SPARK

Using solar thermal energy is an interesting option for heat driven air conditioning e.g. desiccant cooling, but it is very important to know with which efficiency this renewable energy is used. In this paper a solar installation of direct flow vacuum tube collectors dedicated for desiccant cooling is investigated. First a model of the mentioned collectors is presented and implemented into the simulation environment SPARK then it is validated experimentally. After, simulations of autonomous operations are run and the global efficiency is calculated.

In this paper the performance of a desiccant cooling system was evaluated. The system comprises a desiccant wheel in tandem with a thermal wheel with evaporative coolers in both air supply and return air streams before the thermal wheel. It allows cooling and dehumidifying air without using conventional refrigerants. A computer simulation was developed to study the effects of various designs and outdoor air conditions on the performance of the system. The simulations were run with SPARK, an object oriented program that allows creation of very flexible tools.