Investigation on air-conditioning load profile and energy consumption of desiccant cooling system for commercial buildings in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, conventional air-conditioning (AC) systems cause a high energy consumption and poor indoor thermal comfort. This paper investigated the AC load profiles of three typical local commercial buildings, i.e. office, hotel and retail, and examined the energy consumption of liquid desiccant cooling system (LDCS) for these buildings. Simulation results showed that the cooling load contributed to more than 98% of total annual load, with high latent load proportion from March to September. The high reheating ratio, i.e. from 60% to 90%, is found to be the main reason for the poor thermal comfort. Therefore, the LDCS which could handle sensible and latent loads separately was proposed. However, the electricity-driven LDCS was found not suitable for local commercial buildings. significant energy saving could be achieved by the solar-assisted LDCS system with thermal storage, when the installation area for solar collectors is larger than the minimum required one, i.e. 9.7 m2/(kW m−2) for office and 12.7 m2/(kW m−2) for hotel buildings. Energy saving of different system types with different installation areas was also studied. The solar-assisted LDCS shows more energy saving in winter but less in summer. Results and conclusions can be useful for researchers and local engineers.

► We investigated air-conditioning load profiles of commercial buildings in Hong Kong.
► We simulated energy consumption of liquid desiccant cooling system in these buildings.
► Cooling dominates in total load, and dehumidification load is high from March to September.
► Solar-assisted LDCS with thermal storage provides promising energy saving potential.
► Min area of solar collector for LDCS is 9.7 for office, 12.7 m2/(kW m−2) for hotel.