E2S n.v. Technologiepark, 5 B9051 Zwijnaarde Belgium www.e2s.

be
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
1 Purpose of the Psychrometrics Program ............................................................................ 1
2 Setting up Psychrometrics .................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Welcome Window ........................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Getting the First New Version ......................................................................................... 3
2.3 Registering....................................................................................................................... 6
2.4 Disclaimer Window ......................................................................................................... 7
2.5 About Command ............................................................................................................. 8
3 Using Psychrometrics .......................................................................................................... 10
3.1 The Main Screen ........................................................................................................... 10
3.2 Direct Actions ................................................................................................................ 11
3.2.1 Hovering .................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.2 Altitude Setting ......................................................................................................... 12
3.2.3 Changing Diagram Lines .......................................................................................... 13
3.3 Point Definitions............................................................................................................ 15
3.3.1 Define a Point ............................................................................................................ 15
3.3.2 Adding a Point........................................................................................................... 15
3.3.3 Editing a Point ........................................................................................................... 16
3.3.4 Removing a Point ...................................................................................................... 17
3.4 Action Definitions ......................................................................................................... 17
3.4.1 Defining an Action .................................................................................................... 17
3.4.2 Add an Action............................................................................................................ 28
3.4.3 Editing an Action....................................................................................................... 29
3.4.4 Removing an Action.................................................................................................. 30
3.5 Zooming and Panning ................................................................................................... 30
3.6 Putting It All Together ................................................................................................... 31
4 Using the Preferences Screen.............................................................................................. 33
4.1 The Units Tab ................................................................................................................ 33
4.2 The Diagrams Tab ......................................................................................................... 34
4.2.1 Selecting the Diagram ............................................................................................... 34
4.2.2 Defining the Density ................................................................................................. 35
4.3 The Paths Tab ................................................................................................................ 36
5 Reports .................................................................................................................................. 38

List of Figures
Figure 1: Humidifying air through saturated steam or evaporating water ...................................... 1
Figure 2: Selecting the country and the language............................................................................ 3
Figure 3: Looking up the available versions.................................................................................... 4
Figure 4: Getting information about a specific configuration ......................................................... 4
Figure 5: Notice about collecting statistics data .............................................................................. 5
Figure 6: Version download is completed ....................................................................................... 5
Figure 7: The registration form ........................................................................................................ 6
Figure 8: The final registration ........................................................................................................ 7
Figure 9: The disclaimer window .................................................................................................... 7
Figure 10: The About window with its version related commands................................................. 8
Figure 11: The release notes in the About Window......................................................................... 8
Figure 12: Confirming a lookup for new versions .......................................................................... 9
Figure 13: The Psychrometrics start up screen .............................................................................. 10
Figure 14: Hovering over the diagram........................................................................................... 11
Figure 15: The diagrams at different altitude values ..................................................................... 12
5 December, 2016 Page i
 Table of Contents
Figure 16: Hiding lines on the diagram ......................................................................................... 13
Figure 17: Changing the diagram line colors ................................................................................ 14
Figure 18: Defining a point ............................................................................................................ 15
Figure 19: The point definition panel and a list of three point definitions .................................... 16
Figure 20: Editing a point .............................................................................................................. 17
Figure 21: The list of available actions .......................................................................................... 17
Figure 22: Defining the "Show point" action ................................................................................ 18
Figure 23: Showing a point on the diagram .................................................................................. 18
Figure 24: Connecting two points.................................................................................................. 19
Figure 25: Combining two actions to highlight a point................................................................. 19
Figure 26: Mixing air ..................................................................................................................... 20
Figure 27: Selecting the automatically added intermediate point ................................................. 20
Figure 28: Cooling a volume of air................................................................................................ 21
Figure 29: Heating a volume of air, using steam humidification .................................................. 22
Figure 30: Heating a volume of air, using water humidification................................................... 22
Figure 31: Adding total cooling capacity to a psychrometrics point............................................. 23
Figure 32: Cooling, using a given sensible heat factor, up to saturation....................................... 24
Figure 33: Condensate along the 100%RH line ............................................................................ 24
Figure 34: Adding heating capacity to a psychrometrics point ..................................................... 25
Figure 35: Humidification through saturated steam ...................................................................... 25
Figure 36: Humidification through water ...................................................................................... 26
Figure 37: Adiabatic dehumidification .......................................................................................... 26
Figure 38: Calculating the bypass factor and discharge temperature ............................................ 27
Figure 39: Calculate the discharge for given bypass factor........................................................... 27
Figure 40: Drawing sensible heat factor lines ............................................................................... 28
Figure 41: Adding an action........................................................................................................... 28
Figure 42: Editing an action........................................................................................................... 29
Figure 43: Zooming a diagram zone.............................................................................................. 30
Figure 44: Combining several actions into one diagram ............................................................... 31
Figure 45: Two ways to cool to saturation..................................................................................... 32
Figure 46: An overview of the available units............................................................................... 33
Figure 47: The diagram and panels showing the temperature in 0F .............................................. 34
Figure 48: The diagram selection tab ............................................................................................ 34
Figure 49: A complete example using the Mollier diagram .......................................................... 35
Figure 50: Using different density values to calculate capacities ................................................. 35
Figure 51: Explaining the density setting ...................................................................................... 36
Figure 52: Defining the paths for projects and reports .................................................................. 37
Figure 53: A single page report ...................................................................................................... 38
Figure 54: The second report page for the example in section 3.5................................................ 39

What's New
- This version describes three new actions: Bypass factor, Discharge and Sensible heat factor.
- All figures explaining the actions have been replaced by new ones, as the user interface to enter
the points has been adapted: it is now possible to enter two intermediate points for some actions,
intermediate lines may or may not be suppressed and the maximum length for point names has
been extended to 8 characters instead of 5. So, the size of the edit boxes has been extended as
well.
- The order of the actions has been changed to make them appear in a logical order of explanation.

5 December, 2016 Page ii

 Purpose of the Psychrometrics Program

1 Purpose of the Psychrometrics Program

The Psychrometrics program1 displays a Psychrometrics or a Mollier diagram, showing several
properties of air: dry bulb temperature, wet bulb temperature, absolute humidity2, relative
humidity, enthalpy, specific volume and density. This diagram is the template to add psychrometric
points and perform simple actions on them, possibly introducing intermediate points:
- You define a point by entering two air properties. For example, a dry bulb temperature and a
relative humidity, a dry bulb temperature and a wet bulb temperature, but also more exotic
definitions such as an enthalpy and a specific volume.
- For any given point, you get all its air properties, but you can also calculate the energy needed
to heat up or cool down air between two points. Or given a point, add or subtract energy to
result in a second point. You can also mix two volumes of air to get the condition of the mixture.
You can calculate the bypass factor and the discharge temperature. Finally, you may humidify
or dehumidify air.
- Psychrometrics offers two humidification methods (see Figure 1): through saturated steam or
water evaporation. The first one adds moist to the air without changing the temperature, the
second one uses the air temperature to evaporate water, which cools the air temperature
(sensible capacity) and increases the moist content (latent capacity).

Figure 1: Humidifying air through saturated steam or evaporating water

- All data are expressed either in SI (metric system) or in I-P (imperial system). You can select
any individual unit and create your own set.
- When you define a folder path, Psychrometrics offers to save and reopen a project file.
- At any time you can create a report.
- Psychrometrics also exist in different languages and checks for new versions. The next chapter
explains how to set up the Psychrometrics using the latest version and the required language.

1
This document uses the shorter name "Psychrometrics" instead of the full name "the Psychrometrics program".
2
The ASHRAE handbook uses the term “humidity ratio”, which reflects better the content of this value, that is: the
amount of water (kg) in one kg of dry air. On the other hand, the German handbook Recknagel (another standard
book) refers to this value as “Absolute Luftfeuchte”, which has been translated into absolute humidity. This document
uses the term absolute humidity.
5 December, 2016 Page 1
 Setting up Psychrometrics

2 Setting up Psychrometrics
Psychrometrics shares some settings with other Daikin selection programs (Daikin Altherma,
RefrigXpress, VRV_Xpress, VRV_Pro, VentilationXpress, etc). In fact, when you start one of the
programs for the first time, it will fill in these settings and store them on a place accessible to the
other selection programs. In addition, all selection program perform an automatic version check,
allow you to read the release notes and download an user manual. Psychrometrics does not contain
a device database and so, its initial setup is a bit simpler. However, the text of this chapter is very
similar in the different user manuals, but the figures are specific for the selection program described
in the corresponding manual.
2.1 Welcome Window
After having downloaded Psychrometrics (from Extranet, from a Daikin partner portal, etc), move
it to a folder on your computer. You can then keep all project related data in this folder.
Psychrometrics does not need an explicit installation. In fact, it detects its status and performs
automatic adjustments, depending on the situation.

A downloaded Psychrometrics program is an English version. When you start it the first time, it
will look for two global (selection) program settings:
1. The country you live in. The (selection) programs use this information to look up the server for
program versions available for Psychrometrics. The functionality of Psychrometrics is the same
for each country. However, for selection programs, the database content may differ. In fact,
some Daikin devices may or may not be available in some countries.
2. The language version of Psychrometrics. Each (selection) program is available in a large set of
languages. Note that the language you select is independent of the country you selected. In fact,
it is perfectly possible to select a language not spoken at all in the country you selected.

If Psychrometrics does not find these global settings, it will display a Welcome window, as shown
in Figure 2 at the left. At the right, you find the selections you can choose from. The lists shown
here are much larger than the countries or languages supported by Daikin. However, when
checking for new versions (see section 2.2), there are two possibilities:
1. Daikin supports the country and language you selected. When new versions are available for
that country and in that language, you will get a list of these versions, from which you can select
the required one.
2. Daikin does not support either the country or language you selected. When you check for new
versions, you will get the default version, which is always a version in English.

For some languages, Daikin offers variant versions. So, these languages appear as sub versions of
that language, as for instance English (Australia) in Figure 2.

Once you have selected the country and language, the other Daikin selection programs can get that
information and so, you do not have to enter it again. However, you can change these settings at
any time, in the window to download new versions (see section 2.2) and in the About window (see
section 2.5).

5 December, 2016 Page 2

 Setting up Psychrometrics

Figure 2: Selecting the country and the language

2.2 Getting the First New Version

As explained in the previous section, a downloaded Psychrometrics program is an English version.
When you start Psychrometrics program it notices it needs a different language and connects to a
central server, called DENV. So, your computer needs an Internet connection and it is not possible
to get any version without it.

Important note: Make absolutely sure the (selection) program you are using has the correct
name. For this program, the name must be “Psychrometrics.exe”. When
connecting to the central server, Psychrometrics must send its executable
name. If that central server does not recognize the name it receives, it refuses
to proceed. So, never rename the file "Psychrometrics.exe".

The central server will look up the available versions for the given country and language. A version
consists of five parts:
1. The program name. In fact, the central server uses this name to lookup its database for versions
for the given Psychrometrics program.
2. The program version. A program version defines the available functionality.
3. The program language. Psychrometrics comes in different language versions (English, French,
…etc). The central server will look for the language you selected (see section 2.1)
4. The configuration used for filtering of the devices. For Psychrometrics this is not applicable, as
it is not using a database.
5. The version number of the central database. This equally is not applicable for Psychrometrics.

Using this information, the central server looks up the available versions and sends it to
Psychrometrics, which brings up a window as shown in Figure 3:

5 December, 2016 Page 3

 Setting up Psychrometrics

Figure 3: Looking up the available versions

- The top of this window shows that this is the initial Psychrometrics program version, as there
is no version information yet.
- The middle part shows the country and language information, you filled in (see section 2.1).
- The bottom part shows the list of available versions. In this case, there is only one version
available (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Getting information about a specific configuration

Click the "Download Selected Version" command button to download and install the version.
Before starting this download, Psychrometrics shows a Notice window as shown in Figure 5:

5 December, 2016 Page 4

 Setting up Psychrometrics

Figure 5: Notice about collecting statistics data

It explains that Psychrometrics is collecting statistics data during its execution. It sends these to
the central server, together with the version, the language, …etc. These data are used to perform
an analysis about the use of Psychrometrics program, the kind of projects developed, …etc.

To continue, you first have to select "I accept these conditions" and click the "Continue" button.
Psychrometrics stops without downloading a new version if you select "I do not accept these
conditions", and click the "Continue" button.

After having accepted these conditions Psychrometrics displays a warning message to save your
project, if applicable, and starts the download. The bottom of the software setup window of Figure
3 changes into a progress bar. On a normal Internet connection, this downloading process takes a
few seconds. At the end of the download, Psychrometrics displays a window to restart it. Figure 6
shows the save warning message, the progress bar and the restart message

Figure 6: Version download is completed

5 December, 2016 Page 5

 Setting up Psychrometrics

2.3 Registering
Before being able to use Psychrometrics, you need to register it. This action is only needed the first
time you use Psychrometrics. Registering is a two step process:
1. First you have to fill in registration data, as shown in Figure 7:

Figure 7: The registration form

This form contains required fields and a few optional fields. The most important required field
is the e-mail address. This must be a correct and existing e-mail. In fact, to finish the
registration, the Daikin server will send you a registration code (see step 2) to this e-mail
address. If this address doesn't exist or contains an (typographical) error, you will not receive
an e-mail, preventing you to complete the registration process.
After you filled in the required fields, make sure to check the checkmark at the bottom: you
can first read the notice on data processing, which will check the checkmark automatically or
you have to do this manually. This will make the "Register" command available. Click it to
send the information to the Daikin server.

2. Psychrometrics now extends the registration window to allow you entering a confirmation code
and after a short moment, the Daikin server will send you a mail with that confirmation code.
Figure 8 shows the window after having clicked the "Register" command button, and waiting
for the mail. The registration code is a large numeric code, e.g. 2131974122.

5 December, 2016 Page 6

 Setting up Psychrometrics

Figure 8: The final registration

When you enter that code, you receive a message that the registration was completed
successfully.
2.4 Disclaimer Window
Each time you start a new version, Psychrometrics program displays a disclaimer window, as
shown in Figure 9. This window explains the general conditions of using this Psychrometrics
program.

Figure 9: The disclaimer window

To continue, click the "Close" button. This is the final window before showing the main window,
5 December, 2016 Page 7
 Setting up Psychrometrics

as explained in section 3.1

2.5 About Command
The main Psychrometrics window (see section 3.1) has a command toolbar containing an About
command, as shown in Figure 10 at the top:

Figure 10: The About window with its version related commands

Clicking this command brings up the About window. It contains three version related command
buttons:
1. The "Release Notes" command button extends the About window with a list of release notes
about the last versions. You get all release notes from your current Psychrometrics version to
the latest version available on the central server, for a maximum of 5 versions. Figure 11 gives
an example of such release notes.

Figure 11: The release notes in the About Window

2. The "Localization" command button brings up a window similar to the Welcome window in
Figure 2, in which you can change the selected country and language (see section 2.1).
Changing the country has no effect on Psychrometrics, but changing the language obviously
may lead to a different language version. When closing this window, Psychrometrics notices
the changes and displays the question window from Figure 12:
5 December, 2016 Page 8
 Setting up Psychrometrics

Figure 12: Confirming a lookup for new versions

Answering "Yes" to this question starts a communication with the central server to look for a
new version. As a result, Psychrometrics brings up the version overview window as shown in
Figure 3 (see section 2.2), from which you can download the required version.

3. The "User's Manual" command button downloads this user manual as pdf file and allows you
to save it locally on your computer. This command only appears if there is a manual available.

4. The “Quick Start” command button connects to YouTube and starts an instruction video, giving
some intricate examples of usage of the Psychrometrics program.

5 December, 2016 Page 9

 Using Psychrometrics

3 Using Psychrometrics
3.1 The Main Screen
After the initial screens, the main Psychrometrics screens comes up, as shown in Figure 13:

Figure 13: The Psychrometrics start up screen

- It shows a psychrometrics diagram with seven different constant lines:

a. Lines of constant dry bulb temperature values. These are vertical lines, shown in a gray
default color and ranging from -400C to +650C. Chapter 4 explains how to use different units.
For temperature values, the other unit is 0F.
b. Lines of constant absolute humidity values. These are horizontal lines, equally shown in a
gray default color and ranging for 0kg/kg to 0.550kg/kg.
c. Lines of constant relative humidity, which are curved lines, shown in a brown default color
and ranging from 0% to 100%.
d. Lines of constant enthalpy, which are slanted lines, shown in a green default color and its
range depend on the altitude setting. Its values are expressed in kJ/kg.
e. Lines of constant wet bulb temperature, which are slanted lines, almost identical with the
enthalpy lines, shown in blue default color. Its range also depend on the altitude setting and
its values are expressed in 0C.
f. Lines of constant specific volume, which are slanted lines, shown in fuchsia default color.
Its range depend on the altitude setting and its values are expressed in m3/kg.
g. Lines of constant moist air density, which are slanted, almost vertical, lines, shown in teal
default color. Its range depend on the altitude setting and its values are expressed in kg/m3.
A typical value used in air conditioning is 1.2kg/m3.

- At the top left, you can select the altitude. By default, the diagram shows its lines at sea level.
At a different altitude, some lines will shift (e.g. the air becomes less dense at higher altitude).

- At the left of the diagram, there are two panels, both explained in more detail in chapter 4:
5 December, 2016 Page 10
 Using Psychrometrics

a. A panel to define psychrometric points using two air properties.

b. A panel to define actions on these points.

- To the right of the panels, the Point Data panel gives all air properties about a specific
psychrometric point, as equally explained in chapter 3.
3.2 Direct Actions
Psychrometrics offers three direct actions, that is, actions having an immediate graphical feedback:
1. Hovering, showing psychrometric data while you move the mouse over the diagram.
2. Altitude setting, showing the psychrometric diagram at different altitude.
3. Changing diagram lines, either by changing their color or by hiding them.

The next three sections explain those actions in more detail.

3.2.1 Hovering
The simplest action is moving the mouse over the diagram. By checking the "Hovering"
checkmark the mouse becomes diagram sensitive and Psychrometrics shows all psychrometric
data about the current position of the mouse in the diagram. Move the mouse to see the data
changing. The panel becomes empty when you move the mouse outside the diagram. Figure 14
shows the point data for the indicated mouse position. Note point data panel mentions "(Mouse)"
in its title to indicate that you are hovering.

Figure 14: Hovering over the diagram

If the diagram contains points (see section 3.3) and you click on those points while in hovering
mode, Psychrometrics automatically switches it off and shows the point data for the selected point.
The point data panel will then show the name of the selected point.

5 December, 2016 Page 11

 Using Psychrometrics

3.2.2 Altitude Setting

You can change the altitude by entering a value between -500m and +2000m and terminating the
data entry either by pressing the return key or the tab key. Or you can move the scroll bar next to
the edit field.

After each change, Psychrometrics redraws the diagram and the constant lines of relative humidity,
specific volume and density will shift. In addition, the top of the diagram becomes larger. Figure
15 shows different diagrams at different altitude.

Figure 15 also shows how a line of constant specific volume shifts: the line of 1.000m3/kg at 0m
is at the top right and at 2000m, it shifts down to the left of the diagram. In fact, at higher altitude,
the air is less dense and you need more m3 of air to get 1kg.

Figure 15: The diagrams at different altitude values

5 December, 2016 Page 12

 Using Psychrometrics

3.2.3 Changing Diagram Lines

You can change diagram lines in two ways:
1. You can hide lines.
At the bottom of the diagram, Psychrometrics shows the legend of the lines. In front of each
legend title, there is a checkmark: check it to show a line (the default) and uncheck it to hide it.
Figure 16 shows the diagram after having hidden the wet bulb temperature, the specific volume
and the moist air density lines. This is the diagram as was available in former versions of
Psychrometrics.

Figure 16: Hiding lines on the diagram

2. You can change the line colors

When you click the small square in front of the legend title, Psychrometrics brings up a color
window from which you can select one of the predefined (Windows) colors or define your own
color. Figure 17 at the top shows the main screen and a color window to change the color of the
dry bulb temperature. Figure 17 at the bottom shows the result after having changed the color
of each line.

By clicking the "Restore Defaults" button in the Preferences window (see chapter 4),
Psychrometrics restores the default colors and shows all diagram lines again.

5 December, 2016 Page 13

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 17: Changing the diagram line colors

5 December, 2016 Page 14

 Using Psychrometrics

3.3 Point Definitions

3.3.1 Define a Point
Before you can define any action, you need to define the points on which you want to perform an
action. You do this on the point definition panel (see Figure 18):

To define a point you need to enter up to four data:

1. The point name. Psychrometrics fills in a name (P1) and automatically finds the next available
name for the next point. However, you can replace the proposed name by another name. Keep
in mind that this name will also appear on the diagram and long names clutter up the diagram
real fast. That's why Psychrometrics limits a name to 8 characters.

2. A first air property. By default Psychrometrics proposes the dry bulb temperature, as this is a
value along the x-axis. However, you can choose from a list of properties, the same as the ones
shown as diagram lines. When you change the property, Psychrometrics adapts the dimension
of the unit (0C disappears and is replaced by the proper dimension) and also the range of the
values you can enter.

3. A second air property. By default Psychrometrics proposes the absolute humidity, as this is a
value along the y-axis. However, as for the first property, you can choose from a list of
properties. Clearly, the second air property you chose must differ from the first one: you cannot
define a point by entering e.g. two dry bulb temperature values.
In addition, the following combinations are not possible as the lines of the chosen properties
are crossing too sharp to get a clear crossing point:
° Wet bulb temperature and enthalpy: the lines of constant wet bulb temperature and constant
enthalpy are so close to each other that their difference can be considered as negligible.
This is especially true in the comfort zone (200C-300C dry bulb temperature and
0.005kg/kg-0.015kg/kg absolute humidity).
° Specific volume and moist are density.

4. Airflow. This defines the volume of air (per hour) on which to perform an action.
Psychrometrics fills in 150l/s (about 540m3/h) as a default.

Figure 18: Defining a point

3.3.2 Adding a Point

When finished entering or selecting the data for the point, click the "Add" command button to add
it to a list of points. Psychrometrics automatically selects the last point added and also shows it in
the point data panel and on the diagram. It also shows the selected point in a different color and
enables the "Edit" and "Remove" commands. Figure 19 shows the point definition panel with
beneath it three point definitions:

5 December, 2016 Page 15

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 19: The point definition panel and a list of three point definitions

You can define up to 15 points. Although there is no real limit on the list, more points make the
diagram really hard to read, especially because some actions (see section 3.4) add extra points.

To deselect a point, click its point definition a second time. You can also select (and deselect) a
point by clicking it (or clicking it a second time) on the diagram. Psychrometrics then changes the
color of the point definition and shows its point data at the right. The title of point data panel also
contains the point name for which Psychrometrics shows the data.

All points you define must differ in their psychrometric properties. Defining two identical points
but with different names gives a warning message and puts both points one over the other in the
diagram, making it impossible to select them on the diagram. However, in some cases it may be
useful to have overlapping points, e.g. when the two points have different airflow values. In fact,
some actions (see section 3.4.1) require identical airflow values in which case you may need
overlapping points.
3.3.3 Editing a Point
The "Edit" command button is available when there is a selected point. Clicking this "Edit"
command button, changes the color of the selected point definition and copies the point definition
back into the point definition panel. You can now change any field of that point definition: its
name, its properties and its airflow.

After you made the changes you require, you can add the adapted point back into the list of the
point definitions, by clicking the "Add" command button. Psychrometrics selects the adapted point,
adapts the point in the diagram and recalculates all actions (see section 3.4) involving that point.

Figure 20 shows the three steps to edit a point definition:

1. Select the required point definition and click the "Edit" command button. Its caption now
changes to "Accept".
2. Edit the point properties. The point does not change on the diagram or in the point data panel.
3. Click the "Accept" command button, which updates the point data and changes the caption
back to “Edit”.
5 December, 2016 Page 16
 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 20: Editing a point

3.3.4 Removing a Point

When selecting a point definition, you may also remove it by clicking the "Remove" command
button. It is only possible to remove points that you defined. You cannot delete intermediate points
that result from applying an action (see section 3.4). However, when you remove a point,
Psychrometrics also removes all actions using that point. This may result in a cascade of removals.
So, be careful in using this command.
3.4 Action Definitions
3.4.1 Defining an Action
Psychrometrics supports fifteen different actions, sorted alphabetically as shown in Figure 21:

Figure 21: The list of available actions

From this list, Psychrometrics selects the “Show point” action by default.
5 December, 2016 Page 17
 Using Psychrometrics

You define each action in the action definition panel (see also Figure 22). What follows is a
detailed explanation of each action:
1. Show point
As explained in section 3.3, Psychrometrics shows a point on the diagram at the moment you
define it. This point is always in blue and a selected point shows a small extra circle around
the dot.

The "Show point" command allows you to select a point to visualize it with extra options in
the diagram:
° By default, the point also displays hairlines allowing you to read its temperature and
absolute humidity more accurately.
° You can define another color, allowing you to improve the diagram readability.

First select the command ("Show point"), then select the point from a list of available points
and click the small colored rectangle to change the color, as shown in Figure 22:

Figure 22: Defining the "Show point" action

Now click the "Add" command button to make the action appear below the action definition
panel and Psychrometrics also displays the point on the diagram, as shown in Figure 23:

Figure 23: Showing a point on the diagram

The point P1 now appears on the diagram in a red color and contains hairlines. The two other
points (P2 and P3) remain without hairlines and displayed in the default blue color. The point
P3 is the selected one: its point definition is in a different color and P3 on the diagram contains

5 December, 2016 Page 18

 Using Psychrometrics

an extra circle around the point dot.

2. Connect
This action allows to connect two points, which you select from two separate lists, as shown
in Figure 24. As for the show point action, Psychrometrics selects two different points by
default.

When you click the "Add Action" command button, Psychrometrics adds the two points and
connects them by a straight line, all in the color selected for that action.

Connecting two points is only possible if you select two different points and if both points
have the same airflow.

Figure 24: Connecting two points

Note that the points in this action do not contain hairlines to keep the diagram readable.
However, in some cases it may be necessary to see the hairlines of a point. You solve this by
adding "Show point" action, effectively combining two actions: first connecting the points and
secondly displaying the point.

Figure 25 illustrates this combination and used two different colors to show the effect of each
action. Note that the order of these actions is important as well: the second action "draws over"
the first. In Figure 25 the red point P1 draws over the blue point P1 and covers that point.
Using the other order would cover the red point P1, so that you only see the read hairlines.

Figure 25: Combining two actions to highlight a point

3. Mix air
The mixing air action is an adiabatic mix of two (different) volumes of air at two different
psychrometric conditions. This gives an air volume that is the sum of both and a new
psychrometric condition, which Psychrometrics inserts in the diagram, together with two
arrows showing the direction from the original points to the new condition.

Figure 26 shows the result of an mix air action, where point P2 has an airflow that is twice the
airflow of point P1. Psychrometrics adds the intermediate point PP1, which name you can
change, if required. This intermediate point PP1 divides the line between P1 and P2 in two
sections of 2/3 and 1/3 of the distance between the points P1 and P2.

5 December, 2016 Page 19

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 26: Mixing air

Psychrometrics adds the intermediate point to the list of defined points, allowing you to select
it to get its psychrometric data or use it in other actions. Figure 27 gives an example of selecting
intermediate point PP1, which shows its point data.

Figure 27: Selecting the automatically added intermediate point

4. Cooling
The cooling action calculates how much capacity is required to cool a volume of air from one
point to another. It is not important which point is the first and which is the second.
Psychrometrics looks for the point with the highest temperature and calculates the capacity
required to cool this volume of air to the point with the lowest temperature.

Figure 28 shows how to cool air from a point P2 to a point P1. This action splits up into two
parts: reducing the absolute humidity (cooling air produces condensate, removing moist from
the air) and lowering the temperature. Both actions require a specific capacity: latent capacity
to reduce the moist and sensible capacity to reduce the temperature).

Reduction of moist is along the vertical axis and reduction of temperature is along the
horizontal axis in the diagram. Psychrometrics calculates the intermediate point (PP1) where
the vertical and horizontal lines cross. It also calculates the required cooling capacities and
displays them in the action panel: the total capacity, which is the sum of the sensible and latent
capacities, the calculated sensible capacity, with the sensible heat factor between parentheses
and the calculated latent capacity.

The sensible heat factor (SHF) gives a good estimate for a cooling action realized through air
conditioning devices. This value should vary between 60% and 100%. The higher this value,
the less latent cooling capacity. With lower values, the cooling is probably realized through a
combination of dehumidification and cooling through air conditioning.

5 December, 2016 Page 20

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 28: Cooling a volume of air

Showing the three capacities (total, sensible and latent capacity) on the diagram results in a
triangle as shown in Figure 28 at the top right, which is also the default. However, when
combining several actions, it may only be necessary to see the total capacity. You can hide the
intermediate line by unchecking the “Show intermediate lines” checkmark, as shown in
Figure 28 at the bottom right

As for the connect action, the cooling action requires that the airflow value of the points P1
and P2 (and consequently of the intermediate point as well) is the same. Psychrometrics also
adds the intermediate point in the list of point definitions.

Note that Psychrometrics automatically determines start and end points, independent of the
order you selected them: cooling from P1 to P2 gives the same results as cooling from P2 to
P1, as Psychrometrics detects that P1 is the start point. To clarify the direction from the start
point to the end point, Psychrometrics adds direction arrows on the lines on the diagram.

In many applications, you do not have these two points (P1 and P2), but rather one point (P1)
and a capacity and a required sensible heat factor. This is a different action, which you can
find further in this section (see the cooling capacity action).

5. Heating
The heating action calculates how much capacity is required to heat up a volume of air from
one point to another. As for cooling, the order in which you select the points is not important,
as Psychrometrics looks for the point with the lowest temperature and calculates the capacity
required to heat this volume of air to the point with the highest temperature.

The resemblance with the cooling action is that you also need a sensible capacity (to raise the
temperature) and a latent capacity (to increase the moist in the air). The difference with the
cooling action is that there are two ways to humidify air:
a. Using saturated steam: this keeps the temperature of the air constant while adding moist.
In fact, the steam is warmer than the air and this extra energy will keep adding moist to the
air until the steam temperature reaches the air temperature. The temperature only would
rise slightly (less than 10C), when using important quantities of saturated steam.
b. Using water (and ventilation): the water is cooler than the air. So, the air is cooling down
5 December, 2016 Page 21
 Using Psychrometrics

while using this energy to get more moist. This action keeps the enthalpy of the air constant.

Psychrometrics supports both ways of heating the air. When you define a heating action, you
must select the kind of humidification. By default, Psychrometrics selects the steam
humidification.

Figure 29 shows how to heat air from a point P1 to a point P2, using steam humidification. As
for cooling, Psychrometrics calculates the sensible and latent capacity, calculates the
intersection of both lines in the point PP1 and displays the direction arrows. It also shows the
sensible heat factor, which is less important in heating, as the heating capacities are produced
using two independent processes (sensible heating and humidification).

Figure 29: Heating a volume of air, using steam humidification

Humidification through water requires considerably more sensible capacity to heat up the air
so that it can absorb the water as moist, while keeping the enthalpy (= heat content) constant.

Figure 30 shows this situation. As both points P1 and P2 are the same as in Figure 29, the total
capacity must be the same as well. However, now you need a sensible capacity to heat the air
up to the point PP1. From that point, a part of this sensible heat is transformed in latent heat,
as the air is absorbing water as moist. The final result is that 3.22kW sensible heat has been
used to get 3.22kW latent heat, leaving a net sensible capacity of 2.77kW, which is the same
amount as in Figure 29. Psychrometrics shows both sensible heat capacities.

Figure 30: Heating a volume of air, using water humidification

Psychrometrics does not allow the point PP1 to be outside the diagram. So, in some cases it is
not possible to show a heating action using water: the dry bulb temperature of the air would
be higher than 650C (!).

5 December, 2016 Page 22

 Using Psychrometrics

The next six actions are different from the previous ones: given a point find the resulting point
after having applied a capacity (cooling or heating) or a humidification (saturated steam or water).
So, those actions only need one point (the starting point) and calculate the resulting point, with
possibly intermediate points.

6. Cooling Capacity
Given a point P1, to which to apply a given amount of total cooling capacity (3.0kW) and
using a given SHF or sensible heat factor (70%), Psychrometrics calculates the resulting point
and the intermediate point to display the sensible and latent capacities, as shown in Figure 31:

Figure 31: Adding total cooling capacity to a psychrometrics point

To get results that may be compared with results from air conditioning devices, the sensible
heat factor may vary from 50% to 100%. Note that applying large capacity values may result
in a point outside the diagram. In Figure 31, the resulting point PP1 is at a relative humidity
of more than 90%. Applying more cooling could give a relative humidity of more than 100%,
which is outside the diagram. Selection programs for air conditioning devices (e.g.
VRVXpress and VRVPro) make sure such conditions cannot when selecting devices.

The arrow on the line shows the direction in which the condition of point P1 moves when
applying this cooling capacity. As for the cooling action, you can show or hide the intermediate
lines.

7. Cool to Saturation
Given a point P1 and a given sensible heat factor (SHF), Psychrometrics calculates the the
amount of cooling to get to the saturation line, that is the line of 100% relative humidity, as,
as shown in Figure 32.

The action panel shows the calculated total, sensible and latent capacity, together with the
given sensible heat factor. The resulting point (PP1) has a relative humidity of 100%.

The arrow on the line shows the direction of in which the condition of point P1 moves when
applying this cooling capacity and the given sensible heat factor.

5 December, 2016 Page 23

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 32: Cooling, using a given sensible heat factor, up to saturation

As for the previous cooling actions, you can hide or show the intermediate lines.

8. Condensate
This action is the same as the cooling action between two points (see item 4). However, instead
of splitting the cool capacity into a sensible and latent line, it shows a curved line piece along
the saturation line, as shown in Figure 33:

Figure 33: Condensate along the 100%RH line

The action panel shows the required cooling capacity (total, sensible and latent), together with
the amount of dehumidification. In contrast to the previous action, the condensation technique
is commonly used in air handling units to dry air.

9. Heating Capacity
Given a point P1, to which to apply a given amount of heating capacity (3.0kW),
Psychrometrics calculates the resulting point, as shown in Figure 34.

The heating capacity is always a sensible capacity, as no humidification is involved. So, the
resulting point is always on a horizontal line in a Psychrometrics diagram. As for cooling, the
resulting point may be outside the diagram. Psychrometrics then gives an error message and
does not display the action.
5 December, 2016 Page 24
 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 34: Adding heating capacity to a psychrometrics point

The arrow on the line shows the direction of in which the condition of point P1 moves when
applying this heating capacity.

10. Steam humidification

Given a point P1, to which to apply a given amount of humidity (5.0kg/h) using saturated
steam, Psychrometrics calculates the resulting point, as shown in Figure 35:

Figure 35: Humidification through saturated steam

Humidification through saturated steam does not warm up the air. In fact, the steam cools
down very rapidly and just increases the moist in the air. Only when using a considerable
amount of steam, the temperature may rise but even then, this is less than 10C. So, the resulting
point is always on a vertical line in a Psychrometrics diagram.

Adding too much moist may result in a point outside the diagram: the relative humidity may
become more than 100% or the absolute humidity may be larger than the maximum allowed.
In both cases, Psychrometrics gives an error message and does not show the action.

The arrow on the line shows the direction of in which the condition of point P1 moves when
applying this steam humidification.

11. Water humidification

Given a point P1, to which to apply a given amount of humidity (2.0kg/h) using water over
which air is blown, Psychrometrics calculates the resulting point, as shown in Figure 36.

Humidification through water uses the heat from the warm air to evaporate water, which
increases the humidity in the air but also cools down the air. As the total heat content remains
the same, the resulting point is on a line of constant enthalpy in a Psychrometrics diagram.
This also means that the sensible capacity extracted from the air is the same as the latent
capacity added to the air. So, the total energy is 0kW.

5 December, 2016 Page 25

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 36: Humidification through water

Adding too much moist may result in a point outside the diagram: the relative humidity may
become more than 100% or the absolute humidity may be larger than the maximum allowed.
In both cases, Psychrometrics gives an error message with a suggestion to use steam
humidification and does not show the action.

The arrow on the line shows the direction of in which the condition of point P1 moves when
applying this water humidification.

12. Dehumidification
Given a point P1, from which to extract a given amount of humidity (5.0kg/h) through
adiabatic (chemical) dehumidification, Psychrometrics calculates the resulting point, as shown
in Figure 37:

Figure 37: Adiabatic dehumidification

One adiabatic dehumidification is done by guiding the air over a surface of silicate crystals
and its main applications are in the electronics and food industry to avoid humidity in products.
It is meant for small air volumes.

The arrow on the line shows the direction of in which the condition of point P1 moves when
applying this dehumidification.

13. Bypass Factor

Given a point P1, apply a given total capacity to it with a given sensible heat factor. Calculate
the bypass factor and the discharge temperature, as shown in Figure 38. The discharge
temperature is the resulting temperature when applying the given total capacity (see point
PP1). The bypass factor is the percentage of the line piece between this point PP1 and the point
where the line crosses the 100%RH line (see point PP2).

The bypass factor expresses the percentage of air that misses the coil surface when cooling.
5 December, 2016 Page 26
 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 38: Calculating the bypass factor and discharge temperature

14. Discharge
When the bypass factor and the sensible heat factor of an air conditioning device (i.e. a coil)
is known, you can calculate the corresponding discharge temperature, as shown in Figure 39

Figure 39: Calculate the discharge for given bypass factor

Starting from the given point P1, you draw a line with the given sensible heat factor slope,
until it crosses the 100%RH line. Now mark the bypass percentage on that line, which gives
you the discharge temperature. The most difficult part in this explanation is drawing a line at
a given sensible heat factor slope. For that reason, Psychrometrics offers the next sensible heat
factor action.

15. Sensible Heat Factor

The sensible heat factor action is an auxiliary action to draw a line from a given point at a
given sensible heat factor slope, until it either reaches the 100%RH line or crosses the line of
0kg/kg absolute humidity. On a Psychrometrics diagram, this latter is the X-axis, whereas on
a Mollier diagram, it is the Y-axis. Figure 40 shows three sensible heat factor slopes, both on
the Psychrometrics and Mollier diagrams.

5 December, 2016 Page 27

 Using Psychrometrics

Figure 40: Drawing sensible heat factor lines

This action also allows you to find out why other actions, such as cooling capacity, cool to
saturation, bypass factor and discharge cannot give results: because the sensible heat factor
slope does not cross the 100%RH line. From Figure 40 it becomes clear that using a sensible
heat factor of 55% from point P1 would not allow to find solutions for any of the actions
mentioned.
3.4.2 Add an Action
When finished selecting the required action, the required color, the required point(s) and possibly
entering a name for an intermediate point, a value for a sensible heat factor, a capacity or a
humidification, click the "Add" command button to add it to a list of actions. Psychrometrics
automatically selects the last action, adds a possible intermediate point to the list of points and
draws the line(s) on the diagram. It also shows the selected action in a different color and enables
the "Edit" and "Remove" commands. Figure 41 shows the action definition panel with beneath it
two action definitions:

Figure 41: Adding an action

5 December, 2016 Page 28

 Using Psychrometrics

When the intermediate point coincides with either the starting point or the ending point of an
action, Psychrometrics does not show it on the diagram, thereby avoiding cluttering up the
diagram. However, the intermediate point is still available in the list of points.
3.4.3 Editing an Action
The "Edit" command button is available when there is a selected action. Clicking this "Edit"
command button, changes the color of the selected action definition and copies the action
definition back into the action definition panel. You can now change any field of that action
definition: its type (i.e. make it a different action), its points, its intermediate point (if applicable),
it sensible heat factor (if applicable), its capacity (if applicable) and its humidification amount (if
applicable).

After you made the changes you require, you can add the adapted action back into the list of the
action definitions, by clicking the "Add" command button. Psychrometrics selects the adapted
action, adapts the line(s) in the diagram and recalculates all (intermediate) points involving that
action.

Figure 42 shows the three steps to edit an action definition:

1. Select the required action definition and click the "Edit" command button. Its caption changes
into “Accept”.
2. Edit the action properties.
3. Click the "Accept" command button. This updates the action and changes the caption back to
“Edit”.

Figure 42: Editing an action

5 December, 2016 Page 29

 Using Psychrometrics

3.4.4 Removing an Action

When selecting an action definition, you may also remove it by clicking the "Remove" command
button. Removing an action also removes a possible intermediate point that action used. It also
removes all other actions that may have used that intermediate point. This may result in a cascade
of removals. So, be careful in using this command.
3.5 Zooming and Panning
The diagram covers wide ranges of temperature and absolute humidity values. When adding
several actions, mainly concentrated in a zone used for air conditioning applications, points and
lines may get close to each other. Providing a zoom function would allow to see more details in
heavy populated areas.

However, a simple zoom function would also move the x- and y-axes out of view, which would
make it hard to read information from the zoomed diagram area. When zooming in an area,
Pyschrometrics drops back the x- and y-axis, together with scroll bars, as shown in Figure 43. In
this figure, it becomes easier to read the coordinates of e.g. point PP1:

Figure 43: Zooming a diagram zone

To zoom a point or an area, move the mouse to the required position, press the CTRL key and
scroll the mouse wheel up (zoom in) or down (zoom out). Psychrometrics allows a zoom up to
500% in steps of 10%. You can only zoom the area inside the diagram, not the axes.

After the first zoom step, Psychrometrics adds scroll bars allowing you to pan the zoomed picture.
You can do this by using the scroll bars in their normal way:
- Click the buttons at the extremities of the scroll bar to move the zoomed picture up and down
(or left and right) in small increments.
- Click in the scroll bar, but outside de slider to move the zoomed picture up and down (or left
and right) in large increments.
- Move the mouse cursor on the slider, press the left mouse button and keep it pressed while

5 December, 2016 Page 30

 Using Psychrometrics

moving the slider up and down (or left and right).

You can also use the mouse wheel to move the scroll bars:
- SHIFT + mouse wheel moves the horizontal scroll bar left and right.
- Mouse wheel moves the vertical scroll bar up and down.
Zooming and panning do not affect the point and action panels, only the diagram. When zooming
out again to 100%, the scroll bars disappear.

When changing the preferences, Psychrometrics sets the zoom back to 100%.

Figure 43 shows a zoomed in area of Figure 44 of the next section.

3.6 Putting It All Together
A small application would be to mix air from a room with ambient air and bring this mixture back
into the room while heating it, using water humidification. The ambient air and design air are both
points to clearly indicate on the diagram. Figure 44 shows the final result, with the design air (P3)
selected, so that you can read its psychrometric conditions:
- Define the ambient air (P1) with the amount of fresh air to enter a room (150l/s).
- Define the room air (P2) to mix with the ambient air (100l/s).
- Define the mix air action, which introduces a new point PP1, which is the resulting mixed air.
- Define the design air (P3), which must have the same amount of airflow as the mixed air
(250l/s), as this is the air you want to heat using water humidification.
- Heat the air from point PP1 to point P3.
- Now you can emphasize the ambient air (P1) and the design air (P3) by adding two show point
actions, possibly selecting a different color.
- Finally you select the design air (P3) to get its psychrometric data.

Figure 44: Combining several actions into one diagram

Figure 43 in the previous section shows more details (zoomed in) of this example.

Another small example to demonstrate action combinations is to cool air to saturation, using two
5 December, 2016 Page 31
 Using Psychrometrics

ways to get to the same final point (P4), as shown in Figure 45:
1. Cool the air to saturation from the given P1 to P4.
2. First using water humidification from P1 to P2, then cool to saturation from P2 to P3 and finally
condensate from P3 to P4.

Figure 45: Two ways to cool to saturation

5 December, 2016 Page 32

 Using the Preferences Screen

4 Using the Preferences Screen

The Preferences screen consists of three tabs, defining several settings for units, diagrams and
folders. The next sections explain these tabs more in detail.
4.1 The Units Tab
By default, Psychrometrics uses the SI units to express temperature, capacity, humidity, airflow,
…etc. However, it is also possible to use other units, as shown in Figure 46:

Figure 46: An overview of the available units

The units in effect are the selected ones. Clicking on an available unit will make it the one in effect.
When closing the preferences screen, Psychrometrics replaces all occurrences of dimensioned
values (temperature, humidity, airflow,…etc) by converted values using the selected units. It also
redraws the psychrometric diagram using the required dimensions.

Figure 47 gives an example of the results when displaying the temperature in 0F instead of 0C.

The "Restore Defaults" command button reselects the original Psychrometric settings. This is not
only applicable on this tab, but also on other tabs as well. In addition, Psychrometrics also resets
the line colors and show hidden diagram lines again.

5 December, 2016 Page 33

 Using the Preferences Screen

Figure 47: The diagram and panels showing the temperature in 0F

4.2 The Diagrams Tab

The Diagrams Tabs shows two settings: the kind of psychrometrics diagram and the calculation of
the density to use. Both settings are described in the next sections:
4.2.1 Selecting the Diagram
The diagrams tab lets you choose between the Psychrometrics and the Mollier diagram, and
between a standard density and an calculated one, as shown in Figure 48:

Figure 48: The diagram selection tab

The Mollier diagram is probably the oldest diagram to represent air properties and named after its
inventor Richard Mollier (1863-1935). To get a psychrometrics diagram from a Mollier diagram,
swap it along the vertical axis and rotate it 900.

The Mollier diagram is heavily used in Eastern Europe and Germany and shows the same lines as

5 December, 2016 Page 34

 Using the Preferences Screen

in the psychrometrics diagram. Figure 49 shows the same example as in Figure 44 (see section
3.5), but on a Mollier diagram.

Figure 49: A complete example using the Mollier diagram

4.2.2 Defining the Density

To calculate the capacity between two points in a psychrometrics diagram, you need the density.
However, the density of air is not a fixed value. In fact, the psychometrics diagram shows constant
density lines: colder air is denser than warm air. So, there is no such thing as "the" density, there
are many values.

Psychrometrics always takes the density of the point from which it departs:
- When you adding a heating (cooling) capacity, starting from a given point, the density used is
the one from that given point.
- When calculating a heating (cooling) capacity between two points, the density used is the one
to which heating (cooling) capacity is added.

Figure 50 gives an example of applying a 5kW cooling capacity to a point P1, resulting in a point
PP1. Applying the same 5kW heating capacity to this point PP1 gives a point PP2.

Figure 50: Using different density values to calculate capacities

This difference in capacity looks considerable in the example of Figure 50. As air conditioning

5 December, 2016 Page 35

 Using the Preferences Screen

devices do not add this capacity in a split second, the air heats (cools) gradually, which means that
the density also changes gradually.

Therefore, to avoid such differences, air conditioning applications customary use a standard
density of 1.2kg/m3. In that case, the example in Figure 50 would give exactly the same results
when applying cooling and then heating again.

By default, Psychrometrics uses the standard value of 1.2kg/m3 for the density in its calculations,
but you can change it to a calculated value in the Diagrams Tab (see Figure 48). This tab also
contains a question mark icon explaining the difference between the standard and calculated
densities, as shown in Figure 51.

Figure 51: Explaining the density setting

The point definition panel always shows the calculated density value of a selected point,
independent of this setting.
4.3 The Paths Tab
Figure 52 shows this tab, which allows you defining the path on the hard disk, where you want to
store projects and reports. Clicking the “Browse” command button next to project files, brings up
a window to select a folder. Click the "Clear" command button to remove the path again.

When Psychrometrics finds a project path, it assumes that you want to save and read projects from
that folder and proposes the given folder to read or store projects. Without a project path, you have
to select a folder.

Equally, when there is a path definition for reports, Psychrometrics allows you to save reports in
this folder. If there is no path definition for reports, Psychrometrics creates a report in a temporary
file and opens it after creating it. When you close this report, Psychrometrics no longer keeps it.

5 December, 2016 Page 36

 Using the Preferences Screen

Figure 52: Defining the paths for projects and reports

5 December, 2016 Page 37

 Reports

5 Reports
When you start a new project and click the "Report" command, Psychrometrics creates a single
page report, just showing the diagram, using the colors you selected (or the default colors) and the
lines you wanted to see (or all lines by default). Figure 53 gives an example of such a report, which
may be useful to make exercises on a paper diagram.

Figure 53: A single page report

However, when you add points and actions, the report consists of two pages:
1. The first page still contains the diagram, but also the lines and the points as the result of your
definitions.
2. The second page contains a table with all point definitions, together with the psychrometric
data, followed by a table with all action definitions. Figure 54 shows this second page for the
example of section 3.5.

5 December, 2016 Page 38

 Reports

Figure 54: The second report page for the example in section 3.5

5 December, 2016 Page 39