FEATURE AIR CONDITIONING Saving energy with efficient humidification
Andie Chessun, National Sales Manager at HygroMatik UK and RoI, discusses how adiabatic cooling can help buildings become more energy efficient by managing the on-going cost and long term reliability of HVAC systems in commercial and industrial settings such as labs and data centres
CASE STUDY A blood transfusion centre in Austria run by the Upper Austrian Red Cross, saved a significant amount of money in energy and maintenance costs with the installation of eight adiabatic HygroMatik HPS systems. The Blutzentrale Linz, had to meet exacting standards of hygiene in line with the Austrian ÖNorm H6020, which is formulated to a strict legal framework in relation to room climate and humidity. As strict limits for climatic data and a
sothermal humidifiers generate vapour by boiling water, which requires an external source of energy to change the state of the water. Adiabatic systems on the other hand, take heat energy from the surrounding air to create humidifying mist without an external energy source. The atomisation therefore has a cooling (adiabatic) effect on the room temperature, which in turn reduces the energy requirement. Rising energy costs coupled with environmental concerns can be considerably reduced with adiabatic humidification, offering precision, reliability and lower running costs. Some pressured adiabatic systems are capable of working at capacities of up to 620l/hr, which is beneficial for environments that demand large humidification loads, such as offices, hospitals, data centres, production halls and laboratories. The best adiabatic systems offer a free cooling effect of up to 30%, which is useful for reducing the load from existing cooling systems, providing further savings on running costs in areas where cooling is required. Furthermore, in many specialist environments such as clean rooms, operating theatres and laboratories, there can be a risk of electrostatic charging which occurs when objects attract dust as a result of dry air. Adiabatic systems can reduce this risk above 35% rh and even prevent it, if air humidification is increased. In summary, adiabatic systems draw heat
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from the air for evaporation. As they do not require an external or dedicated energy source to change water into vapour for humidification, they have drastically lower energy demands when compared to
28 AUTUMN 2015 | ENERGY MANAGEMENT
isothermal humidifiers. Adiabatic humidification is particularly useful in spaces where the air is warm and dry or where there is an additional heat load from equipment, such as in data centres or in industrial settings. For building and facilities managers, adiabatic systems can offer the ideal solution to meet and exceed current government legislation. The systems are not only easy to install and retrofit, they are also easy to operate and maintain. Offering precise humidity control, they provide significant energy savings by negating the need for steam.
PUBLIC SECTOR SAFETY Public safety should also be highly considered in the majority of applications and in particular, public sector buildings such as hospitals and laboratories. There are a number of industry guides that ought to be consulted in order to specify the correct humidification solution. As chairman of the FETA humidity group, Andie Chessun, National Sales Manager at HygroMatik, UK and RoI, had an input into the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) ‘KS19: Humidification’ guide, which Chessun, advises is a “must-read” for all building services professionals. For those particularly involved in the
healthcare sector, authoritative guidance on public health and hygiene can be sought from CIBSE’s ‘TM13: Minimising the Risk of Legionnaires' Disease’, ’Guide G for Public Health and Plumbing’ or the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air- Conditioning Engineers' (ASHRAE) ‘HVAC Design Manual for Hospitals and Clinics’.
Figure 1:
A blood transfusion centre in Austria saved a significant amount of money in energy and maintenance costs with the installation of eight adiabatic HygroMatik HPS systems
minimum level of humidity must be maintained in these rooms, the steam humidification systems in the HVAC control room were converted to efficient high pressure nozzle solutions. The eight new systems have outperformed the previous systems, reducing maintenance costs from €7,500 per year to €1,400 and reducing energy bills from €96,267 per year to €16,036. The adiabatic system helps cool the air, which further reduces air- conditioning and energy requirements. This free cooling of incoming air can be used to its full potential in the summer months. Air quality, temperature and humidity play an important role in the large production facility. To give you a comparison of the level of air quality, Class A cleanrooms such as the ones at Linz, must have under 29 particles of size 5.0µm per 1m3 compared to a typical office where on average there will be 100,000 particles in the same area. Adiabatic systems are really valuable for large projects such as laboratories and data centres, where free cooling can be exploited to full potential; saving costly cooling bills, reducing energy use and lowering carbon emissions. For easy and convenient monitoring, HygroMatik’s range of humidification systems now come with Modbus as standard which enables customers to control all systems from one point. The units can be linked to any building’s existing BMS and Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) without any further hardware required. The communication protocol Modbus
RTU based on the serial interface RS- 232/ RS-485 makes modern building management surprisingly easy. Furthermore, HygroMatik units are BIM ready, meeting the UK Government’s mandate of level 2 BIM by 2016.
HygroMatik UK
www.hygromatik.com 0238 0443127
/ ENERGYMANAGEMENT
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