Experimental investigation of two-stage indirect/direct evaporative cooling system in various climatic conditions

Cooling performance of two-stage indirect/direct evaporative cooling system is experimentally investigated in the various simulated climatic conditions. For this purpose, a two-stage evaporative cooling experimental setup consisting of an indirect evaporative cooling stage (IEC) followed by a direct evaporative cooling stage (DEC) was designed, constructed and tested. Due to the wide variety of climatic conditions in Iran, two air simulators were provided to simulate outdoor design condition of different cities in primary and secondary air streams. Results show that under various outdoor conditions, the effectiveness of IEC stage varies over a range of 55-61% and the effectiveness of IEC/DEC unit varies over a range of 108-111%. Aspects of achieving comfort conditions and power saving have been investigated with related excess water consumption. Considering the evaporative comfort zone, this system can provide comfort condition in a vast region in Iran where direct evaporative alone is not able to provide summer comfort condition. More than 60% power saving could be obtained by this system in comparison with mechanical vapor compression systems with just 55% increase in water consumption with respect to direct evaporative cooling systems. This system can fill the gap between direct evaporative cooling systems and mechanical vapor compression systems as an energy efficient and environmentally clean alternate. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.