AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

For building air conditioning system, there are basically 2 types of them which are :
1. Direct Expansion ( DX )
2. Chilled Water
Both of them can be of air-cooled or water-cooled type of heat rejection mechanism. A
DX system involves refrigerant where as chilled water obviouly uses water as the cooling
agent. For the office proposed system, DX air-cooled will not be considered as it would
not be able to met the high load demand of the office use and from the imprcaticality of
the system. It requires a large area for the air cooled unit located at every floor for the air
to cooled the coil and at the same place, rejecting the hot air at every level.
The major components in a DX system are :
a.
Compression equipments consist of compressor and condenser ( which
can be of air or water-cooled )
b.
Air Handling Unit ( AHU ) which is composed of Direct Expansion Coil
and the blower fan.
c.
Refrigerant
On the other hand, the major components in a chilled water system are :
a.
Chilled water
b.
Cooling Coil
c.
Blower fan
d.
Heat Rejection ( Air or Water-Cooled )
e.
Heat Exchanger Room

1.

Water- Cooled Package System

In the water- cooled package system, the compression equipment ( or refrigeration
equipment comprising the compressors and the condenser ) and the air handling
unit ( or the evaporator unit comprising the direct expansion cooling coil and
blower fan ) are housed in one casing. The condenser is water- cooled type and
heat is being rejected by a large cooling tower to the atmosphere by means of
piped condenser water. The conditioned water is being cooled directly by the
refrigerant by passing the air through the direct expansion coil. The system layout
is indicated in the diagram 1 shown.
Space Requirements
Space is required for the cooling tower at the roof level. It is recommended that
cooling tower should be above all refrigeration equipment to prevent siphoning
and overflow during shutdown. A pump room is required preferably near the

cooling towers. A room is required on each floor to house the water-cooled

package unit and riser shaft for the condenser water pipe.
Advantages of Water Cooled Package System
Simplicity is probably what water- cooled package system offers best. It is energy
efficient using water as a medium for heat rejection so that condensing
temperature is kept to as low as 105F. The heat rejection equipment can be placed
far away from the water- cooled package unit as the connection between the two
is just water pipe and the pipe friction loss can easily be overcome by resizing the
pump accordingly. Should there be any requirements for future addition of
packaged units, the heat rejection equipment, i.e. the cooling towers, the riser pipe
and the pumps can be oversized to make provision for such changes. When the
need to add a package unit arises, one needs only to conect the condenser pipes to
the riser.
Another advantage of this system is that the tenants can purchase their own
equipment and install their own ductwork which would reduce the project cost of
the developer although this is not always the primary concern.
All water- cooled package units are preengineered factory built units. As such, the
units are compact in design and quality control is better than those built-up units
on site as every pressure testings can be carried out in controlled environment.
This greatly improves the reliability of the system.
As these units are mass produced or can be obtained off-the-shelf, the prices are
more competetive than those custom-made chillers. The water-cooled package
system, therefore, offers low initial capital outlay.

Disadvantages of Water-Cooled Package System

Being a direct expansion system using reciprocating compressors of size
approximately 25HP, the water-cooled package system does not provide good part
load control. In all likelihood, each package unit will comprise two 25HP
compressors and when the cooling load demand reduces to 70%, the two
compressors will still be running and the part load saving is, therefore, very much
less than the 30% anticipated. It can be reasonably assumed that 80% of the time
the cooling load will be approximately 70% of the peak load. The temperature
control is normally on off type and the modulation is always in steps, say, 5
T.R. per step. As such, the space temperature will fluctuate over a wide range thus
reducing the comfort level.
As the water-cooled package units are factory engineered, the capacities of these
units always do not match the actual cooling load required. In most cases, larger
units are always selected resulting in higher capital cost and operating cost.

Having the refrigeration equipment all over the building makes the maintenance
task a lot more diffilcult to control. The water-cooled refrigeration equipment
requires regular cleaning of the condenser tubes to remove scaling. When this is
being carried out, the affected package will have to be shutdown. The same
applies when any repair on the unit is being carried out, the affected floor is likely
to be without air conditioning. If there are all 26 nos. of package units in the tower
block, it means there 52 compressors and the chances of any one of them to fail
are quite high. The downtime is very much dependent on the availability of the
parts and the time for dismantling and fixing it back. It is also expensive to install
a standby in the event of machine breakdown.
2. Central Chilled Water System
Central chilled water system is depicted in the diagram shown above. The central
plant comprising chillers, pumps, electrical switchboard and the cooling towers is
to maintain the chilled water, leaving the plant at a predetermined temperature,
say 42 0 F. The chilled water is being circulated to all the cooling coils of the
AHUs located at each floor. Air is circulated through the cooling coil and ducted
to the various parts of the floor. Heat rejection is similar to that of the watercooled package system, i.e. via cooling towers. To maximize the use of the plant,
both the podium and the tower can be served by a single plant.

Space Requirements
The main plant room is required to house the main air conditioning equipment
such as chillers and pumps. Cooling towers can be located near or above the plant
room. At least one AHU room is required for each floor and a riser shaft for the
chilled water pipe.
Advantages of Central Chilled Water System
Central chilled water system provides the design egineer with the liberty and
flexibility ti optise the plant size in accordance with the building load profile.
Chillers can be tailored to suit the building load thus avoiding the unnecessary
oversizing as in the case of factory preengineered package units. However, the
initial capital will be slightly higher than those of the preengineered type.
All the load diversity can be applied to the central plant reducing the air
conditioning equipment appreciably. If the equipment is designed such that at part
load operation, one full set of equipment can be totally switched off, then a full
realisation of energy saving on the load reduction is possible. It simply means
that, when the load reduces to 70%, 30% of the refrigeration equipment will be

switched off as well resulting in in a saving of 30% in electrical and water

consumption.
It is possible to provide a central redundancy to the entire building. This means
that if a 150TR chiller is provided as a standby unit, this unit can be used for any
AHU for off-office hour usage.
The use of chilled water makes it possible to have proportional-integral type of
tempeature control this providing a higher comfort than those with on-off
control. The soace temperature can be easily controlled by the modulation of the
circulation of chilled water through the cooling coil with a control valve. The
modulation of the chilled water system makes it possible to maintain a constant
air temperature leaving the cooling coil which is necessary for a Variable Air
Volume system.
The latest technology using microprocessor-based direct digital or distributed
control (DDC) can be used for the central chilled water system to the fullest. The
entire air conditioning system can, therefore, be intelligently controlled with this
state of the art control system.
Having all the refrigeration equipment centrally located in a main plant room
confines the routine maintenance within this room. This helps to minimise any
interference between the maintenance personnels and the occupants. The
maintenance for the AHU is very minmal with the routine cleaning of the filter
and greasing of the bearings.
As mentioned before, some form of redundancy can be easily provided ang this
greatly helps to reduce the inconvenience caused by the breakdown of any
refrigeration equipment. The tenant will probably not know when a repair is being
carried out unless there is something faulty with the AHU or half of the
equipment in the main plant room are malfunctioning which is unlikely to happen
if the routine preventive maintenance is being carried out regularly.
Disadvantages of a Central Chilled Water System
The high initial capital outlay is probably the moot ppoint when choosing a
central chilled water system. The many additional equipment such as chillers,
pumps and piping will escalate the cost.
Though the plant can be fully automated, maintenance personnels are required to
keep the plant in tip-top condition. Any delay in repairing any faulty equipment
may lead to unsatisfactory operation of the entire building. This is the pitfall of a
central chilled water system and is unlikely to happen in the case of a water
cooled package or air cooled split package systems.

With the comparison above, the most economical solution for the air conditioning
system would be the central chilled water system even the initial capital is higher,
it gives the client :
1.
2.
3.

More flexibility in the event that one of the tower is for sale. The client
will be able to generate business with the future owner of the other tower
as they will require chilled water for their air conditioning.
Easy maintenance for the centralised chiller plant.
Since there will be several chillers, machine brokedown will have minimal
impact as the balance units are able to meet the load demand.

Constant Air Volume (CAV) System

The diagram above depicts a typical constant air volume (CAV) system. It is the
most widely used air distribution system where the air flow rate through each air
diffuser is constant irrespective of the load demand. The space temperature is
controlled by a temperature sensor normally placed in the return air stream and a
controller which modulates a control valve to increase or decrease the flow rate in
accordance with the deviation of the space temperature from the set point. The
supply air temperature, therefore, varies with the load demand.
The constant air volume system lacks the zone control capability and the space
temperature may vary a great deal from morning to afternoon. For example, an
area having a west-exposure may experience too much cooling in the morning if it
is sized for peak load in the afternoon.
CAV system is very suitable for fairly constant cooling load application such as
interior zone which is not affected by solar heat gain.
CAV system requires very simple control and ductwork is normally constructed of
low pressure type and hence initial cost is low.
Variable Air Volume
The diagram above depicts a typical variable air volume (VAV) system. VAV
system has been in use for a long time but only in recent years it began to be
popular locally. The advantage of the VAV system is that zone control is possible
as it is shown in the diagram above, the entire space can be divided into many
zones depending on the users requirements and the load profile. A temperature
sensor is placed in each zone to detect the space temperature and a controller will
modulate the air flow rate through the VAV control box to maintain the set point
temperature. The occupants in each zone can select thaie set point according to
their indvidual comfort level.
Unlike in the case of CAV system, the supply air temperature is being kept
constant while the air flow rate varies with the cooling load demand. With the use

of microprocessor-based controller, each VAV control box can respond accurately

to the load demand. Furthermore, all the valve boxes can be linked to a central
microcomputer for control and monitoring purposes. Each VAV control box is
also easily connected to a laptop computer for control purpose. Static pressure
regulation can now be achieved wath variable speed motor resulting in higher
energy saving although variable guide vanes are widely used.
VAV system is very suitable for fluctuating load such as the exterior zone where
the solar radiation greatly affects the cooling profile.
The trade- off for the VAV system is obviously the cost.Each VAV controller
itself is almost RM 1 000 each excluding the VAV control box. As the air flow
rate keeps changing with the load, high induction linear diffusers are re
commended which are more expensive than the square ceiling diffusers. Static
pressure regulation with variable speed motor or inlet guide vanes requires more
maintenance than that of CAV system.