Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Air-Conditioning Processes
 Outline
• Common HVAC Units and Dimensions
• Energy, Power and Costs
• Fundamental Physical Concepts
a) Heating
b) Cooling
c) Dehumidification
d) Humidification
e) Cleaning
f) Controls and Instrumentation
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 Common HVAC Units and Dimensions
• A physical characteristic (such as length) is called dimension
• A unit is a specific quantitative measure of a physical characteristic in
reference to a standard (foot, meter…)
• Two systems of units are generally employed:
1- The IP (inch-pound) system or the English Engineering system (most
commonly used in USA)
2- the SI system used in engineering practices throughout most of the
world and rarely adopted in USA

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 Common HVAC Units and Dimensions
• Common HVAC units:
- Gpm (gallons per minute) for liquid volume flow rates
- Cfm (cubic feet per minute) for air volume flow rates
- in. wg (inches water gage) for pressure measurement in air flow
systems
- Ton (12,000 Btu/hr) for the description of cooling capacity or rate
- Ton-hr (12,000 Btu) for cooling energy
- Lbf and lbm for pound force and pound mass
- Psi (pound per square inch) or psf (pound per square foot) for pressure

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 Energy, Power and Costs
• Power is the rate at which energy is produced or consumed
• The electrical power (kW) required by an HVAC system or component
depends on the size (capacity, load or demand).
• The energy (kW.hr) used by an HVAC system depends not only on the
size, but also on the fraction of capacity or load at which it is operating
and the amount of time that it runs
• The cost of running HVAC systems is often the largest part of the utility
bills of a building

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
• Good preparation for a study in HVAC system design includes courses in
thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and system dynamics
a) Heating
- It is performed to either:
o bring a space up to a higher temperature than existed previously
o to replace the energy being lost to colder surroundings by a space so
that a desired temperature range is maintained
- Heat that is manifested solely in raising or maintaining the temperature
of the air is called sensible heat

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
a) Heating

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
a) Heating
- For an airstream heated in a heat exchanger coil, the rate of sensible
heat transfer to the stream is given by:
ሶ 𝒑
𝑸𝒄
𝒒ሶ 𝒔 = 𝒎𝒄
ሶ 𝒑 𝒕𝒄 − 𝒕𝒊 = (𝒕𝒄 − 𝒕𝒊 )
𝒗
where:
𝑞ሶ 𝑠 = rate of sensible heat transfer, Btu/hr or W
𝑚ሶ = mass rate of air flow, lbm/hr or kg/s
𝑐𝑝 = constant-pressure specific heat of air,
Btu/(lbm-F) or J/(kg-K)
𝑄ሶ = volume flow rate of air flow, ft 3 /hr or m3 /s
𝑣 = specific volume of air, ft 3 /lbm or m3 /kg
𝑡𝑐 = temperature of air at exit, F or C
𝑡𝑖 = temperature of air at inlet, F or C
Note: the specific volume and volume flow rate of the air are usually specified at the inlet conditions. The specific
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heat is assumed to be an average value
Example 1-3:
 Determine the rate at which heat must be added in Btu/hr to a
3000 cfm airstream passing through a heating coil to change its
temperature from 70 to 120F. Assume an inlet air specific volume
of 13.5 ft3/lbm and a specific heat of 0.24 Btu/(lbm-F).

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
b) Cooling
- Cooling is the transfer of energy from a space, or from air supplied to a
space to make up for the energy being gained by that space
- Energy gain to a space is typically from warmer surroundings and
sunlight or from internal sources within the space, such as occupants,
lights, and machinery.

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
b) Cooling

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
b) Cooling

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
c) Dehumidification
- The dehumidification is the reduction of the amount of water vapor in
an airstream.
- Usually, condensation and removal of moisture occurs in the heat
exchanger coil during the cooling process.
- The energy involved in the moisture removal only is called the latent
cooling and is given by:
𝒒ሶ 𝒍 = 𝒊𝒇𝒈 𝒎ሶ 𝒘
Where:
𝑞ሶ 𝑙 = latent heat rate, Btu/hr or W (positive for humidification, negative for
dehumidification)
𝑖𝑓𝑔 = enthalpy of vaporization, Btu/lbm or J/kg
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𝑚ሶ 𝑤 = rate at which water is vaporized or condensed, lbm/hr or kg/s
 Fundamental Physical Concepts
d) Humidification
- Water vapor is often transferred to the heated supply air in a process
referred to as humidification
- Heat transfer is associated with this mass transfer process and the term
latent heat transfer is often used to describe the latent energy required

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Example 1-4:
Using saturated liquid water in a humidifier, it is desired to add 0.01
lbm of water vapor to each pound of perfectly dry air flowing at a
rate of 3000 cfm. Assuming a value of 1061 Btu/lbm for the enthalpy
of vaporization of water, estimate the rate of latent energy input
necessary to perform this humidification of the airstream.

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
e) Cleaning
- The cleaning of air usually implies filtering, although it also may be
necessary to remove contaminant gases or odors from the air.
- Filtering is most often done by a process in which solid particles are
captured in a porous medium (filters)
Filtering aims to:
o improve the quality of the environment
o prevent buildup of the closely-spaced finned surfaces of the heat
exchanger coils

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
f) Controls and Instrumentation
- An HVAC system is designed to meet the extremes in the demand, but most
of the time, it will be operating at part load conditions
- A properly designed control system will maintain good indoor air quality and
comfort under all anticipated conditions with the lowest possible life-cycle
cost
- Controls can be energized in a variety of ways:
o Pneumatic
o Electric
o Electronic
o Self-contained

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
f) Controls and Instrumentation
- Development in both analog and digital electronics and in computers have
allowed control systems to become much more sophisticated and permit an
almost limitless variety of control sequences within the physical capability of
the HVAC system
- ASHRAE developed a protocol for data exchange,
BACnet, an acronym for “Building Automation and
Control Networks”.
- All control systems have 3 necessary elements:
o Sensor (Controlled variable)
o Controller
o Controlled device

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 Fundamental Physical Concepts
f) Controls and Instrumentation
- Control is carried out by:
o Closed-loop system, feedback system: Change in controlled device
(valve) results in a change in the controlled variable (downstream air
temperature)
o Open-loop system, feedforward system: the sensor is not directly
affected by the action of the controlled device.
Ex: the sensing of outdoor temperature to set the water temperature in a
heating loop

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