Pilot-scale experimental study of an innovative low-energy and low-cost cooling system for buildings

Highlights: • A new low-cost low-energy cooling system for buildings is described. • The system uses evaporation cooling, ground cooling and radiation cooling. • A pilot-scale experimental study of the system, installed on a real house, is conducted. • The system allowed a good thermal comfort during the experimental period. • A high COP of 20.8 is recorded during the summer months of experimentation. -- Abstract: An experimental study of an innovative low-energy and low-cost cooling system for buildings is presented. To achieve low-energy use, this cooling system simultaneously makes use of three available heat sinks: the ground, evaporation of water and radiation to the sky. This simple, inexpensive and energy-saving system was installed on a single-family 100-m² house in Bordeaux (South-West of France) and tested during summer 2015. On the test sequence presented (10–25 August), this system dissipated an average of 8.5 kWh day⁻¹ of heat from the building, with a maximum of 19.3 kWh. This energy was dissipated mainly into the ground and crawl space (4.5 kWh day⁻¹) and by evaporation and radiative cooling (4.7 kWh day⁻¹). The system COP over the period was 19 and it maintained an inside air temperature under 27 °C even during warm summer days, with approximately 42 L day⁻¹ water consumption.