Life Cycle Cost and Payback Period for Adopting Evaporative Cooling Systems in the Taiwanese Textile Industry

Greenhouse gas emissions and energy controls of industrial activities have become a main focus of the Taiwanese government, and because the cost of electricity is rising rapidly nowadays, adopting energy conservation measures to achieve cost savings and sustainable operation is essential for industries. In the textile industry, the energy consumption of A/C systems is second only to that of the manufacturing equipment. This study presents the life cycle costs and payback period by replacing old A/C systems with evaporative cooling systems. Based on the analysis, this study concludes that with evaporative cooling systems using only 10% to 15% of the energy used by A/C systems, the average payback period is less than 0.25 years despite the low electricity tariff in Taiwan. This suggests that for either the short term or the long term, evaporative cooling systems are an economical measure for the textile industry.