International Journal on Architectural Science, Volume 1, Number 4, p.

193-213, 2000

AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS WITH DESICCANT WHEEL FOR

ITALIAN CLIMATES
L. Bellia, P. Mazzei, F. Minichiello and D. Palma
DETEC - University of Naples “Federico II”, P.le Tecchio, 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy

(Received 25 October 2000; Accepted 15 January 2001)

ABSTRACT

Hybrid air conditioning systems based on chemical dehumidification are characterised by high energy efficiency
and low environmental impact. They can result profitable if compared to traditional air conditioning systems
and allow to obtain better indoor thermal comfort and air quality.

In this paper, different hybrid air conditioning system configurations with desiccant wheel are examined; later, a
first evaluation of operating costs is carried on, for Italian climates. For this purpose, a commercial computer
program, DesiCalcTM, has been employed: from the European file known as TRY, hourly climatic data have
been derived and adequately processed. For retail store application, for four Italian sites, maximum saving of
about 22% has been obtained, while for theatre obtainable saving is greater and has been evaluated between
23% and 38%. For both the applications, the required comprehensive electric power is reduced (up to about
55%), and also the hours during which the system does not well control indoor relative humidity are strongly
reduced.

1. INTRODUCTION ventilation, in Italy stated by the UNI 10339 [13]

It is well known that a considerable part of the
primary energy is used for air conditioning
purposes. Besides, it is worthwhile observing that:
a) the most recent standards regarding
environmental comfort and Indoor Air Quality
(IAQ) impose both more restrictive limits to indoor
R.H. values, and a considerable increase of outdoor
airflow rates; b) CFC and HCFC refrigerant fluids
are destined to disappearance; c) electric power
peaks should be reduced. Therefore it seems
necessary to develop new approaches to air
conditioning techniques.
and, in the international field, stated by various
codes and standards [14-21]. The increase of
required external airflow rates implies, for summer
Italian climates, a corresponding latent loads
increase that must be removed in order to maintain
acceptable indoor R.H. values. With the purpose to
balance such additional latent loads [22], external
air pre-treatment technologies, such as chemical
dehumidification, to couple with traditional air
conditioning systems, are regarded with increasing
interest; the correct equipment component sizing is
strictly joined to the external air design conditions
definition [21].

Hybrid air conditioning systems based on chemical
dehumidification are characterised by high energy
efficiency and low environmental impact. Besides,
they can result profitable if compared to traditional
air conditioning systems [1-3].
The desiccant material may be solid or liquid. Solid
desiccants inserted in a rotary heat exchanger [23],
called desiccant wheel (DW), are particularly
utilised, especially in HVAC applications: they are
examined in this paper.

The moist air chemical dehumidification has been
adopted for long time, mostly in the U.S.A., in the
industrial and military fields, in ice arenas and,
within the commercial fields, in high latent load
environments, like supermarkets [4-7]. However,
the trend to extend this technique to other
applications is evident, such as commercial and
residential fields, integrating it with traditional and
innovative systems [8-12], in order to obtain
energy saving and to get the best thermal and
moisture indoor conditions (in particular regarding
R.H. values). Such trend is also justified by the
required external airflow rates increase for indoor
required external airflow rates increase for indoor
In the following, different hybrid air system with
desiccant wheel (DWHS) configurations are
examined and then a first evaluation of operating
costs of such systems, with respect to traditional
ones, is provided for Italian climates; for this
purpose a commercially available computer
program, DesiCalcTM [24], has been employed:
hourly climatic data have been derived from the
European file known as TRY (Test Reference Year)
[25] and adequately processed [26,27].
2. BASIC CONCEPTS

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The main concepts about chemical
dehumidification, successively employed during
the analysis, are herein synthetically presented [28-
32].
Air that has to be treated before supplying in indoor
ambient is called “process air”.
The moisture contained in humid air partially
condenses in the chemical desiccant: it is adsorbed
because of the vapour partial pressure difference
between process air and desiccant surface. So the
process air temperature increases because of the
conversion in sensible heat of both condensation
heat and heat due to the adsorption chemical
process. Therefore, process air specific humidity
decreases while temperature increases (Fig. 1). For
this reason, before supplying to the space, process
air must be cooled (Fig. 1b) by means of one or
more of the following components: direct
expansion or chilled liquid cooling coil (CC);
indirect evaporative cooling (IEC); rotary or static
heat recuperator (HTX).
(a)
Fig. 1: Air dehumidification by (a) cooling coil and (b) chemical dehumidification
Fig. 2: Typical desiccant wheel
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Chemical desiccant – typically chemical
compounds such as synthetic polymers, silica gel,
titanium silicates, natural or synthetic zeolites,
activated alumina, “silica +”, etc… [8,33-38] –
must be periodically regenerated using thermal
energy obtained by combustion process (generally
direct or indirect gas fired heaters) or thermal
wastes (hot water from solar panels, condensation
heat from refrigeration plant, cogeneration systems,
etc.).
In Fig. 2 a typical desiccant wheel is shown [30].
The device rotates slowly (6-30 r.p.h.) between
process and reactivation air streams: moisture is
removed from process air stream by means of the
desiccant material; after a partial rotation, the
sector of saturated wheel is regenerated by hot and
dry air (reactivation air stream) to be utilised again.
The desiccant wheel structure is very similar to that
of a rotary heat recuperator.
(b)

In the field of summer air conditioning for non-
industrial application, chemical dehumidification
could represent a valid alternative to the traditional
cooling and dehumidification coil; hybrid HVAC
systems with chemical dehumidification
distinguish themselves essentially for the following
reasons.
• Traditional refrigeration plants are not
suitable to control separately latent and
sensible thermal loads. Often, in order to
adequately control ambient relative humidity,
it is necessary to cool air up to low
temperatures and then to reheat. Consequently
COP reduction and high energy consumption
take place. Handling sensible loads by means
of a traditional refrigeration plant and latent
loads by means of chemical desiccant,
especially in the presence of a low
sensible/latent load ratio, can significantly
enhance the system efficiency. With this kind
of hybrid system re-heating is never necessary.
This advantage is particularly evident in
partial-load conditions [39], when ventilation
sensible load reduces, while the latent one
keeps high. From Table 1 it can be noticed
how climate conditions with Te < Tr and ωe >
ωr are frequent in Italy.
• Systems based on chemical dehumidification
can reduce humidity even when the required
dew point temperature is very low, so
allowing an easier balance of high latent loads.
On the contrary, conventional systems can
dehumidify air stream generally only for
required dew point temperatures higher than
4°C (in order to avoid frost on evaporator,
with consequent performance reduction).
• In operating conditions, hybrid systems based
on chemical dehumidification can control
separately both temperature and humidity (the
DW is connected to a humidity sensor, the CC
to a temperature sensor). On the contrary, in
traditional cooling systems only temperature
is generally directly controlled, while
humidity can vary.
• Since humidity can be accurately controlled,
hybrid systems assure better thermal comfort
and also better air quality. In fact, the absence
of condensed water strongly reduces the
presence of microorganisms such as bacteria,
viruses and fungi [40-43]. So these systems
are particularly recommended in applications
in which severe hygienic conditions must be
maintained (medical facilities and
laboratories).
International Journal on Architectural Science
• Since in hybrid systems the CC task is only
sensible cooling of the air stream, the cooling
fluid temperature can be higher (for example,
the typical 7°C of the chilled water can be
changed up to 14°C and over), with a
consequent increase of the refrigeration plant
COP. Often, hybrid systems can reduce the
vapour compression refrigeration plant power
because latent load is already balanced by the
desiccant system. The smaller size can reduce
energy consumption, required electric power
and starting investment capital.
• The technology based on chemical
dehumidification, reducing electric power and
energy requirements and the CFC and HCFC
refrigerant fluids consumption, is
characterised by a low environmental impact.
• The desiccant wheel can be applied also to
existing traditional HVAC systems which are
not able to balance latent load, for example
when outdoor air percentage is increased in
order to conform the plant to the present
standards.
• Installing cost of an hybrid system with
chemical dehumidification is generally higher
than a traditional system, but it can be
balanced, in some applications, by lower
operating costs [6,7,44-48] due to lack of re-
heating and increase of COP.
• It is possible to use available thermal energy
[49,50] to reactivate the desiccant.
The main disadvantages connected to hybrid
HVAC systems with chemical dehumidification are
the following:
• it is possible that, in the presence of solid
adsorbent materials, solid particles could be
dragged by the air stream, but such
inconvenience is decreasing while technology
improves;
• a considerable amount of thermal energy is
necessary for the reactivation process and it
increases with the dehumidification
requirements and with the reactivation
temperature. Only the last generation of
desiccant materials can obtain regeneration
temperatures between 40°C and 80°C, so it is
possible to satisfy the reactivation needs with
low temperature thermal recoveries. However,
the payback not always attains acceptable
values [51];
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• the scarce familiarity with such technology even if today chemical dehumidification
and the lack of information about technology can compete with conventional
performances and cost/benefit ratio hamper systems also for residential and commercial
the spreading of hybrid desiccant systems [52], applications.

Table 1: Number of hours during which Te < Tr and ωe > ωr for three Italian localities

Tdb,r = 25°C; R.H.r = 50 % ; ωr = 9.9 g/kg

Site: Crotone Period: 1 June – 30 September Total hours: 2,928

Tdb [°C] 13.5 14.5 15.5 16.5 17.5 18.5 19.5 20.5 21.5 22.5 23.5 N.
ω [g/kg] hours
18.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 02 2
17.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 5
16.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11
11 23
15.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 22 24
13 62
14.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 30 30
21 91
13.5 0 0 0 0 0 4 23 36 34 37
24 158
12.5 0 0 0 0 2 45 46 52 49 41
27 262
11.5 0 0 2 10 41 42 54 34 47 40
37 307
10.5 0 2 10 23 26 35 40 41 41 36
42 296
9.5 4 9 12 14 27 16 22 33 30 29
37 233
total 1,439
percentage on total 49.1 %
Site: Rome Period: 1 June – 30 September Total hours: 2,928
Tdb [°C] 13.5 14.5 15.5 16.5 17.5 18.5 19.5 20.5 21.5 22.5 23.5 N.
ω [g/kg] hours
18.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
17.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2
16.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 6 17
15.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 12 9 30
14.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 17 26 25 13 83
13.5 0 0 0 0 0 5 32 51 38 21 31 178
12.5 0 0 0 0 16 54 71 75 61 35 33 345
11.5 0 0 1 32 93 94 81 60 43 34 32 470
10.5 0 5 35 75 42 44 47 36 39 28 32 383
9.5 7 32 46 24 31 21 17 16 15 25 26 260
total 1,768
percentage on total 60.4 %
Site: Milan Period: 1 June – 30 September Total hours: 2,928
Tdb [°C] 13.5 14.5 15.5 16.5 17.5 18.5 19.5 20.5 21.5 22.5 23.5 N.
ω [g/kg] hours
18.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
17.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2
16.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 5 9
15.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 10 14 15 43
14.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 31 32 31 12 118
13.5 0 0 0 0 0 12 44 59 52 40 25 232
12.5 0 0 0 0 37 68 76 57 33 33 24 328
11.5 0 0 12 89 102 62 43 47 37 36 21 449
10.5 0 48 83 75 32 40 30 26 21 24 23 402
9.5 86 82 34 17 22 18 13 12 11 6 14 315
total 1,898
percentage on total 64.8 %

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3. AIR CONDITIONING HYBRID more often utilised for their realisation are herein
SYSTEM WITH DESICCANT reported.
WHEEL CONFIGURATIONS
• Process air cooling: CC; HTX (sensible or
In the technical literature various hybrid system latent), usually rotating; direct (DEC) or
with desiccant wheel configurations are proposed. indirect (IEC) evaporative cooling.
Sometimes, in the presence of HTX,
Referring to summer conditions, systems can be secondary air is cooled by means of DEC or
distinguished [39] between “active” and “passive” IEC before entering the recuperator.
ones. In the former, desiccant material is • Dehumidification: CC; DW.
reactivated by heated air, in the latter the desiccant • Heating: HC; HTX.
is reactivated by air drier than outdoor air, which is • Humidification: with vapour or liquid water
usually the building exhaust air. Passive desiccant (DEC).
systems require no energy different from what is • Desiccant reactivation:
contained in the exhaust air stream, so the - return air or outside air;
operating costs are considerably lower than for - thermal energy from heaters using fuels, from
active systems. However passive systems only solar panels and heat wastes.
moderate indoor humidity, but are not able to
control it. In the following only active systems are The following cases, referring to process air, can be
considered. distinguished:

In the technical literature many different hybrid
system configurations, with one or more [53-57]
steps of chemical dehumidification, are presented;
in this paper one stage hybrid systems will be
analysed.
In order to classify the main hybrid system
configurations presented in the literature, the
typical air-conditioning processes and the devices
1) All recirculation air systems (“recirculation
mode” or “recirculation cycle”)
It is a very rare case, only for applications without
occupancy, for example stores with high latent load.
A possible configuration is shown in Fig. 3, while
in Table 2 some features of the main configurations
presented in literature are reported1. The
configuration proposed by Collier [58] can work
also in “ventilation mode” and “make-up mode”,
successively defined.

Fig. 3: All recirculation air hybrid system

Table 2: Mean characteristics of some all recirculation air hybrid systems reported in literature
DEC - Regeneration Particular
Source HTX CC HC- IEC – DEC – secondary Regeneration thermal character-
proc. process process side of HTX air energy istics
Http…[66], Rotary Yes No Optional No No Outdoor air Gas -
case a
Collier [58] Rotary No No alternative Yes Yes Outdoor air Gas -
to HTX
Jurinak [50], Rotary No No No Yes Yes Outdoor air Solar energy – -
case 2 gas
_______________________________
1 Even if not reported in Tables 2, 3 and 4, DW is always present in described systems.

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2) All outdoor air systems
Sometimes all outdoor air is supplied in ambient
for the following reasons: a) to obtain better indoor
air quality, b) due to the particular application, c)
because recirculation air is treated by traditional
systems (for example, fan-coil), d) because the
potential saving due to thermal and moisture
conditions of the return air is estimated to be
greater with an HTX on exhaust air rather than with
recirculation. In Fig. 4 two possible system
configurations are shown, while in Table 3 some
features of the main configurations presented in
literature are reported. The following can be
noticed2:
a) for the reactivation, some systems use return
air stream (“ventilation mode” or “ventilation
cycle” or “Pennington cycle”, Fig. 4a), while
others use outdoor air (“make-up mode”, Fig.
4b);
b) some configurations employ energy recovery
systems (rotating or static heat recuperator,
heat wastes);
c) some configurations [24-Fig.63,30,59] present
a pre-cooling coil upstream the desiccant
wheel, so it is possible to obtain a first
dehumidification of the outdoor air, even for
coil surface temperature values not too low
(for example, with chilled water at 10-15°C),
to improve the wheel performance and to
reduce the outlet process air temperature;
d) sometimes a humidifier on process side is
downstream the desiccant wheel [51,60]: this
apparent contradiction is explained by the fact
that in some conditions the wheel could
dehumidify too much with respect to the
actual needs, despite the presence of a
regulation system; such observation is valid
also for some all-recirculation air [59] and
partial recirculation air [61] systems;
e) the system proposed in [62] combines radiant
cooling system (chilled ceiling) and desiccant
dehumidification, in order to achieve
independent humidity and temperature control,
as suggested in [63]. The plant is composed
by two systems: a primary air system, with a
DW, which guarantees the required outdoor
air flow, balances the latent load and part of
the sensible load, and a chilled ceiling system
which balances the remaining sensible load;
f) the configurations proposed by Schibuola
[51,59,64,65] refer only to the primary air
treatment in air-and-water systems; the
regulation system is also indicated: regulation
with by-pass on process air and on
reactivation air [59,64], regulation of
reactivation air temperature [51,65].
3) Partial recirculation air systems
In Fig. 5 a possible system configuration is shown,
while in Table 4 some features of the main
configurations reported in literature are presented.
It can be noticed that it is possible to further
classify partial recirculation air systems based on
different criteria: according to whether outdoor air
or return air is used for regeneration; according to
the energy recovery system chosen (rotating or
static heat recuperator, recovery of thermal wastes,
no thermal recovery); according to whether DW
dehumidifies the whole mixture of outdoor air and
recirculation air (“closed cycle”) or only outdoor
air fraction (“open cycle”) [57], so it is possible to
use a smaller DW. We speak of “mixed mode” [66]
when both reactivation air and process air are
composed by a mixing of outdoor and indoor air.

Fig. 4: All outside hybrid system: (a) ventilation mode, (b) make-up mode

____________________________
2 Considerations reported in b), c), d) are substantially valid also for all and partial recirculation air systems (points 1
and 3).

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Relief air to
outdoors
ro rg xl
To
outdoors
Regeneration
heater
e dw
Outdoor air
(ventilation air)
Desiccant Sensible heat
recovery
Outdoor air wheel
(economizer)
Fig. 5: Post-cool sensible relief air heat exchanger (with or without evaporative cooler)
4. THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS
FOR A PARTIAL RECIRCULATION
AIR HYBRID SYSTEM
In the technical literature energy comparisons
between some of the above-mentioned system
configurations are reported [7], but none of them
has resulted strongly better than the others,
depending the comparison on many parameters,
such as the heat exchangers (IEC, DEC, HTX)
efficiency. However, it can be observed a
significant energy saving with respect to traditional
air systems. Therefore, a comparison, only
referring to operating costs, between traditional air
system with CC dehumidification and hybrid air
system with DW is presented.
The comparison has been carried out by means of
DesiCalcTM software tool [24].
DesiCalc™ provides the capability to compare
operating energy costs of a traditional HVAC
system with respect to an hybrid system with DW.
A total of 11 building templates are provided in the
software (supermarket, movie theatre, retail store,
hospital,…) and a set of 236 U.S. weather data sites
are available to represent a wide range of climatic
locations; the version of DesiCalc™ utilised for
this study was integrated with TRY climatic data
[25] of 10 Italian sites. DesiCalc™ is able to
evaluate solutions including reheat systems,
enthalpy wheels, heat recovery and, obviously,
desiccant wheels. It is possible to insert energy
price data, together with a wide variety of
parameters relative to occupancy, lights and
equipment thermal loads, with full user access to
customize rates for any location. The tool employs
a simple Windows™ interface over the DOE-2.1E;
default input values are available to help the user.
It is important to observe that DesiCalc™
represents a desiccant system screening tool rather
than a design tool. It is a tool flexible enough to
evaluate a variety of commercially available
desiccant systems, so complex design parameters
are not present in DesiCalc™ ’s user input. As a
result, most of the application and equipment
202
Evaporative
cooler
Return from Return fan
r space
Conditioned
Supply fan space
hx m - +
s r
- +
CC HC Humidifier
variables are fixed rather than user definable.
Therefore, while DesiCalc™ helps the user to
evaluate the competitive position of desiccant
system options versus alternative HVAC systems,
it does not provide results for a specific project, for
which the user has to perform a more detailed study,
using more complex software codes, such as DOE
[59].
In order to carry on an energetic comparison
between the traditional and the hybrid system with
DW, the following assumptions are considered in
DesiCalcTM:
• single-duct and constant air flow system (both
traditional and hybrid);
• outdoor air temperature and relative humidity
change each hour, assuming, for Italian sites,
the TRY climatic file values;
• variable total thermal load during systems
operation;
• sometimes the latent load is such to require
re-heating for traditional system;
• desiccant wheel main features:
- desiccant material: silica gel;
- temperature of reactivation air entering
desiccant wheel: 250°F ≈ 121°C;
- regulation by variation of regeneration air
flow;
- variable ratio between process and
regeneration air flows;
- process air velocity in the wheel: 3.6 ms-1.
In Fig. 6 the traditional air system configuration is
reported: the system has been equipped with
enthalpy heat recuperator on exhaust air (“Base
system – enthalpy heat recovery”).
Among the hybrid air system configurations
implemented in DesiCalcTM, the following are
herein considered:
1) “Pre-cool enthalpy relief air heat exchanger”
(Fig. 7);
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2a) “Post-cool sensible relief air heat exchanger”
(Fig. 5 with disabled evaporative cooler); in
Fig. 8 qualitative air treatments on the
psychrometric chart are reported for a typical
Italian site in summer design conditions;
2b) “Post-cool sensible relief air heat exchanger
with evaporative cooler” (Fig. 5 with
evaporative cooler, on regeneration side,
enabled);
3a) “Post-cool sensible outdoor air heat
exchanger” (Fig. 9 with disabled evaporative
cooling); this configuration differs from that
reported in Fig. 5 because outdoor air is used
instead of return air on reactivation side;
3b) “Post-cool sensible outside air heat exchanger
with evaporative cooler” (Fig. 9 with
evaporative cooler, on reactivation side,
enabled).
For the above reported equipment configurations
an enthalpic economizer (linked to three coupled
dampers) is enabled, that varies the outdoor air
stream percentage: when outdoor air conditions
allow it, partial recirculation mode gives the place
to the temporary more convenient all-external air
mode.
The DesiCalcTM code assumes, both for the
traditional system and for the hybrid one, that CC
can be a chilled water or direct expansion coil: in
the first case the handling air unit is separated from
the refrigeration system (“Central plant”), in the
second there is a packaged direct expansion unit
(“Roof-top”)3.
In order to evaluate the possibility to use in Italy a
hybrid air conditioning system with DW, hourly
weather data derived from the European file [25]
TRY (“Test Reference Year”) and opportunely
processed4 [27] have been inserted in DesiCalcTM.
Italy is subdivided into 10 climatic zones
(considered approximately homogeneous)
identified by the name of a single city, for each of
them the hourly data of the main outdoor air
thermodynamic properties are provided.

Return from Return fan

Relief air space
to
outdoors

Conditioned
Supply fan space
Outdoor air

Enthalpy
CC HC Humidifier
wheel

Fig. 6: Base system – Enthalpy heat recovery

Relief air to Outdoor air

outdoors (ventilation) To outdoors Outdoor air

Regeneration
heater Conditioned
Enthalpy space
wheel Supply fan
Return fan - +
Return from
space
- +
Desiccant
wheel CC HC Humidifier
Outdoor air
(economizer)

Fig. 7: Pre-cool enthaply relief air heat exchanger

_______________________________
3 The term “Roof-top” refers to the position of the unit, generally on the building roof.
4 TRY file properties (TDB, R.H.) have been integrated with specific humidity, enthalpy, wet bulb temperature and
density. Furthermore the file format has been changed to fit DesiCalcTM requirements.

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Fig. 8: Psychrometric chart relating to the system in Fig. 5 (without evaporative cooler)

Outdoor air

Evaporative
cooler
Return from Return fan
To space
outdoors
Regeneration
heater
Conditioned
Supply fan space
Outdoor air
(ventilation air)

Desiccant Sensible heat

wheel recovery CC HC Humidifier
outdoor air
(economizer)

Fig. 9: Post-cool sensible outside air heat exchanger (with or without evaporative cooler)

5. OBTAINABLE ENERGETIC AND • mean seasonal COP of the refrigeration plant:

ECONOMIC SAVINGS WITH 3 for the traditional system, 4 for the hybrid
RESPECT TO A TRADITIONAL AIR one;
CONDITIONING SYSTEM • summer post-heating (for the traditional
system), regeneration air heating (for the
In order to evaluate system operating costs and hybrid system) and winter heating (for both
savings, besides the 5 hypotheses made in section 4, the systems) by means of gas-fired heater with
the following assumptions have been considered: mean seasonal effectiveness equal to 80%;
• gas-powered steam humidifier;
• air-cooled condenser of the refrigeration plant, • presence of an enthalpic economizer, formerly
without condensation heat recovery; described;
• heat-exchanger efficiency: 70%;

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• electric energy unitary mean cost refers to the
present time-dependent electric energy rates
in force in Italian cities;
• gas unitary mean cost refers to the present
rates in force in Italian cities;
• primary energy equivalences: for electric
energy, 0.23⋅10-3 tep correspond to 1 kWh; for
gaseous fuel, 0.0232 tep correspond to 1
MBtu (≅ 1055 MJ);
• design outdoor thermal and moisture
conditions for each site:
- DB 1% - MCWB (Dry Bulb temperature 1% -
Mean Coincident Wet Bulb temperature) for
the traditional system, DP 1% - MCDB (Dew
Point temperature 1% - Mean Coincident Dry
Bulb temperature) for the hybrid system;
• design indoor thermal and moisture conditions:
- in winter: Tdb ≈ 20°C, R.H. = minimum 40%;
in summer: Tdb ≈ 26°C, R.H. = maximum 60%;
• main features of the retail store application:
- lighting and other electric loads: 13 Wm-2 and
9 Wm-2 (optimised values for high energy
efficiency buildings);
- occupancy level (from Italian standard UNI
10339): 0.25 persons/m2;
- outdoor air flow (from Italian standard UNI
10339): 6.5 l/(s⋅person);
- infiltrations: 0.3 exchanges/hour;
• main features of the theatre application:
- lighting and other electric loads: 11 Wm-2 and
22 Wm-2;
- occupancy level (from Italian standard UNI
10339): 1.5 persons/m2;
- outdoor air flow (from Italian standard UNI
10339): 5.5 l/(s⋅person);
- infiltrations: 0.1 exchanges/hour.
With these assumptions, for retail store and theatre
applications, yearly energy consumption and
operating total costs for traditional (TS) and hybrid
systems have been evaluated (Tables 5-11). Also
displayed in these tables are: i) the attainable
savings (RC), also in terms of primary energy (RE),
expressed as a percentage with respect to the
traditional system; ii) the comprehensive required
electric power (P); iii) the number of yearly hours
during which the system is not able to keep an
indoor R.H. less or equal to 60%, also expressed in
percentage with respect to the yearly total.
In particular, for retail store application (Tables 5-8)
4 Italian sites are considered and, for each case,
two different air-conditioned building sizes are
examined: the tables refer to a retail store of 4,600
m2 (case of time-independent electric energy rates)
and to 14,000 m2 (time-dependent electric energy
International Journal on Architectural Science
rates). The reported values refer to the retail store
of 4,600 m2 while, in the rows showing the
percentage savings in terms of operating costs or
primary energy, the values relative to 14,000 m2
appear in brackets. The greatest annual savings
attainable using the hybrid system are obtained
with the “Pre-cool enthalpy relief air heat
exchanger” configuration (Fig. 7), in the central
plant case, reaching values around 22%. For the
site of Foggia, less humid, the savings are lower
(maximum about 16%), while for Trapani,
particularly wet, the number of yearly hours during
which the traditional system does not well control
indoor R.H. is greater. It can be also noted that the
hybrid system, unlike the traditional one, perfectly
controls in every conditions indoor R.H.. Besides,
the required comprehensive electric power is
reduced for the hybrid system, up to 30%.
Table 9 refers to a theatre of 1,200 m2 with climatic
conditions of Rome (time-independent electric
energy rates, gas rates for great tertiary users). The
obtainable savings are greater with respect to retail
store, between 23% and 38%. The savings attain
about 38% both for “Post-cool sensible relief air
heat exchanger with evaporative cooler”
configuration (Fig. 5 with evaporative cooler, on
regeneration side, enabled), and for “Post-cool
sensible outdoor air heat exchanger with
evaporative cooler” configuration (Fig. 9 with
evaporative cooler, on regeneration side, enabled),
both in roof-top case. Anyway, for all the system
configurations, with roof-top option, savings
greater than 35% are attained. Primary energy
savings are close to those relative to operating costs.
Also the reduction of the required comprehensive
electric power is greater, particularly in the case of
central plant (reductions of about 44-50%). With
regard to discomfort hours, conclusions similar to
the previous case are valid.
Finally, for the same theatre application, Tables 10
and 11 show how savings obtainable using hybrid
system increase (up to a maximum of about 45%)
when occupancy level (Table 10) and required
outdoor air flow rates per person (Table 11)
increase. Referring to the “Roof-top post-cool
sensible relief air exchanger with evaporative
cooler” system, more detailed results are displayed
in Fig. 10. The economic savings RC versus the
external air flow rate are plotted in Fig. 10 using
the occupancy level as a parameter. It is
noteworthy to observe the sharp increase of RC
with the external air flow rate, particularly for the
more common occupancy level. Such trend
confirms the suitability of the hybrid system in
handling high latent loads due to the increase of
required external flow rate and occupancy level.
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The results of Tables 5-11 also show a considerable possible system configurations in order to get
spread of RC with the hybrid system configuration. maximum savings.
Since such RC variations do not exhibit a definite
trend, it is recommended to analyse the different

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6. CONCLUSIONS regeneration and of the total required energy, and

permit heat waste exploitation. This subject needs
Referring to operating costs and by means of further investigation, which will be developed also
DesiCalcTM software tool, in this paper traditional utilising both more complex commercially
air system and various hybrid air system with available software tools, such as DOE, and self-
desiccant wheel configurations have been developed software tools.
compared, in order to evaluate attainable annual
savings, for Italian climates and for some typical
applications. With this aim a file containing ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
European hourly climatic data, TRY, has been
utilised and opportunely processed. The authors would like to thank Michael Witte for
his information about DesiCalcTM.
For retail store application, for four Italian cities,
the configuration with process air pre-cooling
upstream the desiccant wheel (“Pre-cool enthalpy NOMENCLATURE
relief air heat exchanger”) is the most profitable
and maximum savings of about 22% have been TRY test reference year
obtained with respect to the corresponding IEC indirect evaporative cooling
traditional system. DEC direct evaporative cooling
DW desiccant wheel
For theatre application, for Rome, obtainable DWHS desiccant wheel hybrid system
savings are greater and have been evaluated HTX heat recuperator
between 23% and 43%. CC cooling coil
HC heating coil
For both the applications, the required TS traditional system
comprehensive electric power is reduced (up to TDB dry bulb temperature of the humid air, °C
about 55%) with respect to the traditional air R.H. relative humidity of the humid air, %
system; besides, the number of yearly hours during ω specific humidity of the humid air, gv/kga
which the traditional system does not well control e external air point on psychrometric chart
indoor relative humidity is much greater with r recirculation air point on psychrometric
respect to the hybrid system. chart
s supply air point on psychrometric chart
The following conclusions can be drawn: Ct operating cost of the traditional system, $
Ch operating cost of the hybrid system with
• energy savings obtainable using hybrid DW, $
systems with desiccant wheel depend on: RC = (Ct – Ch)/Ct ⋅100 = economic saving in
- climatic conditions of the considered site; utilising hybrid system with respect to
- system configuration; traditional one, %
RE primary energy saving in utilising hybrid
- latent loads due to external air flow rate and system with respect to traditional one, %
occupancy level; P required electric power, kW
- utilised desiccant wheel performance;
• economic savings significantly depend on the Subscripts
local electric energy and gas fares, strongly r recirculation air
variable from nation to nation and, with e external air
regard to gas, also from city to city. a dry air
v vapour contained in humid air
Starting cost of the hybrid system with desiccant
wheel is generally greater with respect to the
traditional system, so a cost-benefit analysis is
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