Abstract:The energy consumption increase in the last few years has contributed to developing energy efficiency policies in many countries, the main goal of which is decreasing CO 2 emissions. One of the reasons for this increment has been caused by the use of air conditioning systems due to new comfort standards. In that regard, cooling towers and evaporative condensers are presented as efficient devices that operate with low-level water temperature. Moreover, the energy consumption and the cost of the equipment are lower than other systems like air condensers at the same operation conditions. This work models an air conditioning system in TRNSYS software, the main elements if which are a cooling tower, a water-water chiller and a reference building. The cooling tower model is validated using experimental data in a pilot plant. The main objective is to implement an optimizing control strategy in order to reduce both energy and water consumption. Furthermore a comparison between three typical methods of capacity control is carried out. Additionally, different cooling tower configurations are assessed, involving six drift eliminators and two water distribution systems. Results show the influence of optimizing the control strategy and cooling tower configuration, with a maximum energy savings of 10.8% per story and a reduction of 4.8% in water consumption.
Cooling sector plays a crucial role in the World's transition towards an efficient and decarbonised energy system. Solar cooling is an attractive idea because of the chronological coincidence between available solar radiation and cooling needs. This paper studies the possibility of increasing the efficiency of solar photovoltaic modules by evaporative cooling. This, combined with the use of a water condensed chiller, will enable an efficient cooling system design as a whole. To achieve this goal this paper experimentally evaluates the thermal and electrical performance of a Photovoltaic Evaporative Chimney. A prototype with two photovoltaic modules was built; one of them is used as a reference and the other is modified in its rear side including the evaporative solar chimney. The system is able to dissipate a thermal power of about 1500 W with a thermal efficiency exceeding 30% in summer conditions. The module temperature differences reach 8 K, depending on the wind conditions and ambient air psychrometric properties. Regarding the electrical efficiency, the results showed an average improvement of 4.9% to a maximum of 7.6% around midday in a typical summer day for a Mediterranean climate.
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