An independent field research effort co-funded bythe Gas Research Institute and The U.S. Departmentof Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory isdocumenting the performance and energy usagecharacteristics of active desiccant-integrated HVACsystems at a variety of commercial and institutionalfacilities. The tests comprise the instrumentation andone-year-plus monitoring of two or more nearlyidentical sites, one serving as the test site and theothers as base-case or control sites.While the research program is ongoing, workcompleted in two market sectors, retail and lodging,indicates that there are significant comfort control,energy usage and equipment efficiency benefits to bederived from integrating desiccant units into HVACsystem design to handle latent and sensible loadsindependently. In some cases, installed first costsassociated with including desiccant units may belower if the HVAC system is optimized to takeadvantage of reduced conventional coolingequipment requirements and downsized ductwork Inmost cases, lower energy consumption and/orreduced energy costs may provide reasonablepayback of first cost premiums.
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