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Total Humidification Load Calculation
2596995_0_EN_1905
Nortec EL
5.1.1 Calculating Base Humidification Load
5.1.1.1 Total Unconditioned Air Supply Volume
The total volume of incoming unconditioned air (ft
3
/h), forced and naturally ventilated, depends on the
construction of the conditioned environment and the type of air circulation system used.
Forced Ventilation
Typically, an air handler system will exchange a fixed percentage of conditioned air for unconditioned
air. This unconditioned air is the volume of air that requires humidification.
Air handler systems vary by design, but will rely upon adding or removing volumes of air from a controlled
environment. Air handling systems that add air to the conditioned environment will have a total forced air
volume equivalent to the unconditioned supply air volume. Air handling systems that exhaust air from the
conditioned environment must have at least an equal volume of unconditioned air reintroduced, which
is equal to the total forced air volume.
Accounting for Economizer Cycles
Under normal heating conditions, the unconditioned supply air volume is usually relatively small to avoid
large heating and conditioning treatments. However when the economizer cycle is in operation, the un-
conditioned air volume may be as high as 100% of the total ventilation. To calculate the humidification
load for a system with an economizer cycle, the air ventilation and thermal load must be calculated for
each month in which the economizer mode may operate to determine the highest humidification load.
Natural Ventilation
A natural ventilation system is one that does not rely upon direct mechanical means to provide air
ventilation to the conditioned environment. Air enters the conditioned environment through openings in
the building envelope. The amount of makeup air is calculated based on the volume of the conditioned
space and an estimate of air changes per hour.
5.1.1.2 Unconditioned Supply Air Moisture
Once the total volume of unconditioned supply air is known, the moisture content of the air supply must
be determined. To ensure the humidifier capacity will be able to satisfy design conditions, the calcula-
tions must be based on the lowest unconditioned supply air temperatures and humidity that can be
expected on a yearly basis. In applications where the unconditioned supply air will be drawn from the
local atmosphere, Condair advises utilizing the weather data compiled by geographic location published
by the ASHRAE Climate Data Centre.
Once the lowest temperature for the given geographic location is known, the moisture content of the
unconditioned air supply can be determined as follows:
Supply Air Moisture (lb/ft
3
) = Maximum Supply Air Moisture (lb/ft
3
) × Lowest Humidity (% RH)
where,
• Maximum Supply Air Moisture is the moisture content (lb/ft
3
) at 100% RH, obtained from
(metric units) corresponding to the lowest anticipated
supply air temperature for the unconditioned air supply;
• Lowest Humidity is the lowest anticipated humidity (% RH) for the unconditioned supply air source.