Experimental assessment of thermal effectiveness of a regenerative indirect evaporative cooler

Abstract

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, HVAC, systems represent a significant energy use in Europe, around 50% of total energy use in buildings. Conventional HVAC systems are mainly based on direct expansion units, whose use of 100% outdoor air leads to high energy use. Then, different innovative and efficient air-cooling systems could be an interesting alternative to approach Nearly Zero Energy Buildings, nZEB. One of these efficient solutions is the technology of indirect evaporative cooling. This work was based on the experimental evaluation of a regenerative indirect evaporative cooler, RIEC. Several empirical tests were carried out under different inlet conditions: inlet air temperature values between 29 °C and 43 °C, TOA, and inlet air humidity ratio values between 9 g/kg and 13 g/kg,