Annual performance of liquid desiccant based independent humidity control HVAC system

Based on a new type of sprayed liquid desiccant total heat recovery device, this paper presents the working principle of a liquid desiccant system combined refrigeration/heat grid system with the independent humidity control (IHC) strategy, in which the liquid desiccant system operates annually instead of only in the summer and removes the entire latent load and part of the sensible load. Electrical coefficient of performance (ECOP) and thermal coefficient of performance (TCOP) are adopted here to evaluate the performance of the IHC system. Reduced primary energy and operating cost differences of the IHC system and the conventional HVAC system are analyzed based on annual hour-by-hour simulation results for the Beijing climate. It is shown that (1) in summer, when the average latent load covers 30%, the average ECOP and TCOP of the IHC system are 6.7 and 6.8, primary energy consumption and operating cost are 78% and 75%, respectively, of the conventional HVAC system; and (2) in winter when average latent load covers 10%, the average TCOP of the IHC system is 1.34, primary energy consumption and operating cost are 62% and 57%, respectively, compared with the conventional system.