2 Stage evaporative cooling for line shops in shopping centers

Introduction

Probably the most common problem with line shops forming part of a large shopping complex
development is the variance in tenant needs for creating a controlled environment which will be
advantageous for the sales of the line shop owner. Normally the Developer left the decision on
what the line shop owner perceived to be the best solution for him in his hands and this mostly
consisted of a couple of ceiling, high or midwall split units or a ceiling casette or even a through
the roof single stage evaporative cooler for a small shop.
This solution was obviously not optimised for the line shops as a whole and increased the
electricity bill of the complex somewhat and could become a nightmare when electricity bills
were queried from tenants.
The reason why this had been followed could probably be ascribed to the vision that each shop
owner was considered as an individual entity, king of his own environment, served by his own
costs , to his liking.

A New Approach

To be able to see the complex as a whole required a new way of approaching the problem and
held the following implications for the Developer

If the line shops are approached as offices, a common cooling system could feed the full
compliment of line shops by a single or number of coolers with a variable volume
system,complete with terminal reheat and mixing boxes on the cooling units where each shop is
now controlled by varying the air quantity fed to the shop to cater for the variance in load in the
shop. This can be caused by the facade, changes in equipment heat loads or changes in
clients entering or leaving the shop or tenant changes.
The question arises whether one requires a compressor cooling system or would 2 stage
evaporative cooling suffice as the prime cooler.
The advantages of 2 stage evap cooling lies therein that the electrical consumption in Summer is
around 30% of the compressor cooling system, the system is a full fresh air system in cooling,
exfiltration from the shops into the malls provides for free mall cooling, and the variance in load
can be up to 40% for a 2C rise or fall in shop space temperature (This would only be 20% for a
compressor system before the prime cooler ‘s output has to be altered.)
Although floor temperatures around 24C are normally selected for economic reasons it must be
kept in mind that this will only persist for less than 10% of the Summer whereafter space
temperatures of 22C will be achieved at no extra running or capital cost.
If 2 stage evaporative cooling is used, changes in tenant requirements requiring more cooling
can be achieved by installing additional cooling capacity via ceiling casettes or mid or highwall
1
split units. For a revamp where chilled water may be available ceiling ir hide­away cw fan coils
can add the required capacity. If overcapacity exists outlets may be reduced.

The control then operates as follows: A (more­or less) constant supply air temperature is
maintained in the supply duct (stepped from ventilation to single stage to 2 stage cooling as the
ambient en hence the space temperature rises) whilst space temperature is kept constant via
the variable volume outlets. Duct static pressure is kept at a constant via a variable speed drive
controlled from duct static pressure. In Winter air is returned to the 2 stage evaporative cooling
units and recirculated with minimum fresh air to the unit whilst space heating takes place via
the terminal heaters at minimum air flow. (Note that the heaters are only switched on in Winter to
prevent Summer terminal reheat and only after minimum air flow had been reached in the
outlets)

Some comparative figures

Whereas compressor cooling systems will normally be designed to keep the floor temperature
around 22 to23 C at 50% RH , 2 stage evaporative cooling would be designed to keep the floor
temp at 23 to 24C around 60% RH which is still well within the range for human comfort

The following calculations is still subject to recheck and whilst a full year’s or several years’
climatic data is required to obtain the full picture of the running costs, we believe that the
shortened calculation approach we used is within +­5% of the actual expected performance for
an average year

Capital Cost of Installation

2 st Evap 2 st Evap DX Cooling DX Cooling

Cooling Cooling

RSH (w/sqm) Lo 50 Hi 100 Lo 50 Hi 100

Arid­40DB19WB R330 R590 R450 R810

Dry(32/19) 420 750 450 810

Trans(35/20) 450 810 500 900

Humid(32/21) 620 1100 550 990

Notes: Prices based on separate costing of ducting and units transport site services excluded

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Electricity consumption in Kw­hrs per square meter per annum

2 st Evap 2st Evap cool DX cooling DX cooling %saving

cool

RSH(w/sqm) 50 100 50 100 EC vs AC

Arid 21 35,5 33,5 61,8 37%

Dry 23 39 35 64.3 34%

Trans 26 44 37 67 30%

Humid 29,5 49,8 38,7 71,4 25%

No heating is included in theses figures and would add the same Kw­hrs for both systems

Water consumption for the evaporative coolers. Includes both the single stage and 2 stage
operation but excludes the bleed­off
Consumption in l/sqm per annum

RSH(w/sqm) 50 100

Arid 193 386

Dry 198 398

Transition 203 406

Humid 208 416

Bais oif the calculations

­ Operating hours per annum Summer1069 Intermediate 1069 Winter 2138 Total 4276hrs/a
­ Typical areas considered: NWCape, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Rustenburg
­ Tinside desigh: Evaporative cooling 23,5C/58%RH DX 23C/50%RH
­ Corresponding GTH for RSH: RSH=50,GTH=80; RSH=100,GTH=150

Compiled by:
Neels Claassen
Protek CC
24­7­2013