Workaround for Modelling Desiccant Wheel?

[rileybeise]

Hello all,

I'm attempting to model a desiccant wheel with the air to air energy recovery object. It sort of works... but I don't have a lot of confidence in the modelled performance. If anyone has also attempted this and has any thoughts please let me know.

My general approach is to use a dummy cooling coil on the wheel regen airstream to get the OA as dry as possible, heating it back up to about OA temp, then heating it to the actual regen temp, and then passing it through an air to air energy recovery object that has the process air stream on the other side. The energy recovery object has 100% latent efficiency, and a small (~5%?) sensible efficiency, to represent the heat from the regenerated wheel entering the process air stream.

I really wish IES VE had a proper desiccant wheel object, would be very useful for ice rinks, laboratories, and other specialty applications that are really not that uncommon. Energy Plus has it....

Cheers,