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Basic Air Conditioning
Basic Air Conditioning
Basic Air Conditioning
1. INTRODUCTION absolute)
Air conditioning system design is a broad and sometimes • Air movement
complex field with many aspects to consider and many • Air quality
options available for selection of the final systems for a The need for control of these variables and their control
particular project. points will be based on the client's requirements. For example,
Air conditioning system design is more than just a technical if a factory owner wants to provide some limited cooling for
exercise and in order to design an air conditioning system we their factory, then dry bulb temperature control over a fairly
need to understand what air conditioning is, what the clients wide range would probably suffice. However if a
needs are, what constraints there are on the design and what pharmaceutical manufacturer wants to provide suitable
the architect is trying to achieve. That is, we need to know conditions for their manufacturing process, then we would
the technical aspects of air conditioning systems as well as need to control all of the above variables to a close tolerance.
the effect of the design on the other members of the project Air quality is controlled by filtration systems, and air
team. The design process involves a mix of technical, movement is controlled by the distribution systems. These
interpersonal and management skills. aspects of air conditioning system design are worth separate
This paper covers a typical air conditioning system design discussion and their own paper. We will look at the control of
process. temperature and moisture content only.
So, how do we go about designing an air conditioning A useful tool to help visualise the control of temperature and
system? First of all we need to understand what air moisture control is the psychrometric chart. Atmospheric air is
conditioning is. a mixture of air and water vapour. The psychrometric chart is
a graph showing the various concentrations of water vapour
2. THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS
in the air and the associated temperatures, densities and
Air conditioning is the treatment of the environment to
energy contents.
achieve a set of required conditions. In the fields of building
services it usually relates to air providing 'comfort' for The task of the air conditioning system is to control the
building occupants but could also cover other situations such temperature and moisture content of the air by one or more
as fumigation rooms and specialist storage environments. This of the following processes:
presentation will deal only with treatment of air for comfort • Heating
conditions. • Cooling
The environmental conditions, which are controlled in a given • Dehumidification
design, may include: • Humidification
• Dry bulb temperature These processes can be shown on the psychrometric chart.
• Moisture content of the air (humidity, both relative and Refer to Fig. 1
HUMIDIFYING
SENSIBLE HEATING
COOLING
DEHUMIDIFYING
Moisture Control
• None
• Dehumidification by condensing - removes moisture
THE BUILDERS
from the air by cooling the air to below it's dew point - Head Contractor
• Dehumidification by absorption - removes moisture – Trade Contractors
from the air by absorbing it into a desiccant
material
• Humidification - addition of moisture to the air by water FIG.3 TYPICAL PROJECT TEAM STRUCTURE
or steam spray in the duct The aim of the design is to develop an appropriate air
Commonly used systems, in order of cost and conditioning system for the particular building that suits the
requirements of all members of the project team, then air conditioning system we will consider an example based on
document that design so that it can be priced and built. an actual project undertaken some time ago.
The next steps taken in a normal design process are: 4. EXAMPLE PROJECT
a) Review the client's requirements The project involved the design of a new office building
b) Carry out preliminary cooling and heating load where the client was to be the end user of the building.
calculations The total floor area of the building was to be approximately
c) Review any constraints eg. availability of energy 11,000 sq.m and the architect proposed two wings linked by
sources, architecture, special site requirements an enclosed walkway. One wing was to be four levels and the
other three levels.
d) List appropriate systems
The client requirements for the air conditioning system were:
e) Analyse the systems with respect to the requirements
• Normal commercial office conditions, with provision for
f) Select the most suitable systems
meeting and conference rooms
g) Provide the systems' requirements to others in the
• To comply with all relevant codes
project team
• Low operating cost
h) Document the concept design for review by client and
other members of the project team • Long life (15yrs +)
i) Refine the design in conjunction with the other • Medium capital cost
members of the project team, making changes as The architect had developed a concept for the floors
necessary. Sometimes the system concept will change comprising a central bulkhead for services with high ceiling
during this process space along the perimeter. Generally, offices and meeting
j) Document the design suitable for tendering and permit rooms were to be located along the internal area of the
approvals building with open plan office layout along the perimeters.
The building faced north and had large glass areas on both
k) Finalise documentation for construction
the north and south of the building.
To better understand how these steps fit into the design of an
We will now look at each of the steps in the design process
and examine how they influence the final solution. The site has adequate gas and electricity available to it, so
a) Review the client's requirements. this is not an influence on the design.
The client's requirements usually have the greatest impact on The most significant influence here is the architectural
the system's selection. Factors which come into consideration requirements. Particularly important architectural features
include: which affect the system selection are:
• Required conditions • The height of the building - affects the
ability of split systems to operate satisfactorily if the
• Capital cost
condensing units are roof mounted
• Operating cost
• The limited ceiling space available - makes it
• Degree of zoning (a major influence on system's cost) difficult to locate ductwork and fan coil units
The client requires normal commercial office conditions with • Lack of floor space for plants- insufficient space for
allowance for meeting rooms, long life, low operating cost floor by floor plantrooms
and medium capital cost.
• Limited riser shafts - makes it difficult to use a large
Normal commercial office conditions could be provided by numbers of packaged units to meet the zoning
package plant or chiller water plant. The main consideration requirements
to meet this requirement is the zoning. It will be necessary to
d) Appropriate Systems
provide separate zone control to the north and south
perimeter zones, the internal zones (which will be divided Consideration of these factors leads to the selection of roof
into smaller zones) and the meeting rooms. It will also be mounted plant ducted to each level via the available risers.
desirable to break each of these zones into smaller zones to The limited duct space eliminates the use of a multizone
improve control in areas of varying usage. This could be system and the limited number of riser shafts makes the
achieved by using a number of smaller packaged units or fan selection of a minimum number of roof mounted units
coil units or by using a central plant with variable air volume, necessary. If a minimum number of roof units is to be used
multi-zones or reheat. then the zoning will need to be provided by a variable air
volume systems. Packaged A/C units can be used for this
The requirement for low operating costs eliminates the reheat
purpose, however, the fan types and DX cooling coil only
systems, as these have high operating costs. The requirement
allows a small turndown ratio. Due to the difficulty of limited
for long life (15yrs+) puts pressure against the selection of
life of packaged plant, as previously discussed, this option
packaged plant. However, a life cycle cost analysis could
will not be considered further.
justify its selection if all other criteria are met.
e) Analyse the systems
The requirement for medium capital cost admits all systems,
but the degree of zoning will need to be kept to a reasonable We have covered d) and e) in the above analysis and we are
level, particularly on the central plant systems, to avoid cost now left with roof mounted chilled/heating water central
overruns. It is important to emphasise at this point that cost plant with VAV zoning. It now remains to establish the
estimates are an ongoing activity throughout the design number or air handling units and the duct distribution.
process to ensure that the design is kept within the agreed f) Select the most suitable systems
budget. This information is regularly provided to the quantity Some trial layouts are done and required plant space fed to
surveyor so that the total project budget can be monitored. the architect.
Designing the systems to code requirements is essential and Limited ceiling space meant that the ductwork had to be
will not affect the choice of systems in this example. confined to the central bulkhead, and the initial layout was
b) Preliminary heating and cooling load estimate rejected by the architect. The architect wanted the roof plant
This gives a basis for deciding what type of systems may be to be kept in a linear layout down a central zone. Initial
appropriate. For example, if the cooling load is only 50kW, concepts for this were forwarded to the architect for co-
then the cost of a chilled water system would be prohibitive, ordination.
so the first choice would be a packaged plant of some type. In order to arrive at the number of air handling units, factors
For this example, given the high perimeter to floor area ratio such as operating cost, duct layout on the roof and outside
(the building is long and narrow) the cooling load would be air ratios were considered. A single unit would require
somewhere around 130 W/sq.m. this gives a total load of extensive reheat to meet zoning requirements, since both the
1430kW. This is within the viable range for a chilled water north and south zones would be combined. There would be
system. Package plant is still feasible, however a large extensive duct runs on the roof to access the riser shafts if
number of units would be required which would increase the only one or two units were used. In addition, the fact that
plant space needed. the meeting rooms were located in the internal zone meant
that the outside air ratio to that zone would be higher than
c) Review any constraints
for the remainder of the building. If a single unit was used, k) Finalise documentation for construction
or a perimeter and internal unit was used, or a perimeter and Final tender documentation is now prepared based on the
internal zone unit combined, then a large operating cost developed design. This includes:
penalty would apply where the outside air was increased for
• Preparation of drawings
areas of the building not requiring it.
• Writing of the specification
Further development of the concept and interaction with the
architect, including the acceptance of the recommendation for • Co-ordination and design check with all other members
external shading on the north facade, led to the selection of of the design team
two north zone units, two south zone units and two internal Once the design is documented and checked it can be issued
zone units. for tender. The project then moves into the construction
g) Provide the systems requirements to other in the phase, where the designer has a role to ensure that the
project team system is installed and commissioned in accordance with
intent of the design.
Once a scheme has been agreed with the architect details of
requirements are provided to the other members in the design This outlines a typical full documentation design process.
team such as plant weight to the structural engineer, However, there are many variations on this method of
water/drainage requirements to hydraulic engineer and producing sufficient information for tender and construction
electrical loads to electrical engineer. purpose and they are being used more and more.