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Humidity Control in Residences
Abstract
Maintaining relative humidity below 60% for
residential houses in humid climates promotes a
healthy indoor environment. Yet, for such homes,
these lower humidity levels are difficult to maintain
with conventional recirculation air conditioning
units. By introducing a separate vapor compression
unit to pre-condition outside air, indoor relative
humidity can be controlled. This new air
conditioning system combines a ventilation unit with
a conventional recirculation air conditioning unit.
Although successful in maintaining indoor humidity
levels below 60%, the new air conditioning system
will require more electric energy to provide the
additional dehumidification. However, this penalty is
shown to be offset by reductions in sensible load
during a summer week, which should result in lower
energy consumption and peak electric demand during
that period. The performance of this new air
conditioning system is demonstrated using FSEC 3.0,
a building energy simulation program developed by
the Florida Solar Energy Center, to simulate the heat
and moisture transport occurring within a
prototypical residence located in Austin, Texas.
Citation
Trowbridge, J.; Peterson, J. (1994). Humidity Control in Residences. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6629.