Performance Control of a Spray Passive Down-Draft Evaporative Cooling System

A spray passive down-draft evaporative cooling system has been regarded as a low-energy cooling system that leads significant energy savings in the cooling of buildings. While the energy saving capability of the system has been proven, the ability to control a comfortable indoor environment is still inadequate due to strong climatic dependency. This study seeks viable solutions to advance the control competence of the system by mitigating critical problems of the system to be a reliable cooling application in the cooling of buildings. It proposes potential control strategies for the system and alternative operations. It develops a control algorithm for the proposed control strategies and implements the algorithm in EnergyPlus. A simulation analysis follows to examine the functionality of each proposed control strategy and alternative operations. The results of the simulations ascertain that a spray PDEC system with a water flow control performs better. In addition, a spray PDEC system contributes most when it operates as a secondary cooling system to abate space cooling loads and to maintain a steady thermal environment by reducing 62.1% electricity for space cooling and 47.9% water consumption in a warm-moderate climate