Energy consumption in humidification process

Abstract

The purpose of the air-conditioning system is to provide people in an air-conditioned room or facility with thermal-humidity comfort. For this purpose, the external air before entering into the room is processed for its treatment. These processes include, among others, humidification of the air. Too high a humidity level also does not benefit the building and its people. Humidification of the air can be realized as directly, then the steam or water mist injection takes place in the room, and indirectly, when the supply air to the room is humidified in the ventilation system. The energy consumption in the humidification process depends primarily on stream of humid air, methods of humidifying the air (water or steam), the type of energy carrier used to produce steam or secondary heating of humid air, range of relative humidity maintained, external humidity parameters. In the case where both the steam and the secondary heating use the same energy sources, the costs in both cases will be comparable. In this paper the calculation of energy demand in hourly and annual period as well as for water and steam humidifier unit have been calculated and presented in many tables and figures. The semidetached house were taken under consideration to analyzed the energy consumption for humidification process. The amount of energy needed to humid the air during the annual season varies from 127 to 545 kWh/ar, depending on the humidifier used and the pump power, while for steam humidification the amount of energy for humidification is less than 9421 kWh/a. As a result, water humidification should be considered more economical. The basic difference between water and steam humidification, as evidenced by the hx graphs is decrease in the air temperature during water humidification and need to reheat it. Taking into account the energy requirements in both cases is similar. The humidifying costs of the steam humidifiers are much higher than those of water humidification.