Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3653e3657

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

A museum storeroom air-conditioning system employing the temperature

and humidity independent control device in the cooling coil
X.J. Zhang a, C.Y. Yu a, S. Li a, Y.M. Zheng b, F. Xiao c, *
a
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
b
Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou 310007, China
c
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: For conservation of cultural heritage, HVAC systems are often necessary for museums to maintain
Received 11 October 2010 suitable indoor environment with precise control of indoor thermal-hygrometric parameters and air
Accepted 21 December 2010 velocity. Large deviations of these parameters from the design values should be prevented, because they
Available online 30 December 2010
may cause degradation of artworks. So, more energy consumption is inevitable.
This paper presents a novel temperature and humidity independent control (THIC) device and its
Keywords:
associated control method in a museum storeroom air-conditioning system. Compared with the
HVAC
conventional HVAC system with the cooling coil (CC), where the apparatus dew point is usually xed, this
Cooling coil
Temperature and humidity independent
system adopting the THIC device can achieve independent temperature and humidity control in an
control (THIC) energy saving way. The experiment study shows that this system can reduce the energy consumption by
Energy saving 21.7%, compared with the conventional HVAC systems using reheat and humidify for an indoor thermal-
hygrometric environment, and the temperature and humidity in the storeroom are also kept stable and
at a higher precision level.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Conservation of artworks requires precise control of the indoor
microclimatic conditions. Thus, a suitable HVAC system with reli-
able control is often necessary for a museum, to maintain acceptable
indoor thermal-hygrometric parameters and air velocity and also to
minimize the deviations of these parameters from the design values.
So it is indispensable for the museum air-conditioning system to
comprise heating, humidifying, cooling, dehumidifying and auto-
matic control units to control the temperature and humidity at the
same time. Considering that the HVAC system in museum always
has to be operated continually during all the year and 24 h per
day, a suitable technique is necessary to obtain considerable
energy saving [1], however, guaranteeing a good indoor thermal-
hygrometric microclimate. It is shown by some literatures [2e5] that
the energy consumption will be reduced by about 10e50%, if the
HVAC system adopts a suitable energy-saving technique.
For conventional HVAC system, customarily, the dew point
temperature is xed on the cooling coil (CC) in the air-handling
process, which makes the air after the CC be over-cooling to
guarantee both the temperature and the humidity ratio are lower
than the supply air parameters, and then results in much more
energy compensation for reheating and re-humidifying. To reduce
that compensation, it is necessary for the CC to reduce the over-
cooling capacity, so the temperature and humidity independent
control (THIC) technique has been studied in many literatures.
Generally, substituting desiccant dehumidication for cooling
dehumidication in the CC, the THIC technique uses solid desic-
cants [6e8] or liquid desiccants [3,9e11]. But how to realize inde-
pendent control of temperature and humidity in the same cooling
coil in HVAC system is a worthwhile problem, and there are few
literatures about this THIC technique.
In this paper, an HVAC system employing the THIC device in the
CC is proposed and designed. With the PID split-range control, only
one of the two air thermal-hygrometric parameters after CC, i.e.
temperature or humidity ratio, is to be controlled below the supply
air, in order to make the over-cooling capacity as little as possible.
And some experiment tests were done to validate the THIC device.
2. THIC device

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 86 852 27664194.

The THIC device presented in this paper can be used in the CC
E-mail addresses: xuejzhang@zju.edu.cn (X.J. Zhang), befx@polyu.edu.hk of both existing and new conventional HVAC systems, as shown
(F. Xiao). in Fig. 1.

1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2010.12.031
3654 X.J. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3653e3657

to from
Nomenclature CC CC THIC
Device
mw,3,T w,1
Cp constant pressure specic heat (kJ/kg K) mw,4,T w,1
h enthalpy (kJ/kg)
3
L latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg) 4
m mass ow rate (kg/s) mw,T w,1 signal from T-PID
5
Q heat load (kW) 2 mw,2,T w,2 signal from RH-PID
T temperature (K)
1
u air humidity ratio (kg/kg) mw,1,T w

Subscripts
a moist air
l latent heat
i indoor air; inlet
o outlet
s supply air; sensible heat
w chilled water
Fig. 2 shows the schematic diagram of the THIC device. For
temperature control, the CC adjusts the mass ow rate of the
chilled water according to the sensible cooling load; and for
humidity control, it adjusts the temperature of the chilled water
according to the dehumidication load, or the latent load. Before
and after the CC, an electric controllable three-way valve (CTV)
is installed respectively. The CTV 1# adjusts the mass ow rate of
the chilled water through the CC to control the leaving air
temperature so that the sensible load is handled. The CTV
2# adjusts the ow rate of the recirculated water that leaves the
CC and then returns to mix with the chilled water entering the CC.
In this way, the apparatus dew point of the CC can be regulated
and therefore the leaving air humidity can be controlled sepa-
rately. In this device, the total mass ow rate of the chilled water
(mw mw,1 mw,2 mw,3 mw,4) is determined by the pump, and
the supply water temperature (Tw) is determined by the central
chilling plant (CCP). Both of them can be considered as constants.
The mw,1 and mw,2 is determined by the CTV 2#, while the mw,3
and mw,4 is determined by the CTV 1#.
The energy conservation Eq. (1) shows that the mixed temper-
ature Tw,1 is determined by mw,1 and mw,2, which is controlled by the
CTV 2# only. And the ow rate mw,3 of the chilled water into the CC
is only controlled by CTV 1#. Thus the system controls the
temperature and humidity independently.


Tw;1 Tw $mw;1 Tw;2 $mw;2 mw
from to
CCP CCP
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the THIC device in the CC (1 Three-way valve 1#; 2
Pump; 3 CTV 1#; 4 Three-way valve 2#; 5 CTV 2#).
For satisfying different thermal-hygrometric loads of different
seasons, the system is controlled by two split-range PID condi-
tioners. As shown in Fig. 2, the PID conditioner for temperature
(named as T-PID) controls the CTV 1# and the heater, while the PID
conditioner for relative humidity (named as RH-PID) controls the
CTV 2# and the humidier. The two PID conditioner work together
to decide how the CC, the heater and the humidier works, as
shown in Figs. 3 and 4.
As shown in Fig. 3, when the T-PID signal for temperature
increases from 0.0 to 0.5, the signal for CTV 1# which represents
the mass ow rate of the chilled water decreases from 1.0 to 0.2,
while the signal for heater remains at zero; and when the T-PID
signal increases from 0.5 to 1.0, the signal for CTV 1# remains at 0.2
which guarantees the minimum ow rate of chilled water going
through CC, while the signal for heater increases from 0.0 to 1.0. So,
generally, with the increase of the value of T-PID signal for
temperature, the outlet air temperature of AHU increases.
Similarly, in Fig. 4, the outlet air relative humidity of AHU
increases, when the value of RH-PID signal for relative humidity
increases. To avoid sending back all of the recirculated water that
leaves the CC, the signal for CTV 2# remains at 0.8 when the RH-PID
signal increases from 0.5 to 1.0.
3. Experiment setup
An HVAC system employing the TIHC device was manufactured
and installed to air-condition a museum storeroom, the main
parameters are listed in Table 1. It comprises the following
subsystems: (1) AHU with a CC, a heater, a humidier and a constant
(1) ow rate fan, and the details of the CC are listed in Table 2; (2) Air

a Conventional system b THIC system

Cooling
Cooling Heater Humidifier
Heater Humidifier Coil
Coil Fan
Fan

AHU AHU

THIC
Device
Central PID RH PID RH
Chilling PID T PID T
Plant
Storeroom Central Storeroom
Chilling
Plant

Fig. 1. Comparison of the conventional and THIC system.

 X.J. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3653e3657 3655

distribution duct system; (3) A storeroom (22 m  16 m  4 m)

1.0 Signal for CTV 1# 1.0
equipped with the HVAC system in order to maintain the suitable
Signal for the heater thermal-hygrometric parameters for cultural heritage conserva-
0.8 0.8 tion; (4) Temperature and relative humidity sensors (VAISALA

Signal for the heater

Sig nal f or CTV 1#

HMW 40); (5) Data acquisition and monitoring system (Advantech

0.6 0.6 ADAM-4018 and PC).
This system was also operated under different heat loads to
0.4 0.4 show the effects of the THIC device. And to investigate the energy
saving effects of the THIC device, a comparison between the
0.2 0.2 conventional and THIC systems was done under the same indoor
and working conditions.
0.0 0.0
4. Results and discussion
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
T-PID signal for temperature
Table 3 shows the experimental results of 5 cases under
Fig. 3. T-PID signal for temperature in the split-range control process. different indoor heat loads but the same temperature and relative
humidity of the storeroom (22  C, 60%). When the storeroom
temperature and relative humidity was xed, the parameters of the
supply air should be adjusted along with the change of storeroom
heat load. The working conditions are listed as follows:
1.0 Signal for CTV 2# 1.0
Objective temperature and relative humidity of the storeroom: 22  C, 60%
Signal for the humidifier
Ambient temperature and relative humidity: 25  C, 76%
Signal for the humidifier

0.8 0.8 Flow rate of water pump: 20,000 kg/h

Signal for C TV 2#

Flow rate of air: 7000 kg/h

0.6 0.6
The cooling load of the storeroom (Qindoor) is the sum of the
0.4 0.4 sensible and latent heat loads (Qs and Ql), and can be calculated by
the following Equations.
0.2 0.2
Qindoor Qs Ql ma $hi  hs (2)

0.0 0.0
Qs ma $Cp $Ti  Ts (3)
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
RH-PID signal for relative humidity Ql ma $L$ui  us (4)

Fig. 4. RH-PID signal for relative humidity in the split-range control process. where Qs is the sensible heat load (kW); Ql is the latent heat load
(kW); h is the air enthalpy (kJ/kg); ma is the air ow rate (kg/s); T is
the air dry bulb temperature (K); u is the air humidity ratio (kg/kg);
L is the heat of vaporization for water and assumed constant at the
value for standard conditions (2452 kJ/kg).
Table 1
In case 1, Fig. 5 shows that when the system achieved the
Systematic parameters.
stable state, both the temperature and the relative humidity of
No. Parameter Value the storeroom were kept in an acceptable uctuant range about
1 Rated power of the heater 17.5 kW the set points (22  C and 60%), from 21.9  C to 22.1  C, and from
2 Rated power of the humidier 18 kW 59.3% to 61.1%, respectively. It also shows that the water inlet
3 Rated ow rate of the chilled water pump 25 m3/h
4 Rated power of the chilled water pump 4 kW
temperature matches the room humidity very well; with the
5 Rated power of the fan 7.5 kW water inlet temperature increases, the room relative humidity
increases, vice versa. So it is concluded that the room humidity is

Table 3
Experimental tests under different indoor heat loads.
Table 2
CC details. Case 1 2 3 4 5
Average storerooms T and RH 22  C 22  C 22  C 22  C 22  C
No. Parameter Value
60% 60% 60% 60% 60%
1 Duct (Length  Width  Height) 1269.5 mm  250 mm  825.5 mm Average supply airs T and RH 18.1  C 19.0  C 13.9  C 22.9  C 22.9  C
2 Number of rows 8 74.2% 69.0% 98.3% 57.6% 57.6%
3 Number of tubes 26 Sensible heat load Qs (kW) 8.81 8.17 16.93 2.49 2.49
4 Outside diameter of tube 12.7 mm Latent heat load Ql (kW) 1.38 2.12 0.76 0.67 0.67
5 Inside diameter of tube 12.0 mm Chilled water from the CCP 9.0  C 9.0  C 9.0  C 9.0  C B
6 Center distance of tube 31.8 mm Signal of T-PID 0.69 0.79 0.38 0.98 0.53
7 Number of ns 500 Signal of RH-PID 0.48 0.44 0.52 0.54 0.52
8 Distance of individual ns 2.5 mm Oneoff state of Heater C C B C C
9 Thickness of n 0.115 mm Oneoff state of Humidier B B C C C
10 Material of tube Copper
11 Material of n Aluminum Notes: C means on; B means off; e means the storeroom is to be heated or
humidied.
3656 X.J. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3653e3657
30
Room temperature
Room humidity
25 Water temperature at CC inlet
Tmeperat ure / C
o
20
15
10
5 50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Time /min
Fig. 5. The temperature and humidity of the air-conditioned storeroom and the
corresponding water temperature at CC inlet.
regulated by the water inlet temperature independently, and also
the THIC device can guarantee both the temperature and the
relative humidity of the air-conditioned storeroom stable and also
at a higher precision level.
QCC mw $Cpw $To  Ti
Qheater Qhumidifier Qindoor Qoutdoor
In this case, the average heat exchange rate of the CC (QCC) is
about 17.3 kW, which is calculated from the inlet and outlet water
temperatures and the water ow rate of the CC, as shown in Eq. (5).
The heating rate of the heater (Qheater) measured is about 6.1 kW.
The humidier does not work yet, i.e. Qhumidier 0 kW. That is to
say, the CC and the heater, except the humidier, work together to
control the thermal-hygrometric parameter. So, the THIC device
with the PID split-range control can regulate one of thermal-
hygrometric parameters, the relative humidity, and the other one,
the temperature, is controlled by the heater independently. The
indoor heat load of the storeroom (Qindoor) is 10.2 kW, which is the
sum of Qs and Ql in Table 3. And then the heat load from the outdoor
air (Qoutdoor) is 1.0 kW, calculated from Eq. (5).
Also in case 1, in order to check the energy saving effect of
the THIC system, a comparison of the energy consumptions
between the conventional and THIC system was carried out under
the same working condition, as shown in Fig. 6. In the conventional
system, the heat exchange rate of the CC (QCC) is about 22.6 kW, the
heating rate (Qheater) is about 8.74 kW, and the humidier power
(Qdihumidier) is about 2.5 kW. All of them are higher than 17.3 kW,
6.1 kW, and 0 kW in the THIC system, respectively. The total energy
consumption can be calculated by
Qtotal QCC =COP Qheater Qhumidifier Qfan Qpump
where the COP is the coefcient of performance of the chiller.
Making a denite integral during the test 105 min, the total energy
consumption of the conventional and THIC system is about
53.4 kWh and 41.8 kWh, respectively. Seen from this, the THIC
system can save energy by about 21.7%. So, it is considerable that
the HVAC system in museum should adopt the THIC device to save
running cost for a long continuous operation during all the year and
24 h per day.
Case 2 is similar to Case 1, the humidier still does not work yet,
although the Qs decreases, and the Ql increases, resulting in the
increase of the signal value of T-PID and the decrease of that of
RH-PID. In this case, the THIC system can save energy by about 21.6%.
70 25.0
20.0
65
Energy consumption / kW
Relative humidity
15.0
60 THIC system: QCC Qheater
Conv. system: QCC Qheater Qdihumidifier
10.0
55
5.0
100 110
0.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Time / min
Fig. 6. Energy consumptions of the conventional and THIC systems.
However, in case 3, where the Qs has a larger increase and the Ql
has a large decrease, as so called high temperature low humidity
condition, the humidier turns on while the heater turns off. Also,
only two equipments (the CC and the humidier) work together in
this case, where the CC controls the supply air temperature, and the
humidier controls the supply air humidity. In this case, the THIC
(5)
system can save energy by about 29.2%.
In case 4, where both Qs and Ql decrease below 0, maybe in the
winter, as so called low temperature low humidity condition, both
heater and humidier turn on. And the THIC system can save energy
by about 22.5%. It is necessary to reduce the cooling rate of the CC,
even to turn off the CCP and the water pump, as shown in case 5.
In summary, with PID split-range control, the THIC system can
make the CC control one of the two thermal-hygrometric param-
eters, and the rest one is controlled by heater or humidier, when
cooling or dehumidication is needed; and when cooling and
dehumidication is not needed, the THIC device make the heater
and humidier work together, but the CCP turn off. Anyway,
compared with the conventional system, the THIC system can only
appoint two of the three equipments (the CC, the heater and the
humidier) to work together to maintain suitable indoor thermal-
hygrometric parameters, and also ensure only one of the two air
thermal-hygrometric parameters after CC would be excessive, and
then the over-cooling capacity of the CC would be little as possible.
So, the temperature and humidity are always controlled by one of
the two individual components independently.
5. Conclusions
For saving energy of the HVAC system, a temperature and
(6)
humidity independent control (THIC) device is proposed in this
paper, and the THIC device is implemented in a real HVAC system
for a museum storeroom. Through the experiment and analysis,
some conclusions can be drawn as follows:
(1) The THIC system can guarantee both the temperature and the
relative humidity of the conditioned storeroom are at a higher
precision level under different working conditions.
(2) The THIC device ensures that only two of the CC, the heater and
the humidier work together to maintain the suitable indoor
thermal-hygrometric parameters, and the temperature and
humidity are always controlled by one of the two individual
components independently.
 X.J. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3653e3657
(3) Comparing to the conventional system, the THIC system can
save running energy consumption by about 20e30%, with the
additional cost of two CTVs. So for a long-time running HVAC
system used in museum, the THIC device is recommended.
Acknowledgements
The research work presented in this paper was supported by
a research grant (A-PJ13) in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973
Program) under contract No. 2011CB706501, and the third batch
subsidies of the Zhejiang provincial cultural relic protection in 2008
(No. 614841).
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