AT-01-05-2 -- Desiccant Cooling for Swedish Office Buildings PDF

Only a small portion of the Swedish office buildings up to the mid-1970s were equipped with comfort cooling. An increased use of computers and other heat-releasing office equipment has often led to unacceptably high indoor temperatures in summer. Desiccant cooling is an interesting alternative to conventional vapor compression cooling and has been used in the renovation of these old office buildings in Sweden. This paper describes a typical Swedish installation that has been thoroughly evaluated and also describes the background and design methodology of the system. Desiccant cooling, as discussed in this paper, is performed using a desiccant dehumidification wheel in combination with evaporative cooling. The efficiency of the system is dependent on local climatic conditions, component performance, and operating conditions. The dependence of the system performance on these three variables is presented as boundary lines on psychrometric charts to provide an easier understanding of the potentials and limitations of the system.

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