AIR CONDITIONING

AIR CONDITIONING

Air conditioning is a combined process that performs many functions simultaneously. It conditions the air, transports it, and introduces it to the conditioned space. It provides heating and cooling from its central plant or rooftop units. It also controls and maintains the temperature, humidity, air movement, air cleanliness, sound level, and pressure differential in a space within predetermined

limits for the comfort and health of the occupants of the conditioned space or for the purpose of product processing. The term HVAC&R is an abbreviation of heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigerating. The combination of processes in this commonly adopted term is equivalent to the current definition of air conditioning. Because all these individual component processes were developed prior to the more complete concept of air conditioning, the term HVAC&R is often used by the industry.

 COMFORT AND PROCESSING AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS

Air Conditioning Systems

 An air conditioning, or HVAC&R, system is composed of components and equipment arranged in sequence to condition the air, to transport it to the conditioned space, and to control the indoor environmental parameters of a specific space within required limits. Most air conditioning systems perform the following functions: 1. Provide the cooling and heating energy required 2. Condition the supply air, that is, heat or cool, humidify or dehumidify, clean and purify, and attenuate any objectionable noise produced by the HVAC&R equipment 3. Distribute the conditioned air, containing sufficient outdoor air, to the conditioned space 4. Control and maintain the indoor environmental parameters–such as temperature, humidity, cleanliness, air movement, sound level, and pressure differential between the conditioned space and surroundings—within predetermined limits Parameters such as the size and the occupancy of the conditioned space, the indoor environmental parameters to be controlled, the quality and the effectiveness of control, and the cost involved determine the various types and arrangements of components used to provide appropriate characteristics. Air conditioning systems can be classified according to their applications as (1) comfort air conditioning systems and (2) process air conditioning systems.

Comfort Air Conditioning Systems

Comfort air conditioning systems provide occupants with a comfortable and healthy indoor environment in which to carry out their activities. The various sectors of the economy using comfort air conditioning systems are as follows: 1. The commercial sector includes office buildings, supermarkets, department stores, shopping centers, restaurants, and others. Many high-rise office buildings, including such structures as the World Trade Center in New York City and the Sears Tower in Chicago, use complicated air conditioning systems to satisfy multiple-tenant requirements. In light commercial buildings, the air conditioning system serves the conditioned space of only a single-zone or comparatively smaller area. For shopping malls and restaurants, air conditioning is necessary to attract customers. 2. The institutional sector includes such applications as schools, colleges, universities, libraries, museums, indoor stadiums, cinemas, theaters, concert halls, and recreation centers. For example, one of the large indoor stadiums, the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, can seat 78,000 people. 3. The residential and lodging sector consists of hotels, motels, apartment houses, and private homes. Many systems serving the lodging industry and apartment houses are operated continuously, on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week schedule, since they can be occupied at any time. 4. The health care sector encompasses hospitals, nursing homes, and convalescent care facilities. Special air filters are generally used in hospitals to remove bacteria and particulates of submicrometer

size from areas such as operating rooms, nurseries, and intensive care units. The relative humidity in a general clinical area is often maintained at a minimum of 30 percent in winter. 5. The transportation sector includes aircraft, automobiles, railroad cars, buses, and cruising ships. Passengers increasingly demand ease and environmental comfort, especially for longdistance travel. Modern airplanes flying at high altitudes may require a pressure differential of about 5 psi between the cabin and the outside atmosphere. According to the Commercial Buildings Characteristics (1994), in 1992 in the United States, among 4,806,000 commercial buildings having 67.876 billion ft2 (6.31 billion m2 ) of floor area, 84.0 percent were cooled, and 91.3 percent were heated.

Process Air Conditioning Systems

Process air conditioning systems provide needed indoor environmental control for manufacturing, product storage, or other research and development processes. The following areas are examples of process air conditioning systems: 1. In textile mills, natural fibers and manufactured fibers are hygroscopic. Proper control of humidity increases the strength of the yarn and fabric during processing. For many textile manufacturing processes, too high a value for the space relative humidity can cause problems in the spinning process. On the other hand, a lower relative humidity may induce static electricity that is harmful for the production processes. 2. Many electronic products require clean rooms for manufacturing such things as integrated circuits, since their quality is adversely affected by airborne particles. Relative-humidity control is also needed to prevent corrosion and condensation and to eliminate static electricity. Temperature control maintains materials and instruments at stable condition and is also required for workers who wear dust-free garments. For example, a class 100 clean room in an electronic factory requires a temperature of 72 2°F (22.2 1.1°C), a relative humidity at 45 5 percent, and a count of dust particles of 0.5-m (1.97 10 5 in.) diameter or larger not to exceed 100 particles/ft3 (3531 particles/m3 ). 3. Precision manufacturers always need precise temperature control during production of precision instruments, tools, and equipment. Bausch and Lomb successfully constructed a constanttemperature control room of 68 0.1°F (20 0.56°C) to produce light grating products in the 1950s. 4. Pharmaceutical products require temperature, humidity, and air cleanliness control. For instance, liver extracts require a temperature of 75°F (23.9°C) and a relative humidity of 35 percent. If the temperature exceeds 80°F (26.7°C), the extracts tend to deteriorate. High-efficiency air filters must be installed for most of the areas in pharmaceutical factories to prevent contamination. 5. Modern refrigerated warehouses not only store commodities in coolers at temperatures of 27 to 32°F ( 2.8 to 0°C) and frozen foods at 10 to 20°F ( 23 to 29°C), but also provide relative-humidity control for perishable foods between 90 and 100 percent. Refrigerated storage is used to prevent deterioration. Temperature control can be performed by refrigeration systems only, but the simultaneous control of both temperature and relative humidity in the space can only be performed by process air conditioning systems. 

CLASSIFICATION OF AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS ACCORDING TO CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS  

Air conditioning systems can also be classified according to their construction and operating characteristics as follows.

Individual Room Air Conditioning Systems 

Individual room, or simply individual air conditioning systems employ a single, self-contained room air conditioner, a packaged terminal, a separated indoor-outdoor split unit, or a heat pump. A heat pump extracts heat from a heat source and rejects heat to air or water at a higher temperature for heating. Unlike other systems, these systems normally use a totally independent unit or units in each room. Individual air conditioning systems can be classified into two categories: ● Room air conditioner (window-mounted) ● Packaged terminal air conditioner (PTAC), installed in a sleeve through the outside wall The major components in a factory-assembled and ready-for-use room air conditioner include the following: An evaporator fan pressurizes and supplies the conditioned air to the space. In tubeand-fin coil, the refrigerant evaporates, expands directly inside the tubes, and absorbs the heat energy from the ambient air during the cooling season; it is called a direct expansion (DX) coil. When the hot refrigerant releases heat energy to the conditioned space during the heating season, it acts as a heat pump. An air filter removes airborne particulates. A compressor compresses the refrigerant from a lower evaporating pressure to a higher condensing pressure. A condenser liquefies refrigerant from hot gas to liquid and rejects heat through a coil and a condenser fan. A temperature control system senses the space air temperature (sensor) and starts or stops the compressor to control its cooling and heating capacity through a thermostat (refer to Chap. 26). The difference between a room air conditioner and a room heat pump, and a packaged terminal air conditioner and a packaged terminal heat pump, is that a four-way reversing valve is added to all room heat pumps. Sometimes room air conditioners are separated into two split units: an outdoor condensing unit with compressor and condenser, and an indoor air handler in order to have the air handler in a more advantageous location and to reduce the compressor noise indoors. Individual air conditioning systems are characterized by the use of a DX coil for a single room. This is the simplest and most direct way of cooling the air. Most of the individual systems do not employ connecting ductwork. Outdoor air is introduced through an opening or through a small air damper. Individual systems are usually used only for the perimeter zone of the building. 

Evaporative-Cooling Air Conditioning Systems

Evaporative-cooling air conditioning systems use the cooling effect of the evaporation of liquid water to cool an airstream directly or indirectly. It could be a factory-assembled packaged unit or a field-built system. When an evaporative cooler provides only a portion of the cooling effect, then it becomes a component of a central hydronic or a packaged unit system. An evaporative-cooling system consists of an intake chamber, filter(s), supply fan, direct-contact or indirect-contact heat exchanger, exhaust fan, water sprays, recirculating water pump, and water sump. Evaporative-cooling systems are characterized by low energy use compared with refrigeration cooling. They produce cool and humid air and are widely used in southwest arid areas in the United States.

Desiccant-Based Air Conditioning Systems

A desiccant-based air conditioning system is a system in which latent cooling is performed by desiccant dehumidification and sensible cooling by evaporative cooling or refrigeration. Thus, a considerable part of expensive vapor compression refrigeration is replaced by inexpensive evaporative cooling. A desiccant-based air conditioning system is usually a hybrid system of dehumidification, evaporative cooling, refrigeration, and regeneration of desiccant (refer to Chap. 29). There are two airstreams in a desiccant-based air conditioning system: a process airstream and a regenerative airstream. Process air can be all outdoor air or a mixture of outdoor and recirculating

air. Process air is also conditioned air supplied directly to the conditioned space or enclosed manufacturing process, or to the air-handling unit (AHU), packaged unit (PU), or terminal for further treatment. Regenerative airstream is a high-temperature airstream used to reactivate the desiccant. A desiccant-based air conditioned system consists of the following components: rotary desiccant dehumidifiers, heat pipe heat exchangers, direct or indirect evaporative coolers, DX coils and vapor compression unit or water cooling coils and chillers, fans, pumps, filters, controls, ducts, and piping.

Thermal Storage Air Conditioning Systems 

In a thermal storage air conditioning system or simply thermal storage system, the electricity-driven refrigeration compressors are operated during off-peak hours. Stored chilled water or stored ice in tanks is used to provide cooling in buildings during peak hours when high electric demand charges and electric energy rates are in effect. A thermal storage system reduces high electric demand for HVAC&R and partially or fully shifts the high electric energy rates from peak hours to off-peak hours. A thermal storage air conditioning system is always a central air conditioning system using chilled water as the cooling medium. In addition to the air, water, and refrigeration control systems, there are chilled-water tanks or ice storage tanks, storage circulating pumps, and controls..

Clean-Room Air Conditioning Systems

Clean-room or clean-space air conditioning systems serve spaces where there is a need for critical control of particulates, temperature, relative humidity, ventilation, noise, vibration, and space pressurization. In a clean-space air conditioning system, the quality of indoor environmental control directly affects the quality of the products produced in the clean space. A clean-space air conditioning system consists of a recirculating air unit and a makeup air unit—both include dampers, prefilters, coils, fans, high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, ductwork, piping work, pumps, refrigeration systems, and related controls except for a humidifier in the makeup unit.

Space Conditioning Air Conditioning Systems

Space conditioning air conditioning systems are also called space air conditioning systems. They have cooling, dehumidification, heating, and filtration performed predominately by fan coils, watersource heat pumps, or other devices within or above the conditioned space, or very near it. A fan coil consists of a small fan and a coil. A water-source heat pump usually consists of a fan, a finned coil to condition the air, and a water coil to reject heat to a water loop during cooling, or to extract heat from the same water loop during heating. Single or multiple fan coils are always used to serve a single conditioned room. Usually, a small console water-source heat pump is used for each control zone in the perimeter zone of a building, and a large water-source heat pump may serve several rooms with ducts in the core of the building (interior zone, refer to Chap. 28). Space air conditioning systems normally have only short supply ducts within the conditioned space, and there are no return ducts except the large core water-source heat pumps. The pressure drop required for the recirculation of conditioned space air is often equal to or less than 0.6 in. water column (WC) (150 Pa). Most of the energy needed to transport return and recirculating air is saved in a space air conditioning system, compared to a unitary packaged or a central hydronic air conditioning system. Space air conditioning systems are usually employed with a dedicated (separate) outdoor ventilation air system to provide outdoor air for the occupants in the conditioned space. Space air conditioning systems often have comparatively higher noise level and need more periodic maintenance inside the conditioned space.

Unitary Packaged Air Conditioning Systems

Unitary packaged air conditioning systems can be called, in brief, packaged air conditioning systems or packaged systems. These systems employ either a single, self-contained packaged unit or two split units. A single packaged unit contains fans, filters, DX coils, compressors, condensers, and other accessories. In the split system, the indoor air handler comprises controls and the air system, containing mainly fans, filters, and DX coils; and the outdoor condensing unit is the refrigeration system, composed of compressors and condensers. Rooftop packaged systems are most widely used (refer to Chap. 29). Packaged air conditioning systems can be used to serve either a single room or multiple rooms. A supply duct is often installed for the distribution of conditioned air, and a DX coil is used to cool it. Other components can be added to these systems for operation of a heat pump system; i.e., a centralized system is used to reject heat during the cooling season and to condense heat for heating during the heating season. Sometimes perimeter baseboard heaters or unit heaters are added as a part of a unitary packaged system to provide heating required in the perimeter zone. Packaged air conditioning systems that employ large unitary packaged units are central systems by nature because of the centralized air distributing ductwork or centralized heat rejection systems. Packaged air conditioning systems are characterized by the use of integrated, factory-assembled, and ready-to-use packaged units as the primary equipment as well as DX coils for cooling, compared to chilled water in central hydronic air conditioning systems. Modern large rooftop packaged units have many complicated components and controls which can perform similar functions to the central hydronic systems in many applications.

POTENTIALS AND CHALLENGES