Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Robert Besant, P.Eng., Fellow ASHRAE, and Carey Simonson, Ph.D., P.Eng., Associate Member ASHRAE
designs often exceeds 30% of the original energy used. airstreams in Figure 1, except for those used in the design
Supply air processing in HVAC systems for ventilation and example, which are associated with the locations defined in
comfort often has fewer components than chemical processes. Figure 2.
However, it is more complex than chemical process design Figure 1 shows a schematic of one of these devices with
since both air temperature and humidity must be controlled to supply and exhaust airflows and Stations 1 to 4.
maintain thermal comfort and the HVAC system must function For cp = constant, we can write:
well over a range of operating conditions. ms ∆t s
εs = (2)
Ventilation air is required for all indoor spaces that are likely mmin∆t max
to be occupied.4 Some recent studies show strong linkages The value of es , which must lie between zero and one (0 £ es
among indoor air quality (IAQ), temperature, humidity and £ 1.0) increases with the exchanger surface area and decreases
occupant productivity.5,6 These studies imply that only meet- with the face velocity. For HVAC applications with balanced
ing the minimum ventilation requirements may not be in the supply and exhaust airflows, values above 0.85 may not be
best interest of the building owner/operator, whose annual pay- economically justified. Table 1 shows typical ranges of es for
roll cost may be 20 times greater than the HVAC costs. Using each type of heat exchanger. For a given air-to-air heat ex-
various air-to-air exchangers, it is now possible to maintain changer, es is determined in an independent testing laboratory
good IAQ and comfort conditions while lowering the HVAC according to a specified standard.7
system utility costs and the capital costs compared to conven- The pressure drop across an air-to-air heat exchanger does
tional HVAC design. not need to be the same for the supply and
This article reviews various air-to-air ex- 4 3 exhaust airstreams. It needs to be specified
changers and shows the best way to integrate for both airstreams for each face velocity and
Exhaust
them into an HVAC system. inlet temperature. Typical values are shown
Air
for each type of heat exchanger in Table 1.
e Air-to-Air
Heat Exchangers: Plates, Pipes, Wheels These values should be determined in an in-
Exchanger
and Runarounds dependent laboratory.
Heat exchangers transfer sensible energy The exhaust air transfer to the supply air is
1 2
due to a temperature difference across the characterized by the exhaust air transfer ratio
exchanger. Air-to-air heat exchangers have Supply Air (EATR), which represents the fraction of ex-
been used in HVAC applications for more than haust air that is transferred (recirculated) into
100 years. Several types of air-to-air heat ex- Figure 1: Air-to-air energy the supply air through the exchanger. A
exchange between supply smaller EATR is better than a larger one. How-
changers commonly are used for HVAC ven- and exhaust air.
tilation applications: cross flow plates, heat ever a moderate EATR may be acceptable in
pipes, regenerative rotary heat wheels and aqueous glycol coil- many HVAC applications where the air supplied to a space is a
coupled runaround coils. Physically these low-cost devices, mixture of outdoor and recirculated air, though this may re-
listed in Table 1, are characterized by large heat exchange quire that the ventilation air volume be increased to provide
surface areas per unit volume (i.e., 100 to 4000 m2/m3 [30 to the desired ventilation effect. The EATR essentially increases
1,200 ft2/ft3]) and are manufactured using low-cost materials the fraction of recirculated air supplied to the building space.
that do not react with exhaust air or water vapor condensation. Therefore, in cleanrooms of hospitals and research labs, an
Several constant or nearly constant factors are used to char- EATR above 0% may be unacceptable. For balanced mass flows,
acterize their performance for heat rate, pressure drop, exhaust it is defined as:
air transfer into the supply air, and supply air leakage lost. The c −c
EATR = 2 1 (3)
heat rate is characterized by the sensible effectiveness, es , 7 c3 − c1
which is defined at steady state as the ratio of heat rates: where ci is the inert tracer gas concentration in airstream i
Cs ∆t s (Figure 1). It is best measured in an independent laboratory set
εs = (1) up to do testing according to the accepted standard.7 Typical
Cmin ∆t max
where values of EATR are listed in Table 1.
Cs = mcp The outside air correction factor (OACF) for the supply air
= supply (s) [or exhaust (e)] mass flow rate of air times accounts for any leakage from the supply air duct at the air-to-
the specific heat air device. For balanced mass flows, it is defined as:
C min = minimum of Cs and Ce m
OACF = 1 (4)
Dts = t1 – t2 m2
Dtmax = t1 – t3 that for constant supply air density equals the ratio of volume
Subscripts 1, 2, 3 and 4 refer to the airstreams numbered in flow rates (Figure 1). Typical values of OACF are listed in Table
Figure 1. All the numeric subscripts in this paper refer to the 1 when there is no leakage from the exhaust into the supply. If
April 2003 ASHRAE Journal 43
Exhaust Power Exhaust Heat Power
Air Air
F H F
12 11 10 9 8
Return
e a h m h a
Air
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
F C H Space F C H
Supply Space
Supply
Ventilation Power Cool Heat Ventilation
Air Power Cool Heat
e Energy Exchanger F Fan
Air
a Air Exchanger (Recirculation Air) m Rotary Drying Wheel F Fan
C Cooling Coil
a Air Exchanger (Recirculation Air) C Cooling Coil
h Heat Exchanger H Heating Coil
h Heat Exchanger H Heating Coil
Figure 2 (left): Air, heat and moisture exchange. Figure 3 (right): Air, heat and moisture exchange using a rotary desiccant dryer.
OACF is greater than 1, air is transferred from the supply inlet The coefficient of performance (COP) often is used to repre-
side to the exhaust outlet side and the supply of outdoor air sent the performance of regenerative desiccant-coated dehu-
must be increased accordingly to provide adequate outdoor midifiers. COP is a ratio of the latent energy removed from the
ventilation to the building space. supply airstream to the energy supplied to heat the exhaust
Condensation and/or frosting can occur in any air-to-air airstream. Typical values range from 0.4 to 1 as shown in Table
energy exchanger under cold weather operating conditions 2. In addition, it is possible to define a performance factor in a
though different technologies can be more or less resistant.8 If form similar to heat exchangers. The moisture transfer effec-
condensation may occur under system design conditions, a tiveness, em, of regenerative dehumidifier wheels is given by
condensation drain should be provided. If frosting would un- ms ∆Ws
εm =
acceptably compromise ventilation, or if equipment would be mmin∆Wmax (5)
damaged by frost, a frost control scheme should be provided.
Frost control can be achieved using several different methods where DWs = W1 – W2 = decrease in humidity ratio in the
including supply air bypass or throttling, preheating the sup- supply airflow stream and DWmax = W1 – W3 = maximum hu-
ply or exhaust air inlet flow, and speed control on rotary wheels. midity ratio difference in the exchanger (Figure 1). Since a
The manufacturer should address the issue of frost control for large temperature difference exists between airstreams, mois-
units sold for use in cold climates. ture transfer effectiveness can exceed 100%, but significant
energy is required to achieve this as evidenced by the low
Regenerative Moisture Exchange COP.
Desiccant-coated regenerative wheels for dehumidifying The other performance factors for heat exchangers (i.e., pres-
moist air were patented first in 19749 and have been exten- sure drop, EATR and OACF) should also be used to fully char-
sively used in HVAC applications where waste heat can be acterize these exchangers. Table 2 presents typical values for
used for regeneration. Waste hot air, exhausted at temperatures these factors.
near or above the boiling temperature of water, is usually well- Desiccants are known to have a strong affinity for many
suited for regenerating a rotary dehumidifying wheel.10 A va- different gases and vapors in addition to water vapor. 11 They
riety of desiccant coatings can be used, with each having can be used in regenerative wheels for stripping some undesir-
inherent advantages and disadvantages. Two common desic- able supply airborne contaminants such as volatile organic
cants are 4A molecular sieve and silica gel. compounds and perhaps some toxic gases and vapors. Select-
In warm, humid weather, the first emphasis is put on water ing materials used in the desiccant coating becomes more com-
vapor adsorption from the building supply air and desorption plex because the effectiveness for the removal of each gas or
or rejection of this water to the outside in the hot regeneration vapor chemical depends on the type of desiccant and regen-
exhaust airstream. A small purge section may be used to limit eration conditions. For some applications, more than one type
any heat transfer into the supply airstream from the hot air- of desiccant may be used for the regenerative wheel coating,
stream. These desiccant-coated regenerative wheels adsorb so that it works well for both water vapor and some other gases.
water vapor rather slowly. They are rotated at speeds usually If this is done, a unique effectiveness (eci similar to Equation
less than 1 rpm, and they require a large exchanger surface area 5) should be defined for each airborne chemical concentra-
per unit mass flow rate of supply air. 10 tion, ci , which is to be removed from the supply air. By anal-
The hotter the regenerative air, the smaller the surface area ogy it can be written as:
needed for regeneration, so it often occupies a smaller fraction ms ∆cis
εci =
of the whole wheel face. mmin∆ci,max (6)
Example
The system design process is best il-
lustrated using a simple example. For a
particular new building in a specified
location, we will estimate the first de-
sign iteration, size the air-to-air ex-
changers, calculate the expected
46 ASHRAE Journal ashrae.org April 2003
Energy
Base Loads Without Air-to-Air Exchanger Base Energy Use Air-to-Air Exchanger
Ratios Ratios
Exchangers (q) Savings (qAE) Without Exchangers (q) Savings (qAE)
Space Space Space Space
Ventilation Total Total
Heating Heating Ventilation
Air Boiler/ Total q AE Heating Ventilation
Boiler/
Heating Ventilation
Total
q AE
or or Air q or Air or Air q
(T7 = 15°C) Chiller Chiller
Cooling Cooling Cooling Cooling
Winter Winter
q& Boiler 62.4 46.3 108.6 1.0 46.3 47.3 0.44 qBoiler 74600 60400 135000 15000 60400 75400 0.56
(kW) (kWh)
Summer Summer
q&Chiller 26.8 53.4 80.1 10.7 30.9 41.6 0.52 qChiller 61000 81200 142000 29600 13900 43500 0.31
(kW) (kWh)
Summer Summer
q& Boiler 4.2 4.2 8.4 4.2 4.2 8.4 1.0 qBoiler 16300 16300 32600 16300 16300 32600 1.0
(kW) (kWh)
Table 3: Peak energy rates (t1 [1%] = 34°C, t1 [99%] = –21°C). Table 4: Energy data shows savings of air-to-air exchangers.
gral of the time duration of each operating condition during boiler space heat load provided the supply air remains less
the entire year. That is, without air-to-air exchange the annual than 23°C (73°F). Table 4 includes these savings.
heating energy for ventilation air is given by: The net extra fan power required with total fan efficiencies
of 50% as a result of introducing exchangers (e) and (h) and
q&vent (t1 )dt
8760 hours
qvent =∫ 0 eliminating the auxiliary heater (H) are about 180 W for the
where supply air motor and 540 W for the exhaust. Without part load
&qvent = m& 1Cp(t 7 − t1 ) for t7 > t1 by-pass for the exchangers, this extra power is essentially con-
Besant and Simonson1 show how this can be readily done stant for all the operating hours, giving an annual energy use
once the typical year outside air temperatures are rearranged of about 6,300 kWh for the specified flow rates and assuming
so that t1 increases monotonically from its lowest to its highest a pressure drop of 200 Pa (0.8 in. w.g.) for each airstream across
value as a function of time duration. each exchanger. The auxiliary power to rotate the energy and
Table 4 presents the results of such calculations for both heat wheels would be about 200 W and over the year the an-
temperature and enthalpy for each of the ventilation air, the nual energy use would be 1,750 kWh. The ratios of all the
space heating and cooling energy saved over the year di-
needs and the totals. It shows ‘HVAC systems with air-to-air exchangers vided by the extra energy in-
that the total heating energy need to be carefully designed for the loca- put for the fans and auxiliary
can be reduced by 56% in win- motors gives a seasonal recov-
ter and 100% in summer for a tion of each device in the system, the winter ery efficiency ratio (SRER) of
total reduction of yearly heat- and summer design performance of each de- 18.8.
ing energy of 64%. The total These significant reductions
chiller cooling energy can be vice, and the total annual energy saved by in energy use can be related to
reduced by 31%. Table 4 the HVAC system.’ annual operating cost savings
shows, similar to Table 3, that using typical energy cost data.
the air-to-air exchangers are able to eliminate the need to heat If we assume net total heating energy costs provided to the
ventilation air in the winter and reheat the ventilation air in building are $0.05/kWh and the cooling energy costs are
the summer. Therefore, the energy savings for ventilation air $0.15/kWh, then the total annual energy costs will be $8,380
heating are equal to the energy required to condition ventila- and $2,980 for the boiler without and with the air-to-air ex-
tion air throughout the year in this example where the supply changers. For the chiller these corresponding costs will be
temperature is 16°C (61°F) in the winter and 15°C (59°F) in $21,300 and $14,800.
the summer. Since the supply air is always brought into the It can be observed from these results that:
space at temperatures above 16°C (61°F) during the heating (1)The energy gained by allowing the supply air tempera-
season, the baseboard space heating will drop compared to the ture to increase from 15°C to 23°C (59°F to 73°F) as it is recov-
case of 16°C (61°F) space supply air temperature such that the ered from the exhaust air is significant (i.e., 20% of the total
total thermal energy input will be fixed for any outdoor air recovered energy).
temperature. In this manner, supply air heat gained while the (2)The energy saved for cooling would be only 31% of the
outdoor temperature is less than 10°C (50°F) reduces the total total energy used for cooling without air-to-air recovery in