry and moderately humid locations, either exhaust room air or outdoor air can be used as the secondary air to the indirect evaporative precooler with similar energy savings. Under these conditions, the use of outdoor air is recommended due to the simplicity in installing the duct system. For humid locations, the use of exhaust room air is recommended because the precooling capacity and energy savings will be greatly increased. For locations with short cooling seasons, the use of indirect evaporative coolers for precooling may not be worthwhile. The paper also gives some simplified indices for easily predicting the precooling capacity, energy savings and water consumption of an indirect evaporative precooler. These indices can be used for cooling systems with continuous operation, but further work is needed to determine whether the same indices are also suitable for cooling systems with intermittent operations.