Revitalizing Comfort

Abstract

Nowadays, thermal comfort is becoming a major problem for people due to increasing global warming and climatic changes, but it can be resolved by the concept of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. The purpose of HVAC is to provide occupants with a comfort zone so that they can feel comfortable according to their thermal comfort. The core objective of this study is to design and propose an HVAC system as per actual design conditions for the University Auditorium located in Karachi, Pakistan. A direct Expansion (DX – Type) system is installed in the Auditorium that has exceeded the lifespan of twenty years, refrigerant R-22 which is currently being used has been obsolete due to its high GWP (Global Warming Potential) and ODP (Ozone Depletion Potential) values which are 1810 and 0.05 respectively. To achieve the objective of this study, two approaches are employed. Cooling Load Temperature Difference (CLTD) method & Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) software. The cooling load calculated from the CLTD method is 202 kW equivalent to 57.5 Ton of Refrigeration (TR). On the other side, the cooling load calculated from HAP software is 192.8 kW equivalent to 55 TR. By considering the calculated cooling load for the University Auditorium, two different HVAC systems are proposed, based on Water cooled and Air-cooled Vapor Compression Cycle. After this study, engineers will be able to design an HVAC system for any facility as per design conditions. Also, they can propose different cost-effective and energy-efficient HVAC systems for that particular space.