Mizan-Tepi University

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Refrigeration & Air
conditioning

By : Course
7. Inside and Outside design Instructors 1
 Inside and outside design conditions
o Design and analysis of air conditioning systems involves
a) selection of suitable inside and outside design
conditions,
b) estimation of the required capacity of cooling or
heating system,
c) selection of suitable cooling/heating equipment,
d) design of air transmission and distribution systems.
e) selecting supply conditions,
o Generally, the inputs are the building specifications and
its usage pattern and any other special requirements.

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 Selection of inside design conditions:

o The required inside design conditions depend on the

intended use of the building.
o Air conditioning is required either
– for providing suitable comfort conditions for the
occupants (e.g. comfort air conditioning), i.e thermal
comfort
– for providing suitable conditions for storage of
perishable products or conditions for a process to take
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Thermal comfort:
o Thermal comfort is defined as “the condition of mind
which expresses satisfaction with the thermal
environment”.
o A living human body may be likened to a heat engine in
which the chemical energy contained in the food it
consumes continuously is converted into work and
heat.
o The process of conversion of chemical energy
contained in food into heat and work is called as
“metabolism”.
o The rate at which the chemical energy is converted into
heat and work is called as “metabolic rate”. 4
Thermal comfort(cont..)

o Similar to a heat engine, one can define thermal

efficiency of a human being as the ratio of useful work
output to the energy input. The thermal efficiency of a
human being can vary from 0% to as high as 15-20% for
a short duration.
o A human body continuously generates heat at a rate
varying from about 100 W (e.g. for a sedentary person)
to as high as 2000 W (e.g. a person doing strenuous
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exercise).
Thermal comfort (cont..)

o A human body is very sensitive to temperature. The

body temperature must be maintained within a narrow
range to avoid discomfort, and within a somewhat wider
range, to avoid danger from heat or cold stress.
o Studies show that at neutral condition, the
temperatures should be:

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Thermal comfort (cont..)
o At other temperatures, the body will feel discomfort or
it may even become lethal.
o It is observed that when the core temperature is
between 35 to 39oC, the body experiences only a mild
(Slight) discomfort. When the temperature is lower
than 35oC or higher than 39oC, then people suffer major
loss in efficiency.
o It becomes lethal when the temperature falls below
31oC or rises above 43oC. This is shown in the figure
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Effect of the variation of core temperature on a human being. 8
 Heat Exchange between human body and thermal
environment: (2-node thermal interaction)
 human body is composed of two compartments: an inner body core,
including skeleton, muscle and internal organs; and an outer shell
of skin surface.
 The temperatures of the body core and the surface skin are each
assumed to be uniform and independent.
 Taking the human body as the control volume, one can write the
thermal energy (heat) balance equation for the human body as:

where
Qgen = Rate at which heat is generated inside the body
Qsk = Total heat transfer rate from the skin
Qres = Heat transfer rate due to respiration (inhaling and exhaling),
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and
o Again considering metabolic rate and work output,
The heat generation rate Qgen is given by:

where M = Metabolic rate, and

η = Thermal efficiency ≈ 0 for most of the activities.
o The metabolic rate depends on the activity. It is
normally measured in the unit “met”.
o A met is defined as: the metabolic rate per unit area
of a sedentary person and is found to be equal to
about 58.2 W/m2. This is also known as “basal
metabolic rate”.
o Table below shows typical metabolic rates 10for
Table shows typical metabolic rates for different
activities:

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o The human body is considered to be a cylinder with
uniform heat generation and dissipation. The surface
area over which the heat dissipation takes place is
given by an empirical equation, called as Du Bois
Equation.
o This equation expresses the surface area as a function
of the mass and height of the human being. It is given
by:

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o Thus from the metabolic rate and the surface area, one
can calculate the amount of heat generation, Qgen.

o The total heat transfer rate from the skin Qsk is given
by:

where
Qconv = Heat transfer rate due to convection
(sensible heat) 13
o According to Belding and Hatch approaches, the
convective, radiative and evaporative heat transfer
rates from the naked body of an average adult , Qc, Qr
and Qe, respectively, are given by:

where:
ps,b and pv are the saturated pressure of water vapour at
surface temperature of the body and partial pressure of water
vapour in air, respectively, in kPa.
tb = body temperature
ts = surface temperature of the body
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v = velocity , m/s
o A sedentary person at neutral condition loses
about 40 % of heat by evaporation, about 30 %
by convection and 30 % by radiation. However,
this proportion may change with other factors.
o For example, the heat loss by evaporation
increases when the DBT of the environment
increases and/or the activity increases .
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Factors affecting thermal comfort:
• Thermal comfort is affected by several factors. These
are:
1. Physiological factors: such as age, activity, sex and
health.
2. Insulating factor due to clothing. The type of clothing
has strong influence on the rate of heat transfer from
the human body.
– The unit for measuring the resistance offered by
clothes is known as “clo”.
– 1 clo is equal to a resistance of about 0.155m2.K/W.
– Typical clo values for different types of clothing have
been estimated and are available in the form of
tables. 16
oTable below shows the recommended comfort conditions
for different seasons and clothing suitable at 50 % RH,
air velocity of 0.15 m/s and an activity level of ≤ 1.2
met.

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Factors affecting thermal comfort (cont..)
3. Environmental factors.
o Important factors are the dry bulb temperature, relative
humidity, air motion and surrounding surface
temperature.
o Of these the dry bulb temperature affects heat transfer
by convection and evaporation, the relative humidity
affects heat loss by evaporation, air velocity influences
both convective and evaporative heat transfer and the
surrounding surface temperature affects the radiative
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Indices for thermal comfort:
o Several indices and measures have been developed to
quantify and assess thermal comfort in indoor or
outdoor environments.
o It is seen that important factors which affect thermal
comfort are the activity, clothing, air DBT, RH, air
velocity and surrounding temperature.
o These indices are the dry bulb temperature, humidity
ratio, air velocity and the mean radiant temperature
(Tmrt).
o Tmrt is defined as the uniform temperature of an
imaginary enclosure (or environment) in which the
radiant heat transfer from the human body is equal
to the radiant heat transfer in the actual non 19

uniform enclosure (or environment)

Effective temperature (ET):
o This factor combines the effects of dry bulb temperature and air
humidity into a single factor.
o It is defined as the temperature of the environment at 50% RH
which results in the same total loss from the skin as in the
Operative temperature (Top):
actual environment.
This factor is a weighted average of air DBT and Tmrt into a
single factor. It is given by:

Where:
 hr and hc are the radiative and convective heat transfer
coefficients (constant). 20
 Tamb is the DBT of air.
 ASHRAE has defined a comfort chart based on the
effective and operative temperatures. On the chart, the
region where summer and winter comfort zones overlap,
people in winter clothing feel slightly warm and people
in summer clothing feel slightly cool. Based on the chart
ASHARE makes the following recommendations:
Inside design conditions for Winter:
Top between 20.0 to 23.5oC dry bulb temperature and RH of 50-
60%
Inside design conditions for Summer:
Top between 22.5 to 26oC dry bulb temperature and RH of 30-
40%
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ASHRAE comfort chart for a sedentary person
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(activity ≈ 1.2 met)
Selection of outside design conditions:
 The design outside conditions also depend on the
following factors:
A. Type of the structure, i.e., whether it is of heavy
construction, medium or light
B. Insulation characteristics of the building
C. Area of glass or other transparent surfaces
D. Type of usage
E. Nature of occupancy
F. Daily temperature range (difference between
maximum and minimum temperatures in a given
day)
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Outdoor design conditions for summer:
 It is recommended that the outdoor design conditions for
summer be chosen based on the values of dry bulb and mean
coincident wet bulb temperature that is equaled or exceeded 0.4
(35hr/yr), 1.0(88hr/yr) or 2.0% (175hr/yr) of total hours in an
year.
 These values for major locations in the world are available in
data books, such as AHRAE handbooks.
 Whether to choose the 0.4 % value or 1.0 % value or 2.0 % value
depends on specific requirements.
 In the absence of any special requirements, the 1.0% or 2%
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value may be considered for summer outdoor design conditions.
Outdoor Design Conditions for Addis Ababa

Example Addis Ababa (Highland Climate)

• Altitude: ~2,400 meters (7,874 feet)
Summer Outdoor Design Conditions:
– 0.4% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~26°C (79°F)
– 1.0% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~24°C (75°F)
– Wet Bulb Temperature: ~15°C to 17°C (59°F to 63°F)
Winter Outdoor Design Conditions:
– 0.4% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~14°C (57°F)
– 1.0% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~12°C (54°F)
– Wet Bulb Temperature: ~10°C to 12°C (50°F to 54°F)

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 Outdoor Design Conditions for Diredawa
e.g. Dire Dawa (Lowland Climate)
• Altitude: ~1,200 meters (3,937 feet)
• Summer Outdoor Design Conditions:
– 0.4% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~36°C (97°F)
– 1.0% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~34°C (93°F)
– Wet Bulb Temperature: ~20°C to 23°C (68°F to 73°F)
• Winter Outdoor Design Conditions:
– 0.4% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~24°C (75°F)
– 1.0% Dry Bulb Temperature: ~22°C (72°F)
– Wet Bulb Temperature: ~19°C to 21°C (66°F to 70°F)

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Example
A 1.8 meter tall man with a body mass of 60 kg performs light
work (activity = 1.2 met) in an indoor environment. The indoor
conditions are: DBT of 30oC, mean radiant temperature of 32oC, air
velocity of 0.2 m/s. Assuming an average surface temperature of
34oC for the surface of the human being and light clothing, find the
amount of evaporative heat transfer required so that the man is at
neutral equilibrium.

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Solution:

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Thank You!