An air-conditioning system performance enhancement by using heat pipe based heat recovery technology

In the present study, the impact of Heat Pipe Based Heat Exchangers (HPHEX) on the performance of an air-conditioning system in a library building was investigated. According to the fieldwork study, the air conditions established by the existing system are not within the comfort zone recommended by the ASHRAE. Therefore, enhancing the performance of the existing system by adding HPHEX was studied. HPHEX with different numbers of rows were examined in the system to determine the proper configuration. TRNSYS software was used to investigate the hourly effect of HPHEX on the system in terms of provided air conditions and energy consumption. According to the results, the system behavior in terms of provided air conditions is appropriate and marginally inside the comfort area with the added eight-row HPHEX. In addition, it was shown that by adding HPHEX to the system, a significant amount of energy recovery could be achieved.