Thermodynamic behaviour of an airconditioning system employing combined evaporative-water and air coolers

The performance of an open absorption-system, energized by low-grade heat such as insolation and/or waste heat, has been investigated.This combined evaporative cooler (CEC) [i.e. an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) together with a direct evaporative-cooler (DEC)] was used to cool the air.A computer simulation of the cooling cycle was devised, so that the performance characteristics of the system could be predicted for a range of operating conditions: the influences of various design-parameters on the coefficient of performance (COP) were also evaluated.The COP of the CEC system was at least 20% greater than those achieved when employing either the IEC or DEC systems alone.