12/28/2019 Humidification Basics Part 5: Calculating Humidification Loads for Economizer Cycle Systems —

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Loads for Economizer Cycle Blog Archive

Systems Series
October 10, 2016

• Air Management and

By Chad Edmondson (JMP) and Norman Hall (RLD)
Pressurization

Now that we’ve learned how to calculate a basic • Avoiding Pump Cavitation
humidification load, we need to understand how to do the in Open Systems
same when an economizer cycle is part of our design. • Commercial Sewage Lift
Stations
Why is that so important? Because nearly every
commercial building in the continental US is required (per • Condensing Boiler Plant
DOE) to incorporate either an air- or water-side Piping
economizer. If your state hasn’t already incorporated the • Cooling Tower and
ruling into its commercial building code, it’s just a matter Condenser Water Design
of time before it does. And that’s a good thing, because
• Domestic Hot Water
using cool outside air to maintain building temperature is
Recirculation
an excellent way to reduce cooling costs.

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12/28/2019 Humidification Basics Part 5: Calculating Humidification Loads for Economizer Cycle Systems —

Proportioning Return and Outside • Domestic Water Pressure

Booster Sizing Series
Air • Energy Efficient Hot Water
Boiler Plant Design
Airside economizers work by mixing outdoor air with
building return air in order to maintain the supply • How To Develop Cooling
temperature to the space – typically about 55°F. Tower Life Cycle Cost
Proportions of indoor and outdoor air will vary, of course, • How to Pick a Centrifugal
depending on what the outdoor air temperature is. The Pump
table below from the Dristeem Design Guide shows the
• How to Pick a Cooling
percentages of outside air that can be mixed with return
Tower
air to maintain a 70°F space temperature using one of
three mixed-air temperatures. • How to Read a Pump
Curve
• Humidification Basics
• Hydronic Balancing
• Modern Pump Selection
• Parallel Pumping in
Condenser Water
Applications
• Part Load Efficiency
Values
• Pump Efficiency Standards
• Steam Basics Series
• Understanding Primary
Secondary Pumping
• Variable Speed Pump
Control

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12/28/2019 Humidification Basics Part 5: Calculating Humidification Loads for Economizer Cycle Systems —

Determining Outside Air Quantity

As with natural and mechanical ventilation, we must first
determine the quantity of outside air in order to calculate
what our humidification load will be. Again, there are Get Updates from Us
excellent programs out there that do all the legwork for
us, but to impart true understanding, we’re going to work Visit our Contact Page and let
through an example as if such aids don’t exist. us know what information you'd
like to receive.
Let’s say we have to calculate the humidification load for
a non-critical application with an economizer cycle, using
the following parameters:

DESIRED SPACE CONDITIONS

The formula for determining the quantity of outside air in

an economizer cycle is:

V2 = V AH ÷ ([A ÷ B] + 1)

where:

VAH = V1 + V2

V1 = volume of return air (cubic feet per minute)

V2 = volume of outside air (cubic feet per minute)

A = temperature difference between mixed air and

outside air

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B = temperature difference between return air and mixed

air

Plugging our numbers in, this is what we get:

V2 = 12,000 cfm ÷ ([35°F ÷ 15°F] + 1) = 3,600 cfm of outside

air

Determining Maximum
Humidification Load
Next, using a psychrometric chart or table as
demonstrated in the previous blogs, we can determine
that the moisture content of the desired conditions of
70°F and 35-percent RH is 2.40 lb per hour per 100 cfm.
We next need to determine the worst case moisture
content of the outside air for the specific location to
calculate the maximum humidification load. Table 11-1 in
the Dristeem Design guide shows the values for various
cities. If we are calculating the load for a non-critical
application, then we can use the daily minimum % RH.
However, if the application is critical, the recommendation
is to use the extreme minimum daily % RH for the year.
For example, in Minneapolis, MN the average daily
minimum RH for the year is 51% and the extreme daily
minimum RH is 20% for the year. Knowing this, we can
determine the maximum load for this system by using the
following formula:

(H [space] - H [outside air]) × percentage of outside air ×

(cubic feet per minute [total air] ÷ 100 cfm) = pounds per
hour (load).

The below table shows the data created from this formula
in 10-degree increments of outside air for Minneapolis,
MN:

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12/28/2019 Humidification Basics Part 5: Calculating Humidification Loads for Economizer Cycle Systems —

The maximum humidification load for this application is

70.68 lb per hour, which occurs when the outdoor
temperature is 40°F.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to simply use a program like

DriSteem’s Dri-calc tool. You will still need to know your
Total CFM and your mixed air temperature, but the
program will do the rest of the heavy lifting. Keep in mind
that you will still have to specify the outdoor RH either as
the Daily Extreme Minimum or the Average Outside
Conditions. After that, it’s smooth sailing. Dri- Calc
provides several handy printouts, including this
installation diagram with all of the pertinent data and
selection.

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 Trish Holder  Comment 1 Likes Share

 Air Management, Humidification

 Humidification Basics Series, Humidification And HVAC, Humidification Design,
Proper Humidification, Calculating Humidification For Economizer Cycle,
Economizers, Dri-Calc, DriSteem, Calculating Humidification Load

 HUMIDIFICATION BASICS PART HUMIDIFICATION BASICS PART 4: H

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