CHAPTER 5

AIR-CONDITIONING EQUIPMENT
Martin A. Scicchitano
Carrier Air Conditioning Company, Syracuse, N.Y.

Air conditioning is the control of temperature, humidity, purity, and distribution to provide a specified level of human comfort and/or product quality.

AIR-CONDITIONING LOAD
An understanding of the sources of air-conditioning load and how it is handled is critical to the efficient operation and maintenance of air-conditioning equipment.
The load on an air-conditioning system is the amount of heat that must be removed from or added
to a space in a given time. This applies to both the load which manifests itself in terms of the actual
sensible temperature of the space, and that involved in the control of humidity, since raising or lowering the moisture content requires the transfer of heat.
If heat is to be added, it is a heating load. If it is to be removed, it is a cooling load.
The combined effects of the sun, outside air temperatures, and internal loads often create both a
heating and a cooling load, simultaneously, in the same building.
Cooling Loads
To determine the cooling load of a building and thus establish the amount of refrigeration needed, it
is first necessary to know what produces the heat and how much is produced. The following sources
of heat will be encountered in any building:
Sun Load. The sun shining on a building and through the windows carries heat into the building.
Heat coming through the windows is felt much sooner than heat coming through the walls. The rate
at which the sun heats up the walls depends upon wall construction. Thick walls increase in temperature much more slowly than thin walls but will hold more heat. This has a definite effect on conditions in the building, since the walls give up their heat slowly and the effects can be felt long after
the sun has passed the wall. The sun load varies according to season and exposure. The south exposure has the highest sun load in winter. During both seasons the east-exposure sun load reaches its
peak in the morning and the west reaches its peak in the afternoon. The sun load on the north exposure is due mostly to reflection and is therefore low throughout the year.
Transmission Load. The heat that comes into or goes out of the room through the windows and
walls (because of the difference between the outdoor and indoor temperatures) is called transmission
load. On a warm day, the heat travels into the room. On a cold day it travels from the room.

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MAINTENANCE OF PLANT FACILITIES

Transmission load is thought of as separate from the sun load. For example, the sunny side of the
building has a sun load and a transmission load while the shady side has only a transmission load.
Outside-Air Load. Outside air is required for ventilation and odor removal. It represents a cooling
load that varies based on temperature and moisture content.
Occupancy Load. The human body generates heat through metabolism and releases it by radiation,
convection, and evaporation. The amount of heat generated depends on temperature and activity
level.
Load from Lights. Electric lights give off heat in proportion to the wattage. This heat is included
when the designer calculates the cooling load.
Miscellaneous Loads. The heat from other sources such as electric motors, elevators, computers,
and communications equipment is included as part of the cooling load.
Latent Load. Excess moisture in the room is termed latent load. This load appears from several
sources: people breathing and perspiring; ventilation air; moist air infiltrating through window
cracks or building openings; and many miscellaneous moisture-producing pieces of equipment such
as steam tables, showers, and sterilizers.
Load Removal. All of these loads, including latent load, are removed by cooling action. In the case
of unitary equipment, the action takes place at the cooling coil in the unit, which is fed liquid refrigerant directly from the refrigerating assembly. As the refrigerant vaporizes it absorbs heat from the
air passing over the coil.
Excess moisture is removed by cooling the air, since air will hold less moisture at lower temperatures.
In central-station systems, similar cooling and humidity control takes place at the central airhandling apparatus through the use of cooling coils, a combination of coils and fine water sprays, or
sprays alone. In the larger systems the coils usually use chilled water from the refrigeration machine
rather than liquid refrigerant.
In order to exercise complete control over both humidity and temperature, it is frequently necessary to add a reheat coil to warm up the air after it has been dehumidified, because the reduced temperature required for dehumidification may be lower than that required to maintain proper
temperatures in the conditioned space.
In high-velocity induction systems of the type used in many office buildings, an additional means
of regulating temperature is provided by means of a coil in the room, through which chilled or warm
water may be passed. Room air is induced over this coil by the effect of high-velocity air from the
central unit as it passes over specially designed nozzles. The amount of heating or cooling is controlled by regulating either the water flow through the coil or the airflow across the coil. All dehumidification, however, is done at the central apparatus.
Size of the Cooling Loads
For a typical room, the distribution of cooling loads might be as follows:
Sun
Transmission
Lights
Occupancy
Total

50%
20%
18%
12%
100%

The above distribution shows that the sun is the largest part of the total room load. It also is a changing load, since it moves from one side of the building to the other and, in effect, can turn on or off

AIR-CONDITIONING EQUIPMENT

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any time during the day. Therefore, it has considerable effect on the control of the system. The tabulation also shows transmission to be the second largest load. This load can vary as the outdoor air
temperature varies. It is zero when outdoor air and indoor air have the same temperature, and negative when the outdoor air is cooler than the indoor air. When the load is negative, heat passes from
the room to the outdoors. Transmission is the only load that can reverse. The others can become zero,
but none will take heat from the room.
All the loads can vary, within certain limits. The sun load varies with weather conditions and seasons; the load from lights varies according to the number and wattage of units being used at a given time.
Occupancy, transmission, latent, and miscellaneous loads cannot be so readily defined. The engineer must therefore design the system for the maximum practical load. These conditions are called
design conditions. To limit the occupancy load, the engineer decides how many persons will normally occupy the room. For example, a hotel room might be designed for two persons and an office
for three or more.
Transmission load varies with the difference between outdoor and indoor temperatures. The maximum transmission load is based on the maximum design outdoor temperature which is determined
by studying weather records for the area.
The design engineer bases the system capacity on design conditions only and not on maximum
possible conditions. It would be costly and impractical to use a system whose capacity is great enough
to meet the demands of an abnormally hot day or an abnormally crowded room. The oversized
system would operate at full capacity only a few hours during the season.
Heating Loads
During cold weather heat must be added to the room to offset the heat loss through the walls and
windows. Although heat is still added to the space by occupants, lights, and miscellaneous sources,
the transmission loss to the outdoors may be great enough to require additional heat. The effect of
direct sunlight may offset the outward transmission load so that cooling may be necessary even during the winter months.
Since outdoor air is used for ventilation, it must be warmed in winter. In a typical system the air is
preheated to approximately 50F as it enters. Air then passes to the room after being further heated to
produce the room temperature desired by the occupant. In rooms where the heat gain from sun, light,
occupancy, and miscellaneous sources is high, supply air may be used without additional heating.

REFRIGERATION
Definition
Refrigeration has been defined as the transfer of heat from a place where it is not wanted to a place
where it is unobjectionable. This transfer usually results in lowering the temperature in the
refrigerated space or substance.
Unit of Measure
The unit for measuring refrigeration effect is the ton. A ton of refrigeration is equivalent to the
cooling effect produced by 1 ton of ice melting in a 24-hour period. To make it more useful, this definition is more often expressed in smaller units and related to a change in temperature or a change
in state. The smaller unit of heat is the British thermal unit (Btu), which is the amount of heat
required to raise 1 lb of water 1F. Heat can also bring about a change in state. For example, adding
heat to ice will change the ice to water. Adding more heat will change the water to steam. This
change of state can take place without a change in temperature. For our purposes, the amount of heat
required to change 1 lb of ice at 32F into water at 32F is 144 Btu. One ton of refrigeration, then,
is equivalent to 2000 lb of ice times 144 Btu per lb in 24 hr, or 288,000 Btu.