Unit 35 - Comfort and Psychrometrics

Unit 36 - Refrigeration Applied

to Air Conditioning
Unit 37 - Air Distribution and Balance
SECTI ON 7
Comfort and Psychrometrics
Unit 38 - I nstallation
Unit 39 - Controls
Unit 40 - Typical Operating Controls
Unit 41 - Troubleshooting
SECTI ON 7
Comfort and Psychrometrics
Unit 35 - Comfort and
Psychrometrics
35.1 Comfort
a. Comfort describes a delicate balance of
pleasant feelings in the body produced by
its surrounding
b. Providing comfortable atmosphere is the
job of the heating and air conditioning
profession
c. Comfort involves four things:
1. Temperature
2. Humidity
3. Air movement
4. Air cleanliness
d. The human body makes adjustments to
these comfort conditions by its circulatory
and respiratory systems

35.2 Food Energy and the Body
a. The body uses food to produce energy
b. The body energy is:
1. Stored as fatty tissue
2. Some leaves as waste
3. Some leaves as heat
4. Some is used as energy to keep the body
functioning

35.3 Body Temperature
a. Human body temperature is normally 98.6
degrees F
b. Humans are comfortable when the heat
level in our body due to food intake is
transferring to the surroundings at the
correct rate
c. The body gives off and absorbs heat by
three methods of heat transfer:
1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation
d. Evaporation of perspiration is considered a
fourth way
e. Surroundings must be cooler than the body
for the body to be comfortable
f. The body is close to being comfortable
when it is at rest (sitting) and in
surroundings of 75 degrees F and 50%
humidity with slight air movement
g. The following can be used as guidelines
for comfort:
1. In winter:
1. Lower temperatures can be offset with higher
humidity
2. The lower the humidity is, the higher the
temperature must be
3. Air movement is more noticeable
2. In summer:
1. When humidity is high, air movement helps
2. Higher temperatures can be offset with lower
humidity
h. Comfort conditions in winter and in
summer are different
i. Body metabolism varies from person to
person
j. Women are not as warm natured as men
k. The circulatory system generally does not
work in older people as well as in younger
people

35.4 The Comfort Chart
a. Can be used to compare one comfort
situation or condition with another
b. Shows the different combinations of
temperature and humidity for summer and
winter
c. Generally the closer the plot falls to the
middle of the chart, the more people would
be comfortable
d. Different charts for summer and winter
conditions
e. Water in the form of low-pressure vapor is
suspended in the air and is called humidity
f. Moisture in air can also be plotted on the
comfort chart

35.5 Psychrometrics
a. Psychrometrics is the study of air and its
properties
b. Air has weight and occupies space
c. Air weighs 0.075 lbs per cubic feet
d. Air offers resistance to movement
e. One pound of 70 degree air occupies 13.33
cubic feet
f. The number of cubic feet of air it takes to
make a pound of air can be obtained by
taking the reciprocal of the density of air
g. The reciprocal of a number is one divided
by that number

35.6 Moisture in Air
a. There is water in air at all times
b. Moisture in air is called humidity

35.7 Superheated Gases in Air
a. Makeup of air:
1. 78% nitrogen
2. 21% oxygen
3. 1 % other gases
b. Nitrogen and oxygen are superheated gases
c. Each gas exerts pressure according to
Dalton's Law of Particle Pressure
d. Dalton's Law states that each gas in a
mixture of gases acts independently of the
other gases
e. The total pressure of a gas mixture is the
sum of the pressures of each gas in the
mixture
f. More than one gas can occupy a space at
the same time
g. Wet air is air that contains water vapor
h. The water vapor and air as a gas do not
mix because the water vapor is suspended
in the air

35.8. Humidity
a. Moisture in air is measured by weight
b. There are 7000 grains of moisture in one
pound of water
c. Relative humidity is based on the weight of
water vapor in a pound of air compared to
the weight of water vapor that a pound of
air could hold if it were 100% saturated

35.9. Dry-Bulb and Wet-Bulb
Temperatures
a. The moisture content of air can be checked
by using a combination of dry-bulb and
wet-bulb temperature
b. Dry-bulb temperature is the sensible heat
level in the air
c. Wet-bulb temperature takes into account
the moisture content of the air
d. The difference between the dry-bulb
reading and the wet-bulb reading is called
the wet-bulb depression
e. Saturation is the point at which the air is
holding all the moisture it can

35.10 Dew Point Temperature
a. Dew point temperature is the temperature
at which the moisture in the air begins to
condense out of the air
b. The temperature at which water forms on
objects from the air is called the dew point
temperature of the air

35.11 The Psychrometric Chart
a. Knowing any two conditions of air allows
the other conditions of the air to be found
by plotting them on a psychrometric chart
b. Wet-bulb and dry-bulb readings
1. Air wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperatures are
the easiest conditions to find
2. Winter application is to heat and humidify
3. Summer application is to cool and
dehumidify
4. Lines on the psychrometric chart:
1. Dry-bulb temperature lines
2. Wet-bulb temperature lines
3. Relative humidity lines
4. Grains of moisture lines
5. Total heat lines (enthalpy)
6. Cubic feet lines

35.12 Total Heat
a. The capacity of a heating and cooling unit
may be field checked with the total heat
feature of the psychrometric chart
b. Total heat = sensible heat + latent heat
c. Sensible heat formula:
Qs = 1.08 x cfm x TD
d. Total heat formula:
Qs = 4.5 x cfm x total heat difference
e. Cfm formula Cfm = Qs
1.08 x TD