SOLAR DESICCANT COOLING FOR SUBTROPICAL HONG KONG

In the urban areas under a subtropical climate, a solar desiccant cooling (SDC) system is effective to provide full fresh air for cooling purpose, as well as to achieve a good indoor air quality in the building zone. In the small-and medium-scale applications, A SDC system has lower year-round primary energy consumption than the conventional vapour compression refrigeration. The sustainable incentive can be further advanced by applying appropriate design strategies. The first strategy is to hybridise a SDC system with other types of solar-thermally driven refrigeration, like absorption or adsorption refrigeration. The primary energy consumption can be greatly reduced with the use of return air and the effective handling of the building sensible and latent load independently. Another design strategy is to adopt high temperature cooling in which the absorption or adsorption refrigeration supply chilled water to support radiant ceiling cooling in the building zone. The primary energy consumption can be further cut down without sacrificing the thermal comfort. In the context of sustainable urbanisation, solar air-conditioning has opened a door to realise low carbon emission for buildings.