Methods of achieving thermal

control

Objective
1 When cold discomfort conditions prevail:
a to prevent heat loss
b to utilise heat gain from the sun and internal sources
c to compensate for any net loss, by heating which uses some form of
energy supply
2 When hot discomfort conditions prevail:
a to prevent heat gain.
b to maximise heat loss.
c to remove any excess heat by cooling, which uses some form of
energy supply.
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Objective
3 When conditions vary diurnally between hot and cold discomfort:
a to even out variations
b (1) in the cold phase and (2) in the hot phase (as above)
c to compensate for both excesses by a flexible heating-cooling
system
Objectives listed under a and b in each group can be achieved by
structural or constructional (passive) means, item c in each group is the
task of mechanical or energy-based (active) controls.

Degree of Control
Natural Condition
Microclimate control
Structural Control
Mechanical Control

Mechanical Control
Heating
Cooling

Heating
Conversion of some form of energy (fuel material) into heat.
Various fireplaces, stoves and ovens burning wood, coal. coke or oil .
Gas and electric heaters can be considered as using a processed fuel: the energy of coal,
mineral gas, oil or hydraulic and atomic energy
Processed centrally in readily usable form and distributed through a network of pipes or cables
to the points of use.
Central heating is the term used to describe an installation where heat is produced at a central
point (the boiler or furnace), using any of the above mentioned fuel materials, and is
subsequently distributed by some conveying medium.
The level of centralisation can vary
Any central heating system consists of three distinct elements:
I the heat raising plant' (boiler or furnace)
2 the distribution network (ducting or piping)
3 the heat emitter units (diffusers, radiators or convectors)
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Mechanical Ventilation System

I. propeller type or axial flow fans
II. impeller type, centrifugal or tangential flow fans
.These can be local, e.g. built into a window or a wall,
or may be central in which case ducts will be necessary
to deliver and distribute the air to where it is required.
.The installation can take the following forms:
1 an exhaust system - removing the used air and letting fresh air find its way in
through grilles and openings (room under reduced pressure)
2 a plenum system supplying air into the space and forcing out used air through
grilles, etc. (slight overpressure in room)
3 a balanced system both supplying and removing air. The most dependable, but
most expensive, system used when combined with warm air heating, as it permits
partial recirculation.
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Cooling by ventilation
The moving air can be utilised as a heat conveying medium.
Ventilation can also provide a cooling effect simply by replacing the warm inside air with
cooler outside air.
Situation where the outdoor air is at a comfortable temperature or just below that, but there is a
significant internal heat gain (e.g. in a meeting room or a dance hall) which would cause indoor
overheating.
As an example, let us assume that the out-door temperature is 18C; the indoor temperature has
risen to 28C and there is an internal heat gain of 5 kW,
The temperature difference (T) is 28C 18C = 10 degC.
The specific heat of air is 1300( J/m3 degC).
Using the ventilation heat loss equation Q,= 1 300 X V X T.
Duct cross section = ventilation rate(m3/s)/air velocity(m/s)
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Cooling by Ventilation: Evaporative cooling

Latent Heat of evaporation : 2400kJ/kg of Water.
Phenomenon can be used for cooling air if air is dry.
Likely to be used in hot dry climate.
Mechanical spray of water may be put across an air
intake duct to achieve maximum surface contact
between air and water.
It may serve three purposes:
1 washing the air', that is water droplets will stick to dust particles, which can thus no
longer remain in suspension; they fall down and are washed away by the surplus water,
2 evaporative cooling, and
3 humidification, i.e. the increase of relative humidity.
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Cooling by Ventilation: Mechanical cooling

Simplest example is domestic refrigerator
Refrigerant is circulated in the closed circuit.
The two coils are connected on one side through a
compressor and on the other side through a pressure release
valve.
The warm coil is thus kept under high pressure and the
cold coil under a negative pressure.
The refrigerant is in a liquid state under compression and in a
gaseous state under low pressure.
Without changing the heat content. compression
increases the temperature: expansion decreases it.
When liquefying, the refrigerant releases its latent heat of
evaporation, and
when evaporating, it absorbs a similar amount of heat.

Compres
sor

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Problems associated with cooling

The space must be fully enclosed, otherwise the cooled inside air and the warm outside air
would mix.
If doors and windows are closed, the fresh air needed by the occupants must be supplied
mechanically.
Cooling must be combined with some form of mechanical ventilation system.
Need of Dehumidification
If the outside air is at a high temperature (30C DBT) and of a medium humidity (60%), this will
be its condition at the point of air intake. If it is to be cooled to 18C DBT, its RH wil increase.

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Dehumidification
To achieve air at 18C DBT and 60% RH.
The only way to remove moistur from the air is to force it
to condense out: done by cooling.
When air is cooled to its dew-point, further cooling would
cause it to move along the 100% RH curve.
The downwards movement in chart indicates that moisture
is being condensed out, i.e. the absolute humidity is being
reduced.
Air must be cooled far below the required DBT(say18C)
to get rid of moisture and then reheat it to 18C.
All this can be done by using the psychrometric chart
without any calculations. if any two of the DBT. RH, AH
and WBT are known, the
other two quantities can
be found from the chart.
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Air conditioning
Air, supplied to a room or to a building by mechanical
means, is or can be:
propelled or moved
filtered
washed
humidified
cooled
dehumidified
heated or reheated
The collective term for the machinery which carries out all
these functions is 'air handling plant', and the installation is
referred to as air conditioning.
Without dehumidification the system is not air conditioning.
building installation can take- central handling, local
handling, an induction system.
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Structural Control

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Need of Structural Control

To ensure the best possible indoor thermal conditions by relying on structural (passive)
controls
Which may obviate the need for any mechanical (active) controls
Even if mechanical controls required, their task will thereby be reduced to a minimum.
Environmental Benefits
Economical Benefits
Durability
Less Maintenance
No operational Cost

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Thermal insulation
A construction with a low U-value (air-to-air transmittance) will reduce all forms of conduction
heat transfer through the building envelope.
Such a conduction heat flow would be large, if the temperature difference were large.
With small temperature differences between the inside and outside, the heat flow would be
small anyway; an improvement in thermal insulation would not bring any significant reduction.
In a heat gain situation, with strong solar radiation, it is the sol-air temperature value which
must be used to find the temperature difference.
Even if the air temperature difference is small the actual temperature difference acting as a
motive force for heat flow may be large.
Insulation will be most effective under:
steady state conditions, or
if at least the direction of the heat flow is constant for long periods of time especially for
heated or air conditioned buildings.

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Thermal capacity
Under conditions with large diurnal temperature variations the
significance of thermal capacity wi 11 be much greater than of
insulation.
Thermal capacity is referred as capacitive insulation, as opposed
to resistive insulation provided by low conductivity materials and low
transmittance constructions.
Thermal capacity: Time lag
How much thermal capacity, what length of time-lag, is desirable?
For example a wall facing east receives its maximum heating at
10.00 hours. A time - lag of 10 hours would put the inside surface
temperature maximum at 20.00 hours.
The question can be answered by drawing a graph of the out-door
(sol-air) temperature variations for each wall.
What time will the maximum indoor heating effect be required or
tolerated.
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Solar Control
The effect of radiation on opaque surfaces can he combined with the effect of warm air by
using the sol-air temperature.
The magnitude of sol-air temperature is influenced by factors within the designer's control:
absorbance and surface conductance.
Selection of color has little effect; the selection of materials is, however, of greater
significance.
Variations in surface conductance are even less, but a lesser absorbance and a greater surface
conductance would reduce the solar heating effect.
Greatest source of heat gain can be the solar radiation entering through a window.
This could increase the indoor temperature far above the out-door air temperature, even in
moderate climates, through greenhouse effect.
There are four methods available for the reduction of solar heat gain through windows
1 orientation and window size
2 internal blinds. curtains
3 special glasses
4 external shading devices

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Orientation
Near the Equator, the horizontal surface receives the greatest intensity.
At the higher latitude the wall facing the Equator receives the next highest intensity in the
winter (low sun) but it receives very little in the summer.
In the equatorial location north and south walls receive the least intensity and that only for
short periods of the year.
East and west facing walls receive the second highest intensities in the equatorial location and
consistently large intensities even at the higher latitude.
In the equatorial location if solar heat gain is to be avoided, the main windows should face
north or south.
At the higher latitude, an orientation away from the Equator would receive the least sunshine.
but here it may be desirable to have some solar heat gain in the winter.
Minor openings of unimportant rooms should be placed on the east and west side.

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Solar radiation Intensities for 1 degS and 33 degS

1 deg S Nairobi

33 deg S Sydney

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Shadow angles
The performance of shading devices is specified by two
angles: the horizontal and The vertical shadow angle.
These are both measured from a line perpendicular to the
elevation, and indicate the limit, beyond which the sun
would be excluded, but within which the sun would reach
the point considered.
Horizontal shadow angle
The horizontal shadow angle () characterises a vertical
shading device and it is the difference between the solar
azimuth and wall azimuth, same as the horizontal
component for the angle of incidence.
The vertical shadow angle
characterises a horizontal shading device, e.g. a long
horizontal projection from the wall, and it is measured on a
vertical plane normal to the elevation considered.
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The Shadow angle Protractor

The shadow angle Protractor gives a representation of these
shadow angles on a horizontal plane in stereographic
projection
To the same scale as the sun-path diagrams or solar charts.
In more precise terms this protractor shows the various
combinations of azimuth differences () and solar altitude
angles (y) for which a particular shadow angle would be
effective.
The perimeter scale gives the horizontal shadow angle ()
up to -90 deg to the left and +90 deg to the right of the centre
line.
The arcuate lines indicate the vertical shadow angle () from
0 deg, given by the horizon circle, to 90 Deg, the zenith point.
If laid over a solar chart, the corresponding sun-position
angles can be read.
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Shading Devices
These can be of three basic types:
1 vertical devices
2 horizontal devices
3 egg-crate devices

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Vertical Shading devices

Consist of louver blades or projecting fins in a vertical position.
The horizontal shadow angle () measures their performance.
Narrow blades with close spacing may give the same shadow angle as broader blades with
wider spacing.
Using the shadow angle protractor, the 'shading mask of a given device can be established.
If this is done on the same scale as
the protractor, on tracing paper, it
can be laid over the appropriate solar
chart and the 'shading times for the
particular device (dates
and hours) can be read off directly.
This is a very quick short-cut, obviating the need to establish solar position angles.
It will be seen that this type of device is most effective when the sun is to one side of the
elevation, such as an eastern or western elevation.
A vertical device to be effective when the sun is opposite to the wall considered.
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Horizontal shading devices

May be canopies, horizontal louver blades or externally applied Venetian blinds.
Performance will be measured by a vertical shadow angle ().
These will be most effective when the sun is opposite to the building face considered and at a
high angle, such as for north and south facing walls.
To exclude a low angle sun this type of device would have to cover the window completely,
permitting a view downwards only.

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Egg-crate shading devices

Combinations of horizontal and vertical elements.
The many types of grille-blocks and decorative screens may fill into this.
These can be effective for any orientation depending on detail dimensions.

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Structural Control

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