The techno-economic performance of a centrally air-conditioned classroom complex located in a hot and humid climate is evaluated. The system consists of an enthalpy wheel for total energy recovery and a desiccant wheel for humidity control. The system performance over the summer months is evaluated using TRNSYS software. The coil cooling load with and without the energy recovery system is estimated. Results show that due to the need for a large amount of outdoor air for ventilation, the use of energy recovery wheel reduces the cooling load by about 17% as compared to the system without energy recovery. Results show that for the applications considered in the present study, the system with energy recovery is economically attractive. The payback period of energy recovery based cooling system with constant enthalpy wheel effectiveness is found to be 6.7 years. The proposed study is expected to be useful in establishing the economic viability of energy recovery systems for buildings equipped with large air conditioning systems.