Measuring and modeling the performance of energy recovery devices is difficult and, in some cases, may result in unacceptably high uncertainties. In this paper, controlled laboratory experiments and a detailed numerical model are presented, which, together with uncertainty analysis, can quantify the performance of energy wheels. A numerical model that has been developed from physical principles and an experimental method for determining the performance of energy wheels with acceptable uncertainties are detailed. Included is a pre-test, during-test, and post-test uncertainty analysis that allows the experimenter to estimate accurately precision (random) and bias (fixed) errors a priori, during, and a posteriori each experiment using energy and mass balances on the air-to-air energy recovery device as well as the characteristics of each instrument and the data acquisition system. A comprehensive set of measured data for the sensible, latent, and total effectiveness of an energy wheel is compared with the corresponding simulation results in Part II of this paper (Simonson et al. 1999).

Units: SI