| Even though desiccant dehumidification has been used for many years, it is still fighting to reach a good position in the commercial area. In order to increase awareness of desiccant technology, this study provides a comparison of energy cost between conventional systems and desiccant enhanced systems. The comparison includes the analysis of energy costs and usages for different applications and several locations. DesiCalc was used to generate the data in this work. It was found that humid and hot cities favor the used of desiccant systems. But in some cities with cool weather, desiccant systems show advantages over conventional systems. The analyses of the energy cost as a function of the building type shows that the best applications for desiccant enhanced systems are schools, retail stores, and large hotels. Parameters such as ASHRAE design temperatures and latitude cannot be used as general indicators of the benefits of cost savings using desiccant enhanced systems. |
