Simulation and study of energy performance of membrane based Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) in air-conditioning systems for hot and humid climate

• Main Author: Teo, Yong Siang.
• Other Authors: Wong Yew Wah
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Energy conservation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54142
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Air conditioning accounts for approximately 50% of the power consumption of most buildings. Singapore being a highly urbanized city, air conditioning is widely used throughout the entire island. Together with the hot and humid climate, air conditioning has become a norm. Any opportunity to reduce the energy usage should be looked into. One of the major loads of the air conditioning is from the conditioning of the outdoor air to be supplied for ventilation requirement. Furthermore good indoor air environment is required to enhance the productivity and maintain good health condition of occupants. This project studies the feasibility of using a membrane-based type of energy recovery ventilator (ERV) in a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) for hot and humid climate condition to reduce the cooling load and the energy consumption of cooling equipment. Typical DOAS unit would include an enthalpy wheel (EW) and this project try to find out if a membrane-based unit would provide similar or better energy recovery performance in reducing the cooling load of the chiller. The project compares 3 different DOAS configurations with a conventional constant air volume (CAV) system used to cool a lecture theatre which has a high outdoor air requirement. All 3 DOAS configuration are modelled with the membrane-based ERV in different configuration and is compared to observe which configuration will be able to provide the best configuration when work with a membrane based ERV DOAS system as well as its feasibility of its application in hot and humid climate such as in Singapore.