Evaluation of simple evaporative cooling systems in an industrial building in Poland

Abstract The use of evaporative cooling in industrial buildings is becoming increasingly popular nowadays. However, there is a lack of detailed and sufficient evaluation in the literature of simple evaporative cooling systems used in this type of buildings, particularly in the climate of Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, this article evaluates evaporative cooling (EC) systems for an assumed industrial building located in Poland using the TRNSYS 17 software. The analysis of six systems located in four Polish cities (Koszalin, Lublin, Suwalki and Wroclaw) was carried out. Simple EC systems using both direct and indirect evaporative cooling were assessed. The systems were evaluated in terms of the number of hours that each system does not reach the room air temperature setpoint (TTF), electricity and water consumption and the seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP). The results have shown that the largest number of the TTF hours is for systems located in Lublin and the smallest in Koszalin. Depending on the analysed system, the number of the TTF hours is for Koszalin and Lublin from 178 h to 611 h and from 429 h to 1194 h, respectively. By generalizing the results, EC systems have the potential to save energy in the climate of Poland. Out of the analysed systems, the S5 system, which uses both direct and indirect evaporative cooling and only outside air for humidifying, has the greatest potential for use. It was also found that systems using outside air for humidifying instead of exhaust air reach higher energy efficiency and lower indoor air temperature more.