EVAPORATIVE COOLING TECHNOLOGY EFFICIENCY COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL COOLING SYSTEM - CASE STUDY

The aim of the paper is to analyse evaporative cooling technologies used in the cooling system and to compare their energy efficiency with traditional cooling systems. Heating and cooling is the most significant energy end-use sector, accounting for about 40 % of total energy demand in the EU. The Member States must achieve cumulative end-use energy savings equivalent to new savings of 0.8 % from final energy consumption in the period and beyond. Therefore, the EU forces buildings and industries to shift to efficient, decarbonized energy systems based on renewable energy sources. The estimated number of cooling systems in Europe will double by 2030. The analysed data set provides results that show how energy efficient the evaporative cooling systems are. The results of this paper show that it is possible to improve the cooling system energy efficiency by using evaporative cooling. The results show that the chiller EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio) can be improved by up to 63 % using the cooling tower. EER is 3.0 of the chiller with a water-cooled condenser - the dry cooler; 3.9 of the chiller with an air-cooled condenser and 4.9 of the chiller with a water-cooled condenser - the cooling tower. Indirect evaporative cooling for air handling units improves EER by 67 % compared when used without indirect evaporative cooling. EER is 4.3of the air handling unit without indirect evaporative cooling and 7.2 with indirect evaporative cooling. Indirect evaporative cooling is the right way how to increase energy efficiency and minimise carbon footprint by using renewable energy in new and existing air conditioning systems.