This work concerns an innovative solar assisted desiccant and evaporative cooling (DEC) system for building air conditioning. In this system, air-to-air packaged wet heat exchangers are used to maximize the exploitation of the evaporative cooling potential associated with the exhaust air stream. The thermodynamic cycle is first theoretically described, and then an example of a real application is shown. The system presented is an experimental DEC system originally installed at the beginning of 2008 at the Solar Laboratory of the University of Palermo and recently modified and updated. These modifications have been implemented with the aim to foster some problems related to the conventional indirect evaporative process and to increase the overall performance of the process. Different energy performance figures, such as thermal and electrical COP, are presented and discussed. The obtained results are very positive, showing that DEC systems can benefit from the use of wet heat exchangers to efficiently cool the air stream after the adsorption process in the desiccant wheel without any change in moisture content. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.