Login
The energy impact involved between bringing in outdoor air for indoor air pollution reduction and the energy required to condition this air are investigated in this report. Longterm hourly weather data from several European and American locations were analyzed to determine the average conditions of air over the period of record of the data. These data were then analyzed to determine the psychrometric process theoretical heating, cooling and moisture removal energy requirements for a constant mass of airflow per hour (MJ-hlkg). This paper summarizes the information contained in a longer report [3].
It was found that a significant amount of energy is required to condition air which is used for ventilation. The annual energy required per kg-dry-air/hr of airflow varied from 22.1 MJ. hlkg for Los Angeles to 102.5 MJ. hlkg for Omaha. In Europe the range was from 45.6 MJ-hlkg for Nice to 101.1 MJ-hlkg for Saint-Hubert. In Europe most of the energy was used to heat the air to the desired setpoint. In America there were significant amounts of both heating and cooling required. Much of the variation was due to the amount of moisture in the air which had to be removed in air conditioning. In situations where air conditioning is used, a significant amount of this energy is used in dehumidifying the air. For example, in Miami 86% of the energy is used for moisture removal. It was also found that the energy used was highly sensitive to the heating, cooling and relative humidity setpoints.