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Integrated Temperature and Humidity Control: A Unique Approach
Abstract
During hot and humid periods, a comfortable indoor
environment can be attained only by controlling
both the dry-bulb temperature and the humidity in the
space. Conventional thermostats control the ON/OFF
status of a cooling plant to maintain only the dry-bulb
temperature within the conditioned space. This can
result in the space dew-point temperature increasing
to uncomfortable levels, especially during cool and
humid times of the day and/or when there is high latent
gain. Consequently, the occupant must resort to
undesirable and inefficient interventions (e.g., manually
lowering the space dry-bulb temperature set
point) to "sweat out" the water from the air. An innovative
controller, the Integrated Temperature and
Humidity Controller, has been invented for controlling
both the dry-bulb temperature and the absolute
moisture content of the air in a conditioned space.
These new algorithms have been implemented in a
product prototype, and limited field tests have been
performed. Preliminary results confirm the expected
operation and performance of the controller and its
robustness and are extremely encouraging.
Citation
Shah, D. J. (2000). Integrated Temperature and Humidity Control: A Unique Approach. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6771.