Economical comparison of comfort ventilation and air conditioning plants.

Continuously rising energy costs, the demand for reduction of CO2-emission and theprohibition of CFC-containing refrigerants create a base for new concepts of air-conditioning(A/C) systems. A primary action must be the prevention of heat consumption and cooling loadby improvement of the building architecture. Additional the efficiency of the A/C process mustbe improved, in order to reduce the energy input.In most cases the target is to replace the dehumidification process, which normally is realizedby refrigerating cycles, by alternative systems. The air dehumidification by cooling the airbelow the dew point involves a high energy consumption.The paper treats three different A/C systems for non industrial buildings. The task has been theeconomic evaluation of the air-conditioning plants and the demonstration of the differentenergy demand. Referring to the expected costs of the A/C systems the price of a newdehumidification unit, which is developed at the university of Essen (see figure 3), has beendeterminated. The results show that a higher price of the new system can be equalized bylower energy costs.