Performance Enhancement of a Ventilation System in Hot and Dry Climate Using Air-PCM Heat Exchanger

Abstract

The building projects' power consumption and CO2 emissions are 40% and 33%, respectively. It is a viable strategy to use phase change material in energy storage to provide free cooling. There are few studies on free cooling in hot climates, so the proposed system uses paraffin as a thermal storage material for free cooling and ventilation. The project contains a cooling tower, a horizontal slab heat exchanger between air and phase change material, and an indirect compact heat exchanger between air and water. The energy equation is computed using Engineering Equation Solver software to assess the overall system perform properly. The model investigated the parameters that affect the system's performance under various climate conditions. The system has improved indoor air quality by providing ventilation and extending the period of thermal comfort. The system's performance is determined by the cooling tower's performance and the Air to PCM and Air to water heat exchangers. The Air to PCM heat exchanger reduces supply temperature by 2°C with a slight pressure drop < 20Pa and does not affect system power consumption.