Potential Investigation of Membrane Energy Recovery Ventilators for the Management of Building Air-Conditioning Loads

Abstract

The present study provides insights into the energy-saving potential of a membrane energy recovery ventilator (ERV) for the management of building air-conditioning loads. This study explores direct (DEC), Maisotsenko cycle (MEC) evaporative cooling, and vapor compression (VAC) systems with ERV. Therefore, this study aims to explore possible air-conditioning options in terms of temperature, relative humidity, human thermal comfort, wet bulb effectiveness, energy saving potential, and CO2 emissions. Eight different combinations of the above-mentioned systems are proposed in this study i.e., DEC, MEC, VAC, MEC-VAC, and their possible combinations with and without ERVs. A building was modeled in DesignBuilder and simulated in EnergyPlus. The MEC-VAC system with ERV achieved the highest temperature gradient, wet bulb effectiveness, energy-saving potential, optimum relative humidity, and relatively lower CO2 emissions i.e., 19.7 °C, 2.2, 49%, 48%, and 499.2 kgCO2/kWh, respectively. Thus, this study concludes the hybrid MEC-VAC system with ERV the optimum system for the management of building air-conditioning loads.

Energy Systems and Applications in Agriculture

“…The membrane energy recovery ventilator (ERV) can be used to recover energy from the exhaust of air-conditioned buildings. The study investigated the energy saving potential and CO 2 emissions along with other thermal comfort parameters by employing the ERV [9]. It was determined that the hybrid system consisting of the Maisotsenko cycle evaporative cooling (MEC), vapor compression air-conditioning (VAC) and ERV (i.e., MEC-VAC-ERV) achieved thermal comfort with a higher energy-saving potential (49%), and lower CO 2 emissions (499.2 kg CO 2 /kWh) as compared to other studied systems in building airconditioning [9].…”