Chapter (1)

INTRODUCTION &
BASIC FUNDAMENTELS

1-1 AIR CONDITIONING:

Air conditioning for any space means the control of the followings:
1- Space air temperature,
2- Space air humidity ,
3- Air Purity, and cleaning,
4- Air distribution inside the space

1-2 AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM:

An air conditioning system for space, Fig (1-1), is consists of equipment and
components arranged in the sequence to condition the air, to transport it to
the conditioned space, and to control the indoor condition parameters.

Supply Supply air

(Heating/cooling) source
Fan
Room
Cooling coil (dbt)R
Condenser EX.V. (Evaporator) (RH)R
Fresh Filter
air Return air Exhaust
Compressor air

Fig. (1-1) Schematic Diagram for Basic Air Conditioning System

Most air conditioning systems have the following function:

1- Providing the required energy for cooling and heating.
2- Conditioning the supply air (cooling, heating, humidifying,
dehumidifying…)
3- Distributing the conditioned air with sufficient outside fresh air, to
the conditioned space.
4- Maintain & Control the space conditions (temp., humidity,
velocity,.)

1-3 CLASSIFICATION of AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS

Air-conditioning systems are classified into two groups:

(a) Comfort air-conditioning

 (b) Industrial air-conditioning

(a) Comfort Air- Conditioning

The essential feature of comfort feeling of the people in an air-conditioned

space depends upon the following five main factors:
1. Supply of oxygen and removal of carbon-dioxide
2. Removal of body heat dissipated by the occupants
3. Removal of body moisture dissipated by the occupants
4. To provide sufficient air movement and air distribution in
occupied zone
5. To maintain the purity of air by removing odors and dust

The comfort air-conditioning systems are divided into three groups

1. Summer air-conditioning
2. Winter air-conditioning
3. All round year air-conditioning.

b) Industrial Air- Conditioning

Industrial air conditioning provides air at required temperature and humidity to
perform a specific industrial process successfully. The design conditions are
not based on the feeling of the human begins but purely on the requirement of
the industrial process.
The following areas are examples of industrial(process) air conditioning
systems:
• Textile mills
• Electronic Products
• Pharmaceutical products
• Modern refrigerated warehouses

1-4 INDOOR PARAMETERS & DESIGN CONDITIONS

Indoor parameters are those that the air conditioning system influences
directly to produce a required conditioned indoor environment in buildings.

They include the following:

1- Indoor air temperature.
2- Indoor relative humidity
3- Outdoor ventilation rate required.
4- Air cleanliness
5- Air movement
6- Sound level
7- Pressure differential between the space and surroundings

1-5 OUTDOOR AIR REQUIRMENTS

Outdoor air is required for both comfort and process air conditioning system.
Outdoor air, which contains oxygen, is supplied or infiltrated into the air-
conditioned space to meet the following requirements:

1- To meet metabolic requirements of the occupants

 2- To dilute the air contaminants, odor, and pollutants to maintain
required indoor air quality
3- To support any combustion process or replace the amount of
exhaust air required for laboratories, manufacturing processes,
or restrooms.
4- To provide make-up air for the amount of exfiltrated air required
when a positive pressure is to be maintained in the conditioned
space.

The rate of outdoor air required is called the outdoor air requirement for
ventilation in ASHRAE Standard 62-1989, and given in L/s/person or L/m2
floor area.

1-6 COMFORT AND COMFORT CHART

The feeling of comfort to person depends upon many factors as:
• habits of eating
• types of clothes used,
• duration of stay,
• ages and sex, and
• rate of activity

This feeling also differs from person to person, so it is extremely difficult to set
up standards for ideal comfort feeling.
There is no proper method to measure the feeling of comfort as it is controlled
by number of variables. Assuring that purity of air is maintained as required
and proper air motion is provided which will be just sufficient to break-away
the film or air formed and vapor adjacent to the body, the comfort feeling
mostly depends upon the atmospheric conditions as dry bulb and relative
humidity. The ASHRAE has made exhaustive tests on different kinds of
people subjected to wide variations of combinations of temperature, relative
humidity and air motion.
A scientific method is introduce to measure the comfort feeling of human
beings by introducing a concept of "Effective Temperature"

1-8-1 Effective Temperature and Comfort

Recently seven major determinants of human comfort response have been
identified by ASHRAE. These are DBT, RH, mean radiant temperature, air
velocity, activity of human occupant, occupant clothing and the temporal
aspects of exposure. In addition, indexes combining some of these, a new
effective temperature (ET*). This index is based on constant body wetness
and person thermal sensitivity.

Effective Temperature (ET*). The effective temperature is a measure of

feeling warmth or cold to the human body in response to the air temperature,
moistures content and air motion. It is common index that combines
temperature and humidity into single index, so two environments with the
same ET* should evoke the same thermal response even though they have
different temperatures and humidities; but they must have the same air
velocities
Factor Governing Effective Temperature
1. Climatic and Seasonal Differences
2. Clothing
3. Age and Sex
4. Activity
5. Duration of Stay
6. Air Velocity

The ASHRAE Comfort Chart

ASHRAE standard 55-1991 defines the comfort zone on envelope as a
quadrilateral on the psychometric chart. When the mean radiant temperature
equals the dry bulb temperature, the corners of the quadrilateral are located
approximately at the following four points:
22.2 dbt & 71% RH
25.55 dbt & 58% RH
22.75 dbt & 24% RH
26.68 dbt & 19 % RH

RH
7 0%

20 wbt
RH
50%

COMFORT
ENVELOPE
12 w RH
bt
20%

21 24 26 dbt C°
ASHRAE COMFORTENVELOPE

1-7 INDOOR AIR QUALITY (IAQ):

An acceptable IAQ is defined in ANSI/ ASHRAE standard 62-1989 as air that
contains no known contaminates at harmful concentration with which a
substantial majority (80 percent or more) of the people exposed do not
express dissatisfaction.

1-8 SICK BUILDING SYNDEOMES (SBS)

Sick building syndrome is a kind of building- related illness. When more than
20% of the building’s occupants complain of a set of discomfort symptoms
that include headaches, eye irritation, sore throat, fatigue, dizziness,
drowsiness, and nausea for period or longer than two weeks; when the
sources of these complaints are not obvious; and when the occupants
obtained rapid relief outside the building, the building is considered as a kind
of sick building syndrome. If there are signs of actual illness, these illnesses
are classified as building-related illness.

1-9 Solutions to Sick Building Syndrome

Solutions to SBS problems usually include combinations of the following
measures
• Increasing the ventilation rate
• Removal or modification of the polluant
• Air cleaning