Meeting thermal comfort in buildings with high latent loads requires the treatment of the air humidity with specific technologies. Desiccant based systems have proved to be effective in removing ventilation latent load in heating-ventilation and air conditioning systems. Typically, desiccant based systems are part of the air-handling units, which control both temperature and humidity. Based on the above, this paper presents an innovative solution designed to be integrated in the building envelope. It consists of a honeycomb desiccant block placed inside a ventilated façade. The regeneration of the desiccant material is carried out by a solar air collector, which is also integrated in the façade. The aim of the system is to dehumidify the ventilation air before entering the air-handling unit using the façade as an active element of the system. The solution is built at a pilot scale and tested under Mediterranean climate conditions. The experimental tests lead to a numerical model implemented in TRNSYS. This model is used to evaluate the performance of the solution in an office building comparing with a conventional cooling coil system, the conventional alternative. Results show that, under Mediterranean climate, the desiccant façade ensures a humidity comfort greater than 92% in neutral supply air conditions (26 °C and 50%). Under the same neutral conditions, conventional systems can only achieve this level of comfort by supplying colder air in order to force the condensation of the air in the cooling coil, which entails an energy consumption increase of 29%. Last, results confirm that the desiccant façade leads to lower energy consumption in both Mediterranean and Subtropical climates while conventional systems are more appropriate in cold semi-arid climates.

要在高潜在负荷的建筑物中满足热舒适性，就需要使用特定技术来处理空气湿度。事实证明，基于干燥剂的系统可有效消除供热通风和空调系统中的通风潜负荷。通常，基于干燥剂的系统是控制温度和湿度的空气处理单元的一部分。基于上述，本文提出了一种创新的解决方案，旨在集成到建筑物围护结构中。它由放置在通风立面内的蜂窝状干燥剂块组成。干燥剂材料的再生由太阳能空气收集器完成，该空气收集器也集成在立面上。该系统的目的是使用立面作为系统的主动元件，在进入空气处理单元之前对通风空气进行除湿。该解决方案以试点规模构建，并在地中海气候条件下进行了测试。实验测试导致在TRNSYS中实现的数值模型。与传统的冷却盘管系统（传统的替代方案）相比，该模型用于评估办公楼中解决方案的性能。结果表明，在地中海气候下，干燥的立面可确保在中性送风条件（26°C和50％）下的湿度舒适度大于92％。在相同的中性条件下，常规系统只能通过提供较冷的空气以迫使空气在冷却盘管中凝结来达到这种舒适度，这将使能耗增加29％。持续，