IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i11p2079-d235919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy and Economics Analyses of Condenser Evaporative Precooling for Various Climates, Buildings and Refrigerants

Author

Listed:
  • Bo Shen

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA)

  • Joshua New

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA)

  • Moonis Ally

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA)

Abstract

Condenser evaporative pre-coolers provide a low cost retrofit option for existing packaged rooftop air conditioning application units. This paper aimed to provide a comprehensive study to assess energy savings and peak power reductions of condenser evaporative cooling. Condenser evaporative cooling leads to a lower temperature of the air entering the condenser of a rooftop unit, which results in smaller compressor power consumption. Using EnergyPlus building energy simulations, we mapped the impacts on energy savings and energy reductions at peak ambient temperatures in three building types and 16 locations with levels of pad effectiveness and demonstrated the effects on air conditioner using either R22 or R410A as refrigerants. Economics and control strategy to maximize the cost saving were also investigated. The results demonstrate that energy savings are much greater for HVAC systems with the refrigerant R410A than they are with R22, and evaporative pre-cooling provides the opportunity for annual energy savings and peak demand reductions, with significant potential in hot, dry climates. Additionally, we validated an improved mathematical model for estimating the condenser pre-cooling wet bulb efficiency which shows clear advantage over the current EnergyPlus model.

Suggested Citation

  • Bo Shen & Joshua New & Moonis Ally, 2019. "Energy and Economics Analyses of Condenser Evaporative Precooling for Various Climates, Buildings and Refrigerants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:11:p:2079-:d:235919
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/11/2079/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/11/2079/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Min-Hwi & Jeong, Jae-Weon, 2013. "Cooling performance of a 100% outdoor air system integrated with indirect and direct evaporative coolers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 245-257.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xin Cui & Le Sun & Sicong Zhang & Liwen Jin, 2019. "On the Study of a Hybrid Indirect Evaporative Pre-Cooling System for Various Climates," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-16, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hadeed Ashraf & Muhammad Sultan & Uzair Sajjad & Muhammad Wakil Shahzad & Muhammad Farooq & Sobhy M. Ibrahim & Muhammad Usman Khan & Muhammad Ahmad Jamil, 2022. "Potential Investigation of Membrane Energy Recovery Ventilators for the Management of Building Air-Conditioning Loads," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Shiying Li & Jae-Weon Jeong, 2018. "Energy Performance of Liquid Desiccant and Evaporative Cooling-Assisted 100% Outdoor Air Systems under Various Climatic Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Campaniço, Hugo & Hollmuller, Pierre & Soares, Pedro M.M., 2014. "Assessing energy savings in cooling demand of buildings using passive cooling systems based on ventilation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 426-438.
    4. Islam, M.R. & Jahangeer, K.A. & Chua, K.J., 2015. "Experimental and numerical study of an evaporatively-cooled condenser of air-conditioning systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 390-399.
    5. Shazia Noor & Hadeed Ashraf & Muhammad Sultan & Zahid Mahmood Khan, 2020. "Evaporative Cooling Options for Building Air-Conditioning: A Comprehensive Study for Climatic Conditions of Multan (Pakistan)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Yang, Siyu & Yang, Qingchun & Qian, Yu, 2013. "A composite efficiency metrics for evaluation of resource and energy utilization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 455-462.
    7. Chen, Yi & Yan, Huaxia & Yang, Hongxing, 2018. "Comparative study of on-off control and novel high-low control of regenerative indirect evaporative cooler (RIEC)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 233-243.
    8. Campaniço, Hugo & Soares, Pedro M.M. & Hollmuller, Pierre & Cardoso, Rita M., 2016. "Climatic cooling potential and building cooling demand savings: High resolution spatiotemporal analysis of direct ventilation and evaporative cooling for the Iberian Peninsula," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 766-776.
    9. Krzysztof Rajski & Jan Danielewicz & Ewa Brychcy, 2020. "Performance Evaluation of a Gravity-Assisted Heat Pipe-Based Indirect Evaporative Cooler," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Ghiaus, Christian, 2014. "Linear algebra solution to psychometric analysis of air-conditioning systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 555-566.
    11. Wonjun Kim & Hye-Won Dong & Junseok Park & Minki Sung & Jae-Weon Jeong, 2018. "Impact of an Ultraviolet Reactor on the Improvement of Air Quality Leaving a Direct Evaporative Cooler," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:11:p:2079-:d:235919. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.