A Fan Coil Unit FCU is designed to supply air at off coil temperature:

DB/WB= 12.8°C/12.3°C and air flow rate of 1,200 cfm.

Air enters the above FCU at on coil temperature DB/WB=25°C/18°C.
The chilled water enters the FCU at 5°C and leaves at 14°C.
1. What is the FCU cooling load in TR and condensate flow rate in kg/hr?
2. What is Latent Load and the Room Sensible Heat Factor RSHF?
3. What is the chilled water flow in USgpm/TR?

Solution:
1. We can determine the properties of the air at on/off coil from the
below link for psychrometric calculations:

http://www.sugartech.co.za/psychro/index.php
Air properties at off coil DB/WB= 12.8°C/12.3°C (air out ao)

hao KJ/kg 𝝎𝒂𝒐 𝑘𝑔𝑤 /𝑘𝑔𝑎 𝜗𝑎𝑜 𝑚3 /𝑘𝑔

34.8 0.0087 0.82

Air properties at on coil DB/WB= 25°C/18°C (air in ai)

hai KJ/kg 𝝎𝒂𝒊 𝑘𝑔𝑤 /𝑘𝑔𝑎 𝜗𝑎𝑖 𝑚3 /𝑘𝑔

50.7 0.01 0.86

𝒎∗𝒂 = 𝟏𝟐𝟎𝟎 cfm = 0.566 𝑚3 /𝑠

0.82 + 0.86
𝒎∗𝒂 = 0.566 ÷ = 0.674 𝑘𝑔/𝑠
2
Cooling Load
𝑸 = 𝒎∗𝒂 × ∆𝒉 = 0.674 × (50.7 − 34.8) = 10.7 kW= 3.0 TR

Condensate flow rate:

𝒎∗𝒂 × ∆𝝎 = 0.674 kg/s × (0.01 − 0.0087) 𝑘𝑔𝑤 /𝑘𝑔𝑎

= 0.0088 𝑘𝑔𝑤 /𝑠 =3.15 kgw/hr

2. Total Load or total heat exchanged is 10.7 kW

The cooling load consists of sensible and latent loads.

The change in dry bulb temperature is referred to as sensible change.
The change in specific humidity is referred to as latent change.
Sensible load =m∗a × CPair*∆𝑇𝐷𝐵 = m∗a × CP*(tai-tao)

Sensible load =0.674 kg/s *1.0 KJ/Kg.°C *( 25-12.8) °C= 8.2 kW

Latent Load= 10.7-8.2= 2.5 kW

Room Sensible Heat Factor (RSHF) is the ratio of room sensible heat to the
summation of room sensible and room latent heat.
8.2
RSHF= = 0.77
10.7

3. Chilled water flow:

The heat lost by the air is gained by the chilled water, the mass flow rate
of the cooling water is determined from

∗ ∗
𝑄
𝑄 = 𝑚𝑤 ∗ 𝐶𝑝 ∗ ∆𝑇𝑤 → 𝑚𝑤 =
𝐶𝑝 ∗ ∆𝑇𝑤

∗
10.7
𝑚𝑤 = = 0.284 𝑘𝑔/𝑠
4.19 ∗ (14 − 5)
∗
𝑚𝑤 = 4.5 𝑈𝑆𝑔𝑝𝑚 i.e we require 4.5 USgpm/3.0TR= 1.5 USgpm per TR.
The Key Design Issues:

• Coil’s ability to remove moisture (its latent cooling capacity) increases

at lower air flow and lower chilled water inlet temperature.
• Not all the air that passes through the coil is treated (cooled). The
amount of untreated air is called the bypass. The bypass factor is the
ratio of untreated air to the total air. The closer together the coil
tubes and fins are, the less air passes untreated. Lower air velocity
means lower bypass factor.
• Log Mean Temperature Difference is the logarithmic mean
temperature difference, LMTD between the air outside the coil and
the heat transfer fluid within the coil tubes. Higher air entering and
lower water entering temperatures increase LMTD, thereby increasing
coil capacity.
• The more rows and fins per inch, the higher the heat transfer
capability, but the higher the airside pressure drop.