Thermal storage cooling tower for underground commercial building

A novel approach is proposed for underground commercial building to solve series environmental problems caused by cooling tower (CT) widely used. By setting packing materials above the underground pool, a new type heat and mass transfer device was developed to replace the traditional one. Meanwhile, the pool can be served as thermal storage tank to optimize the cooling system. Such a design was applied in a small underground commercial building in Shanghai City, and an experimental study was conducted. Results suggest that the approach can fulfill the requirements of cooling system, the volume of the packing materials can be reduced to an economical size, and the water in the pool can be cooled down 4degC during the recharging process of thermal store. The thermal storage function of the device is dependent on the diurnal change in t_wet, time-of-use (TOU) electricity rate schedule and volume of the pool. An energy use and cost comparison between two approaches shows the economical potential of the new one.