DEPARTMENT OF ELECTROMECHANICAL ENGINEERING

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
HAWASSA UNIVERSITY

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning - MEng 5202

By: Million M.

Mr. Million M., Thermal Engineer, Hawassa

2/3/2024 1
University
PART II – AIR CONDITIONING

FUNDAMENTALS OF AIR CONDITIONING

AC System Design

2
AC System Design

• Design and analysis of air conditioning systems involves

 Selection of suitable inside and outside design conditions,

 Estimation of the required capacity of cooling or heating equipment,

 Selection of suitable cooling/heating system,

 Design of air transmission and distribution systems etc.

AC System Design Conditions

• Design conditions are indoor and outdoor environmental conditions that are to be
expected at “design time”.

• Selection outside conditions and the required inside conditions is an

important step in the design and analysis of air conditioning systems.

• Two design conditions are considered

 Indoor Design Conditions

 Outdoor Design Conditions

Indoor Design Conditions

• includes the desirable ranges of temperatures, humidities, and ventilation rates

(the thermal comfort zone).

 The indoor design conditions are directly related to human comfort.

 They remain fairly constant.

 Comfort zone representing the optimal range with which at least 80% of the
building occupants are expected to express satisfaction.

 Combinations of  Thermal factors (air temperature, air velocity,

humidity)
 Personal factors (clothing and activity level)
• Based on ASHRAE, the following average values are recommended as indoor
design condition
Outdoor Design Conditions

• are the set of extreme outdoor conditions under which a heating or cooling
system must be able to maintain a building at the indoor design conditions

 The ambient temperature and moisture content vary from hour-to-hour and
from day-to-day and from place-to-place.

Should HVAC system operate under the worst weather conditions?

• Sizing (designing) a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC)

system, on the basis of the most extreme weather on record is not practical
since it results an oversized system which will
 Have a higher initial cost,
 Occupy more space, and
 Probably have a higher operating cost and
 Have lower efficiency.
 What is a good compromise between economics and comfort

• To answer this question, we need to know what the weather will be like in the
future.
• But even the best weather forecasters cannot help us with that.

• Therefore, we turn to the past instead of the future and bet that the past
weather data averaged over several years will be representative of a typical year
in the future.
• Meteorological data is available in the form of mean daily or monthly maximum
and minimum temperatures and corresponding relative humidity or wet bulb
temperature.
Summer

• In summer, selection of maximum dry and wet bulb temperatures at a particular

location leads to excessively large cooling capacities as the maximum
temperature generally persists for only a few hours in a year. (June, July,
August and September)
• It is recommended that the outdoor design conditions for summer be chosen
based on the values of dry bulb and mean coincident wet bulb temperature that
is equaled or exceeded 0.4, 1.0 or 2.5 % of total hours in an year.
Outdoor summer Design Conditions for some city’s ,Ethiopia
Winter

• Similarly, It is not economical to design a winter air conditioning for the worst
condition on record as this would give rise to very high heating
capacities.(December, January, and February)

• it is recommended that the outdoor design conditions for winter be chosen based
on the values of dry bulb temperature that is equaled or exceeded 99.6, 99.0, or
97.5 % of total hours.

 Critical applications such as health care facilities and certain process industries may
require the more stringent 99.6 percent level.
Outdoor winter Design Conditions for some city’s ,Ethiopia
• In the absence of any special requirements, Design condition For comfort
cooling, use of the 2.5% occurrence and for heating use of 97.5% values
are recommended. That is,
 The heating system will provide thermal comfort 97.5 percent of the time
but may fail to do so during 2.5 percent of the time

For example,

The 97.5 percent winter design temperature for Dire Dawa, is 12.8oC, and thus the
temperatures in Dire Dawa may fall below 12.8oC about 2.5 percent of the time
during winter months in a typical year.
1. Determine the outdoor design conditions for Addis Ababa, for summer
for the 2.5 percent level and for winter for the 97.5 percent and 99
percent levels.
Heating or Cooling load calculations

• To maintain conditions that are comfortable to humans, equipment of the proper

capacity must be installed and controlled throughout the year.

• Heating or Cooling loads of a building represent the heat that must be supplied
to or removed from the interior of a building to maintain it at the desired
conditions.
• The cooling load experienced by a building varies in magnitude from zero (no
cooling required) to a maximum value.

• The equipment capacity is determined by the actual instantaneous peak cooling

load requirements.
Cooling load analysis

• There are four related but distinct heat flow rates, in the context of air
conditioning analyses each of which varies with time. These are:

 Space heat gain: is the rate at which heat is transferred to and/or generated
in a space at a given time.

 Space cooling rate: is the rate at which heat must be removed to maintain
space air temperature at a constant value.

 Space heat extraction rate: is the rate at which heat is removed from the
conditioned space by the cooling and dehumidifying equipment.

 Cooling coil load: is the rate at which energy is removed at the cooling coil
which serves one or more conditioned spaces in any central air-conditioning
system.
• The total building cooling load consists of

 External load - Heat transferred through the building envelope (walls,

roof, floor, windows, doors etc.)

 Internal loads - Heat generated inside the building envelope (occupants,

equipment, and lights.)

• Also the total cooling load on any building consists of both sensible as well as
latent load components.

 Sensible load affects the dry bulb temperature,

 Latent load affects the moisture content of the conditioned space.

• Design cooling load takes into account all the loads experienced by a building
under a specific set of assumed conditions.

• The assumptions behind design cooling load are as follows:

1. Design outside conditions are selected from a long-term statistical database.

They are available in tabular form in various handbooks.

2. The load on the building due to solar radiation is estimated for clear sky
conditions.
3. The building occupancy is assumed to be at full design capacity.

4. All building equipment and appliances are considered to be operating at a

reasonably representative capacity.
• Main Space Characteristics to be considered in load calculations are

 Orientation
 Size and shape
 Construction material
 Windows, doors, openings
 Surrounding conditions
 Ceiling
 Occupants (activity, number, duration)
 Appliances (power, usage)
 Air leakage (infiltration or exfiltration)
 Lighting
Cooling load calculation method

• Load calculation is done one of the following methods

Transfer Function Method(TFM)

• This is the most complex of the methods proposed by ASHRAE and requires the
use of a computer program or advanced spreadsheet.

Cooling Load Temperature Differential/Cooling Load Factors (CLTD /CLF)

• This method is derived from the TFM method and uses tabulated data to simplify
the calculation process.

• The method can be fairly easily transferred into simple spreadsheet programs
but has some limitations due to the use of tabulated data.
Rules of thumb

• They are useful in preliminary estimation of the equipment size and cost.

• The main conceptual drawback of rules of-thumb methods is the presumption

that the building design will not make any difference.
Cooling Load Temperature Differential / Cooling Load Factors (CLTD
/CLF) Method
 The heat gain is sensible when there is a direct addition of heat to a space by
any or all mechanisms of conduction, convection, and radiation.

 The heat gain is latent when moisture is added/ removed to the space.
Estimation of external loads
Heat transfer through opaque surfaces

• This is a sensible heat transfer process.

• The heat transfer rate through opaque surfaces such as walls, roof, floor,
doors etc. is given by

𝑸𝒐𝒑𝒂𝒒𝒖𝒆 = 𝑼. 𝑨. 𝑪𝑳𝑻𝑫 where U - the overall heat transfer coefficient

A - the heat transfer area of the surface on
the side of the conditioned space.
CLTD - the cooling load temperature
difference.
• For sunlit surfaces: CLTD has to be obtained from the CLTD tables

D-Type wall = 100-mm face brick with 200-mm concrete block and interior
finish
• The above tables are valid for

• Inside temperature of 25oC,

• Maximum outside temperature of 35oC
• An average value of 29oC and
• A daily range of 12oC.

• For inside and average outside temperatures (Ti and Tavg) other than the above,
the following adjustment has to be made to CLTD:

𝑪𝑳𝑻𝑫𝒂𝒅𝒋 = 𝑪𝑳𝑻𝑫𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 + 𝟐𝟓 − 𝑻𝒊 + (𝑻𝒂𝒗𝒈 − 𝟐𝟗)

• For surfaces which are not sunlit: which have negligible thermal mass(such
as doors), the CLTD value is simply equal to the temperature difference across
the wall or roof.

• For interior air conditioned rooms surrounded by non-air conditioned spaces,

the CLTD of the interior walls is equal to the temperature difference

• An air conditioned room is surrounded by other air conditioned rooms, with all
of them at the same temperature, the CLTD values of the walls of the interior
room will be zero.
Heat transfer through fenestration:

• Heat transfer through transparent surface such as a window, includes

• Heat transfer by conduction due to temperature difference across the

window

• Heat transfer due to solar radiation through the window.

• The heat transfer through the window by conduction

𝑸𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 = 𝑼. 𝑨. (𝑻𝒐 − 𝑻𝒊)

• The heat transfer due to solar radiation through the window is given:

𝑸𝒓𝒂𝒅,𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔 = 𝑨𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒅. 𝑺𝑯𝑮𝑭𝒎𝒂𝒙. 𝑺𝑪. 𝑪𝑳𝑭

where Aunshaded - the area exposed to solar radiation

SHGFmax - maximum Solar Heat Gain Factor
SC - Shading Coefficient
CLF- Cooling Load Factor.
Heat transfer due to infiltration:

• Heat transfer due to infiltration consists of both sensible as well as latent

components.
• It is very difficult to estimate the exact amount of infiltration as it depends on the
type and age of the building, indoor and outdoor conditions (wind velocity and
direction, outdoor temperature and humidity etc.)

• The sensible heat transfer rate due to infiltration is given by:

𝑸𝒔,𝒊𝒏𝒇 = 𝒎𝒔 𝑪𝒑 𝒎 𝑻 −𝑻 = 𝑽𝒐𝝆𝒐𝑪𝒑 𝒎 𝑻 −𝑻 _
, 𝒐 𝒊 , 𝒐 𝒊

where Vo - is the infiltration rate (m3/s),

ρo - the density infiltrated air
cp,m - specific heat of the moist, infiltrated air,
To and Ti - the outdoor and indoor dry bulb temperatures.
• The latent heat transfer rate due to infiltration is given by:

𝑸𝒍,𝒊𝒏𝒇 = 𝒎𝒐 𝒉𝒇𝒈 (𝛚𝒐 −𝛚𝒊 )= 𝑽𝒐𝝆𝒐𝒉𝒇𝒈 (𝛚𝒐 −𝛚𝒊 )

where hfg - latent heat of vaporization of water,

Wo and Wi - the outdoor and indoor humidity ratio

• The infiltration rate by air change method is given by:

where ACH - number of air changes per hour

V - gross volume of the conditioned space in m3

• Normally the ACH value varies from

• 0.5 ACH for tight and well-sealed

• 2.0 for loose and poorly sealed buildings.
• 0.2 For modern buildings
Estimation of internal loads

Load due to occupants

• The internal cooling load due to occupants consists of both sensible and latent
heat components.

• The sensible heat transfer given by

𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏
𝑸𝒔,𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒕 = (𝑵𝒐. 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆)(𝑺𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏). 𝑪𝑳𝑭

• The value of Cooling Load Factor (CLF) for occupants depends on the total hours
spent in the conditioned space and type of the building.
• The latent heat gain due to occupants is given by:

𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏
𝑸𝒍,𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒕 = (𝑵𝒐. 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆)(𝑳𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏)
Load due to lighting

• Lighting adds sensible heat to the conditioned space.

𝑸𝒔,𝑳𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 = (𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆)(𝑼𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓)(𝑩𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓). 𝑪𝑳𝑭

• The usage factor accounts

• For any lamps that are installed but are not switched on at
the time at which load calculations are performed.

• The ballast factor takes

• 1.25 for fluorescent lights,

• 1.0 for incandescent lamps.

• The values of CLF as a function of

• Type of lighting fixtures and

• The hours of operation of the lights are available in the form
of tables in ASHRAE handbooks.
Internal loads due to equipment and appliances

• The equipment and appliances used in the conditioned space may add both
sensible as well as latent loads to the conditioned space.

• The internal sensible load due to equipment and appliances is given by

𝑸𝒔,𝑳𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 = (𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆)(𝑼𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓). 𝑪𝑳𝑭

• The installed wattage and usage factor depend on the type of the appliance or
equipment.

• The CLF values are available in the form of tables in ASHARE handbooks.
• The latent load due to appliances is given by:

𝑸𝒔,𝑳𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 = (𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆)(𝑳𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏).

• Total load on the building is:

𝑸𝒕,𝒓 = 𝑸𝒔,𝒓 + 𝑸𝒍,𝒓

• Room Sensible Heat Factor (RSHF) is given by

𝑸𝒔,𝒓 𝑸𝒔,𝒓
𝑹𝑺𝑯𝑭 = =
𝑸𝒕,𝒓 𝑸𝒔,𝒓 + 𝑸𝒍,𝒓
An air conditioned room that stands on a well ventilated basement
measures 3 m wide, 3 m high and 6 m deep. One of the two 3 m walls
faces west and contains a double glazed glass window of size 1.5 m by 1.5
m, mounted flush with the wall with no external shading. There are no heat
gains through the walls other than the one facing west. Calculate the
sensible, latent and total heat gains on the room, room sensible heat factor
from the following information.