Adaptable Cooling Coil under Diverse Load Conditions for Tropical Buildings

Many buildings are overcooled due to oversizing of cooling coils based on peak load conditions and anticipation of increased heat loads in the future. Insufficient, and indeed practically no adaptation for optimized operation under such conditions have been incorporated. In addition to occupant discomfort due to overcooling, such oversized cooling coils also leads to energy inefficiency and compromised ventilation and humidity at part loads.

The “Adaptable Coil” can dynamically reconfigure its water circuiting and face area for contact with airstreams, thus optimizing sensible cooling and latent dehumidification simultaneously across the diversity of loads. Further performance enhancement is achieved by decoupling dehumidification from sensible cooling. The adaptable coil concept is a cost effective solution ideally suited for both new and retrofit buildings. This project develops the pilot simulation work on adaptable coils into a full-scale technology development and demonstration as in a laboratory testbed.