Heat Pump Applications in Dedicated Outside Air Systems (DOAS)
This paper deals with application of a heat pump as a part of the dedicated outside air system (DOAS) unit. DOAS systems are known to provide the energy cost savings by dehumidifying the fresh ventilating air in conjunction with the energy and heat recovery systems and also in parallel with the sensible cooling system. The energy cost savings associated with these systems results from operating the sensible cooling systems at higher evaporating temperatures which results in a higher coefficient of performance for the sensible chiller, lower pumping costs and lower capital costs. It is found that the operation of DOAS unit with the radiant panel cooling systems raises the energy cost savings even more significantly. Using hourly weather data, the energy cost saving analysis is performed for several geographical locations and estimated cost savings exceed well above 30 percent of the corresponding commercial building operational costs using the traditional VAV systems for most of the locations in USA.