SET Proceedings 2978-4387 Caravel Press 10.65582/set.2008.126 2008.126 Experimental evaluation of a novel combined Wind catcher - indirect evaporative cooling System for cooling application in buildings ElzaidabiA. A. laxae1@nottingham.ac.uk OmerS. A. RiffatS. B. Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology, School of the Built Environment, the University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK 24082008 7 1 978-1-995850-08-5 952 958 24 August 2008 © 2008 Copyright WSSET 2008

This paper presents results of an experiment conducted to investigate the performance of a newly developed air cooling system comprising a Psychometric Energy Core (PEC), cooling unit assisted wind catcher technology. A laboratory unit of the combined system was designed and constructed using a wind catcher and a PEC unit. The purpose of the wind catcher is to assist air flow in and out of the PEC unit. This is achieved using a double concentric hallow ducting system; an outer large circular duct for fresh air supply and a smaller central duct to allow exhaust air from the PEC to exit the system. A series of tests were conducted using a wind tunnel, in order to assess the performance of the system under varying wind speed and ambient temperature. Results of the tests show that, the system has a potential of operation passively without a support of a fan under certain wind speeds. A fan would be required at very low wind speed to overcome the pressure drop through the PEC core channels.

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