Solar Powered Liquid Desiccant Air Conditioner for Low-Electricity Humidity Control

The air-conditioning (AC) technology of today is primarily based on direct expansion (DX) or the refrigeration process. It is now so prevalent that it is considered a necessity for the majority of residential and commercial buildings throughout the United States. During the 100-plus years of develop...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dean, Jesse, Kozubal, Eric, Herman, Lesley, Wander, Joe, Lowenstein, Andrew, Miller, Jeff, Hancock, Ed, Barker, Greg
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Condition, Heating, Lighting & Ventilating
AIR CONDITIONING EQUIPMENT
BASE LINES
COST ANALYSIS
DESICCANTS
Electric Power Production and Distribution
ELECTRICITY
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
HUMIDITY
Inorganic Chemistry
LDAC(LIQUID DESICCANT AIR CONDITIONERS)
LOW-ELECTRICITY HUMIDITY CONTROL
Miscellaneous Materials
PERFORMANCE(ENGINEERING)
SAMPLING
SOLAR CELLS
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Summary:The air-conditioning (AC) technology of today is primarily based on direct expansion (DX) or the refrigeration process. It is now so prevalent that it is considered a necessity for the majority of residential and commercial buildings throughout the United States. During the 100-plus years of development, DX AC has been optimized for cost and thermodynamic efficiency, both of which are nearing their practical limits. Nevertheless, AC accounts for approximately 15 percent (%) of all source energy used for electricity production in the United States alone (nearly 4 quadrillion British thermal units [Btu]), which results in the release of about 343 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year (Department of Energy [DOE], 2011). The Department of Defense (DoD) occupies over 316,000 buildings and 182,000 structures on 536 military installations worldwide, and accounts for about 64% of the energy consumed by federal facilities. This makes the DoD the largest energy consumer in the United States. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, the DoD consumed 218 trillion Btu in site-delivered energy, 26.2 trillion Btu for AC alone. This cooling cost equates to an estimated $413 million per year (Pacific Northwest National Lab, undated). In hot, humid climates, conventional AC units expend energy to sensibly overcool the air in order to provide dehumidification. As a result, additional energy must be used to reheat the air to a more comfortable supply temperature (overcool/reheat cycle). The use of desiccant-based AC systems decouples the latent and sensible loads of an airstream, enabling higher efficiency cooling and improved thermal comfort conditions. Liquid-desiccants are solutions that are hygroscopic but are easily able to be pumped and applied within heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment as necessary.