This study aims to simulate the flow and heat transfer through an air handling unit to reduce its energy consumption by a novel creative idea of using an air-to-air heat exchanger.
To do this, both first and second laws of thermodynamics energy and exergy balance equations were solved numerically by an appropriate developed computer code.
Using the air-to-air heat exchanger in dry conditions decreases the cooling coil load by 0.9 per cent, whereas the reduction for humid conditions is 27 per cent. Similarly, using air-to-air heat exchanger leads to an increase in the first law of efficiency in dry and humid conditions by 0.9 per cent and 36.8 per cent, respectively.
The second law of efficiency increases by 1.55 per cent and 2.77 per cent in dry and humid conditions, respectively. In other words, the effect of using an air-to-air heat exchanger in humid conditions is more than that in dry conditions.
