Professional Documents
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Environmental Quality
Comfort involves: control of temperature, humidity, air motion, and
radiant sources interacting with the occupants
Not everyone can be made comfortable by one set of conditions
Oder, dust, noise, and vibration are additional human comfort factors
Nonenvironmental factors such as dress and the activity level of
occupants must be considered
A well-designed HVAC system manages to keep these variables
within specified limits set by customer, building codes, and good
engineering judgment
Engineers are challenged to utilize all of the available information and
tools to design systems that provide a comfortable environment
Comfort-PHYSIOLOGICAL consideration
The amount of heat generated and dissipated by the human body varies
considerably with activity, age, size, and gender
The body has a complex regulating system acting to maintain the deep
body temperature of about 98.6 f (36.9 C)
Comfort-PHYSIOLOGICAL consideration
The environmental factors that affects thermal comfort are:
The dry bulb temperature of the surrounding air
The humidity of the surrounding air
The relative velocity of the surrounding air
The temperature of any surfaces that can directly view any part of
clothing
Animal and human body temperatures are controlled by a heat balance
that involves metabolism, blood circulation near the surface of the skin,
Comfort-PHYSIOLOGICAL consideration
The energy generated by a persons metabolism varies with activity
Met is a unit to express the the metabolic rate per unit of body surface
area 1 met = 18.4 Btu/(hr-ft2) (58.2 w/m2)
The average adult is assumed to have an effective surface area for heat
transfer of 19.6 ft2 (1.82 m2) and will dissipate approximately 360 Btu/hr
(106 W)
Clothing insulation is described as a single equivalent uniform layer
over the whole body
Clo is a unit for clothing insulation 1 clo = 0.88 (F-ft2-hr)/Btu [0.155 (m2-
C)/W]
A heavy two-piece business suit with accessories has an insulation
value of about 1 clo, whereas a pair of shorts has about 0.05 clo
comfort conditions
ASHRAE sensation Scale
comfort conditions
comfort conditions
comfort conditions
comfort conditions
comfort conditions
Common contaminants
Carbon Dioxide CO2
Carbon Monoxide (Co)
Sulfur oxides
Nitrous oxides
Radon
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Mycotoxins (Mold Poisons)
Particulate Matter
Low relative humidity and the dry effect on nose and bronchial linings leads to
increased incidence of disease
High relative humidity encourages condensation and growth of harmful matter
such as mold
Indoor air relative humidity must be kept around 50%
Moisture must be removed (dehumidification) when cooling and added
(humidification) when heating
The condensed liquid should not be blown into the supply duct
Reduce fan speed (reduce air flow) or bypass some of air around the coil
Use surface or liquid desiccants to remove water chemically from humid
makeup or recirculated air. Desiccants are particularly useful in HVAC systems
where:
When heating steam should be injected in air stream rather than spraying water