http://www.cibsejournal.

com/cpd/modules/2
010-03/
Module 14: The psychrometrics of air
conditioning systems
The CPD articles in the April, August, November and December 2009 editions
of the CIBSE Journal have set out the principles of the Psychrometric Chart
and how to use the chart to plot individual processes, determine the respective
component loads and combine these into commonly employed sub-systems

Posted in March 2010

Complete the questionnaire

This article will further develop the use of the chart to combine the processes to
develop a basic constant volume, full fresh air system this technique may then be
used to determine the required components of an air conditioning system and may
also provide the basis for comparisons of the performance of different systems or
operating regimes. Symbols are defined in the box at the end of the article you
may also find it useful to be able to refer to those earlier articles (they are all
available online at www.cibsejournal. com). To help understand the example in this
article you are recommended to build up the process on a psychrometric chart.

Fig. 1: Summer psychrometric processes

Combining the processes

The psychrometry for the complete air conditioning system can be developed from
the combination of the individual components and sub-systems that have been
previously described. It is the function of the individual processes that determine the
plant requirements although, of course, the final components are normally restricted
to those commercially available. To provide an example a system will be developed
to satisfy the room loads for a 8m wide by 5m deep by 3m high single room that
have been determined as:-

Summer (cooling) room load of 5kW (sensible gain) 1.2kW (latent gain)

Winter (heating) load of 1.9kW (sensible loss) and 0.8kW (latent gain).

The design conditions for the room are 20C to 24C operative temperature and 35%
to 50% saturation (i.e. a range of acceptable conditions that can vary season to
season). The room is of medium thermal weight (medium to fast response) and has
a moderate amount of glazing, and so at this stage it would be reasonable to
assume that values of air temperatures equivalent to values of operative
temperatures be used.

Establishing the supply air mass flow rate

As a design decision (based on the strategy being used to distribute air in the room)
the minimum supply air temperature will be 16C (8K lower than the room
temperature). If, alternatively, a low level supply system was to be used, the supply
air temperature may well have been limited to being no more than 5K cooler than the
room temperature. (See CIBSE Guide Section B2.4.2 [1] for more details.) It is
normally the requirements of room cooling as opposed to heating (in air conditioning
applications) that will determine the air supply rate in a constant volume system.
Hence the mass flow rate, , of the supply air can be calculated from the room
sensible cooling load, SC = Cp (RS SC) where Cp is the air specific heat capacity of
air that can be taken as 1.012 kJkg-1K-1. So = SC / [Cp (RS SC)] = 5.0 / [1.012 x (24
16)] = 0.62 kgs-1.
Fig. 2: Winter psychrometric processes

The summer system

The summer room sensible/total heat ratio will be 5.0/(5.0+1.2) = 0.81 and since this
is a coincident sensible cooling and latent cooling load, the gradient of the room ratio
line (RRL) is taken from the bottom quadrant of the protractor on the psychrometric
chart and is drawn through summer room point R S. The intersection of this line with
the specified value of SC (ie 16C) provides the summer supply air point SC. As an
alternative to using the RRL to determine the supply air point, the room latent load
may be used to calculate the supply air moisture content from L = hfg (gR gS) and
so reading the value of gR from the chart as 8.8gkg -1da or 0.0088 kgkg-1 da the value
of gS = gR (L/hf ) = 0.0088- [1.2/(0.62 x 2450)] = 0.0080kgkg -1da or 8.0gkg-1da.
g

Looking at the chart (Figure 1) these two methods provide the same supply air point
the simple calculation method is probably the most reliable. However, the use of
the RRL allows the designer to look at the range of supply air conditions that could
be used if there was flexibility in the design supply air temperature.

To develop the summer cycle the outdoor air, OS, is plotted (the values identifying
OShaving been established from climate data such as Table A2.6 of CIBSE Guide
[2]). In a full fresh air system, air at OS must be finally conditioned to produce air at
SC. Looking at the chart OS has a higher temperature and moisture content than S C,
where (from the chart) hO= 57kJkg-1 and hS= 35kJkg-1. Hence there is a need to
reduce the enthalpy of the air by (57 35)kJkg -1 = 22kJkg-1.

Fig. 3: Basic system component schematic

In this simple system (and in many installed systems) a cooling coil will be used to
both cool and dehumidify the air. The air condition leaving the coil will be determined
primarily by the dehumidifying requirement and the contact factor, , of the coil. From
the manufacturer a contact factor of 0.85 has been obtained (based on the flowrate
of the air passing through the coil, and the coil size) and from this the coil
temperature, (the coil ADP) indicated by point X on the chart may be determined.

So = 0.85 = (gO gS) / (gO gX) so gX= gO (gO gS) / 0.85 = 11.4 (11.4 8.0) /
0.85 = 7.4gkg-1da and hence the point X may be plotted where the saturation curve
intersects with a moisture content of 7.4gkg-1da. The cooling coil process line is then
OSC where C is the intersection of the line O S to X with the supply air moisture
content, gS and has an enthalpy, hC, of 32.5kJkg-1.

The air now has an appropriate moisture content to supply the room but, as a result
of the need to dehumidify the air, the dry bulb temperature is below the required
value of S. An afterheater is used to increase the temperature from C to S. (The fan
will also act as a sensible air heater).

The winter process

To outdoor condition, OW is plotted (on Figure 2) based on a knowledge of local

climatic data (that can, for example come from Table A2.4 of CIBSE Guide [2]). To
determine the supply air point (at winter design), S H the supply air temperature,
SH must be established. SH will be determined either from a knowledge of the supply
air mass flowrate in combination with the room sensible heating load, SH, the
supply air mass flowrate having previously been established from the cooling
requirement, SC; or the supply air temperature may be determined from a
requirement of the particular supply regime (eg low level or high level supply).

In this case, having already determined the air mass flowrate from the cooling load
as 0.62kgs-1 the heating supply air temperature will be SH= R + (SH/Cp) = 19 + [1.9/
(0.62 x 1.012)] = 22C. The winter room sensible/total heat ratio will be 1.9/(1.9 +
0.8) = 0.70 and since this is a coincident sensible heating and latent cooling load, the
gradient of the room ratio line (RRL) is taken from the top quadrant of the protractor
and is drawn through winter room point RW. The intersection of this line with the
calculated value of SH (ie 22C) provides the winter supply air point S H (and of course
a similar calculation to that used for the summer design may be undertaken using
the winter latent load to confirm the supply air moisture content). The supply air
enthalpy hSH can be read off as 33.0kJkg-1.

Point SH is clearly both at a higher temperature and moisture content than the winter
outdoor air condition, OW, and so a sensible heater and a humidifier is required; in
this example a steam humidifier has been used. To increase the temperature
typically a water or electric coil (or frequently two coils a preheater or frost coil, and
an afterheater) may be used. In this example one heating process will be shown
from OWPAH, where AHis the supply temperature (or maybe just slightly cooler as
the subsequent steam humidifier will also add a small degree of sensible heat to the
air) where hAH is 27.0kJkg-1. A steam humidifier is then used to increase the moisture
content (with potentially a small increase in air dry bulb temperature) from g P (the
same as gOW) to gSH with the process PSH.

By examining the psychrometric requirements determined for summer and winter

operation, the initial schematic of a basic full fresh air, constant volume conditioning
system can be sketched out as in Figure 3.

Calculating the loads

The loads may be readily established from the chart where Power (kW) = mass flow
rate (kgs-1) x enthalpy change (kJkg-1) = h and so, for example, the summer
cooling coil design load is 0.62 x (57.0-32.5) = 15.2kW.

The summer afterheater load = 0.62 x (35.0- 32.5) = 1.55kW, and so the total plant
load is thus 15.2 + 1.55 = 16.8kW. This compares with the room cooling load of
5.2kW sensible + 1.2kW latent = 6.4kW! However, it is not correct to simply compare
the two values as the plant load includes:

The power to cool the outdoor air (that will be providing necessary ventilation
fresh air to the room) down to the room condition;

The power to overcool the air dry bulb temperature so that condensation
takes place to dehumidify the air; and

Reheat power to bring the air dry bulb temperature from the lower
dehumidifying temperature back up to the supply air temperature.

The load in winter will comprise the heater load, 0.62 x (17.0 -1.0) = 9.9kW and the
humidifier load, 0.62 x (33.0-17.0) = 9.92kW giving a total plant load of 18.8kW. The
significant difference between the plant and the room loads is by virtue of the need to
increase the temperature and moisture content of the cold, dry outdoor air before it
can be heated to provide any useful room conditioning.
Fig. 4: All-year-round operating regime based on outdoor conditions

Year round operation

The modes of operation for this simple system are shown in Figure 4. This diagram
(after Legg [3]) indicates the operating modes for the system for the annual range of
outdoor conditions.

Symbols

The preheater is likely to be controlled using feedback from a downstream duct

sensor and is set to maintain a minimum temperature (likely to be between 5C and
8C) when the system is in operation this will only operate in winter. The humidifier
should only operate when the outdoor air has a low moisture content this is
predominantly when the outdoor air is cooler (tables of percentage frequencies of
occurrence of outdoor conditions may be used to determine the actual periods).

For this simple example system a room dry bulb temperature sensor could provide
the information to the controller to modulate both the afterheater and the cooling coil
in sequence. However the cooling coil will also be controlled from the feedback from
a room humidity sensor if the room humidity rises the cooling coil will be actuated.
This will override the requirement for dry bulb temperature control and so, if the
resulting room temperature is too cool, the afterheater will also be actuated to reheat
the air. This is, alongside the humidification load, a potential profligate use of energy
that, with appropriate system design, may be substantially reduced this will be
discussed in later articles.
A graphical interpretation of operating regimes (preferably combined with frequency
based climate data) provides an accessible tool to assist the designer in examining
and optimising the all-year system operation.