CMYK

An
Introduction
to DOAS
Dedicated Outside Air Systems
Internal latent heat load from the staff and a large outdoor air
requirement make this an ideal application for a DOAS

By Jagdeep Singh Solving One Problem and

General Manager Creating Another
Desiccant Rotors International Pvt. Ltd. In the current work culture,
Gurgaon most of us spend almost 80 - 90 %
of our lives in conditioned spaces.

0
Research indicates that conditioned
VAC has come a long way. “Have we built our fort on a spaces can be 10 - 100 times more
Designers have been con foundation which has a fundamen- polluted than outside air. Hence it
stantly working to improve tal limitation?” is important that dilution of the
the system design on various fronts. This article provokes you to conditioned air is done with
Efficiency, energy management, in- think and act on some problems, adequate amount of outside air.
door air quality, controls, noise re- which have been accepted as a Outside air rates have been clearly
duction, compactness, economics, "part of the system" for too long. defined in the National Building
and environmental impact, have It discusses concerns with the Code of India 2005 and these will
been the key drivers pushing the current design methodology and be able to improve the conditioned
designer to deliver better and more. lists some of the possible space to an acceptable quality.
All the innovations and design im- alternatives. This increased amount of
provements have been built around The article advocates the need ventilation (refer Table 1) has
the "traditional approach" with the to have better and individual definitely solved some IAQ
cooling coil as our main tool in control over the key elements of problems, but the inability to
controlling both temperature and air conditioning i.e. temperature maintain the right humidity with
moisture (for cooling and dehu- and moisture. With the help of our HVAC system design has lead
midification) in the conditioned DOAS approach (dedicated us to other problems. The
space. System designs have moved outside air systems), one can formation of mold and mildew is a
to providing better indoor air qual- clearly manage both elements serious dilemma in itself, which is
ity by increasing and having the efficiently. The DOAS approach caused by lack of humidity control.
right mix of re-circulated and out- has many routes and information The question is "have we traded
side air, but some questions remain on various DOAS designs has been
unanswered. disseminated in the article, which About the Author
“Are we really successful in introduces different designs but Jagdeep Singh is a mechanical engineer
controlling both temperature and does not detail each design from an with an MBA from University of Delhi. With
moisture in the conditioned space application point of view. extensive experience in IAQ and energy
recovery in air conditioning system design,
in all weather conditions?” Finally it is up to the readers to he has authored several technical papers
“Are we trying to kill two birds decide whether they are ready to and is a member of the guest faculty at BALI.
with one stone?” make the paradigm shift He is a member of ISHRAE.

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An Introduction to DOAS

0.01
S. Application Estimated Outdoor Air Requirement
No. Maximum (Litres per second L/s)
0.008
Occupancy

{
Persons/
0.006
100 m 2 (L/s) per person (L/s)/m2

Tonnage per CFM

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 0.004
Sensible Load
i) Commercial dry cleaner 30 15 Latent Load
0.002 Total load
ii) Food and Beverage
Service 70 10 0
01 501 1001 1501 2001 2501 3001 3501 4001 4501 5001 5501 6001 6501 7001 7501 8001 8501
Dinning Rooms 100 10
Cafeteria, Fast Food 100 15 -0.002
Bars, Cocktail lounges
-0.004
iii) Hotels, Motels, Resorts, Hours
Dormitories 15
Figure 1: Ventilation Load Index Mumbai (for 1000 cfm)
Bedrooms 30 8
Lobbies 50 10 outside air in terms of the sensible and latent load in
Conference Rooms 120 8
tons for the entire year. Clearly one can see that latent
Assembly Rooms 7 10
Office Space 60 8 load of the city is quite high and is around 78% of the
Reception Areas 50 10 cumulative fresh air Load per year
Conference Rooms load. City
Ton – hours / SCFM
iv) Public Spaces Similarly if one Name Sensible Latent Total
Upper Floors 20 1.00 studies the profile of Ahmedabad 8.78 16.61 25.39
Storage Rooms 15 0.75 the cumulative loads Amritsar 5.58 13.29 18.87
Malls and Arcades 20 1.00 Bhopal 6.13 10.38 16.51
Warehouses 5 0.25
(i.e cooling and dehu-
Chennai 8.6 30.14 38.74
Smoking Lounge 70 30 midification only) for
Dibrugarh 3.48 19.55 23.03
v) Theatre
major cities of India Delhi 6.94 14.22 21.16
Ticket Booths 60 10 one can see that the Guwahati 4.72 23.18 27.9
Lobbies 150 10 latent load compo- Hyderabad 7.01 14.58 21.59
Auditorium 150 8 nent of the fresh air is lndore 5.74 9.25 14.99
Stages, Studios 70 8
quite high ranging Jaipur 7.49 11.62 19.11
vi) Education from 60% to 85% (re- Kolkata 6.85 27.62 34.47
Classroom 50 8 Lucknow 6.42 17.36 23.78
Music Rooms 50 8
fer Table 2)
Mangalore 6.64 26.6 33.24
Libraries 20 8 With outside air Mumbai 7.38 25.26 32.64
Auditoriums 150 8 bringing in a high Patna 6.78 20.48 27.26
Table 1: Outdoor air requirement for ventilation of air conditioned amount of latent en- Pune 4.64 14.84 19.48
areas and commercial facilities (Source - National Building Code of ergy, RH management Trivandrum 7.68 17.12 24.8
India 2005)
becomes difficult. Vizag 7.78 30.72 38.5
one problem with the other?” Lack of RH control Table 2: Ventilation Load Index chart
IAQ & RH Control leads to growth of for various cities (per cfm)
The benefits of increased ventilation have been mold and mildew which leads to various health re-
clearly established and absorbed by the HVAC lated issues. Mold releases tiny spores in order to re-
industry at large. The health of occupants is of great produce. These spores then waft through the indoor
concern and more and more systems are being air and start developing in damp areas. They can cause
designed with the right amount of outside air. several problems like rashes, asthma, running nose,
The outside air however while solving this problem respiratory problems including serious diseases like hy-
poses a great challenge for the HVAC system. The persensitivity pneumonites, etc. (refer Figure 2)
savior of IAQ brings along with it the quandary of Latent Loads
high latent load, imposing a heavy load on the HVAC If RH control is so critical and important let us
equipment and resulting in high RH inside. Let us examine the latent load profiles in a building.
examine the load profile of outside air in a tropical Comparing the sources of the latent load, it is clear
country like ours. that the largest contribution to the latent load
Shown in Figure 1 is the load profile of outside air component is the outside air. The chart in Figure 3
for the city of Mumbai. The curve defines the load of clearly shows that almost 50% – 70 % of internal latent
continued on page 64
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continued from page 62
and moisture remaining on its surface re-evaporates
back into the supply air. (refer Figure 4)
Even in an immaculately designed central plant
system, where one does design for very low ADPs and
reheat, one faces difficulty in controlling RH during
low sensible loads. Such systems do have better RH
control, as compared to constant volume, DX cooling
systems but are highly energy intensive (involve sub
cooling and then reheat) and are increasingly getting
banned in many countries.
With moderate weather prevailing during a
considerable part of the season during monsoons and
throughout the year in many coastal cities, this
Figure 2 : Safe Relative Humidity Levels problem needs immediate attention.
Source: Sterling ASHRAE 1985
Control Strategies
load comes from ventilation air. Traditionally one would immediately talk about a
RH Control Challenge system with low ADP i.e., having low chilled water
Why is it so difficult to manage RH? The answer temperature, high number of rows deep (8 row or
lies in the fact that the sensible and latent loads don't deeper) and reheat with active energy.
peak at the same time. Hence in moderate weather,
the sensible loads are reduced but latent loads remain
high. With ventilation air bringing in most of the
internal latent load, one needs to study the ability of
a conventional cooling system to control RH during
moderate weather conditions. A thermostat-driven
cooling coil will experience great difficulty in
managing the RH in low sensible load periods. i.e. off
peak periods of the day or monsoon weather in most
of India. The problem is that in moderate weather
the outside temperature drops but the moisture level
remains high. And with the ambient temperature
dropping the sensible loads drop. Hence the return
air temperature is quickly achieved thereby triggering
the thermostat to switch off the compressor in the
constant volume DX cooling system, allowing it to Figure 4: After the compressor shuts off, moisture condensed on the
cooling coil re-evaporates. An example of passive humidity moisture
operate only for short periods. As a result the moment control in a 3 ton unit. Source: Dehumidification Equipment Advances
the compressor turns off, the coil stops dehumidifying by Lewis G. Harriman III.
Such systems do help but are highly inefficient and
Load Characteristics (Typical)
drain a lot of energy. Figure 5 illustrates the fact that
kg/hr 10 20 30 40 50 60 one has to first sub-cool and then add active reheat
People 18 [8.2] wasting energy twice.
Performance 2 [0.9] The largest DOAS Approach
moisture
Ventilation
131 [59.5] load in Constant volume, mixed air, HVAC units are
Infiltration 26 [11.8]
most generally selected with sufficient cooling capacity to
commercial
buildings
handle dry bulb design and are controlled by a
Doors 17 [7.7]
comes from thermostat, which matches the sensible cooling
Wet Surfaces 0.0 the capacity of the coil with the sensible cooling need of
ventilation
Humid Materials 0.0
air. the space. But when it is cool and rainy outside, the
Domestic Loads 0.0 latent cooling load can approach or even exceed
lb/hr 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 sensible cooling load. To overcome this problem one
Figure 3 : Latent Load Characteristic needs to divide the load into two components i.e.
continued on page 66
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'sensible' and 'latent' and handle them separately. This one of them proves superior in a particular
approach commonly referred to as "divide and application for a particular internal and external load
conquer" deals with both components separately. profile. While I will introduce you to these
As already identified, majority of the internal latent technologies, it is outside the scope of this paper to
load is coming from the outside air. Hence, it is analyse each technology in detail from an application
important that the latent load of this air be handled point of view. To judge the right application one
separately. The DOAS approach works on this would need a detailed analysis including simulation
principle only. It removes all the latent load being techniques to compare them with each other and
brought by the outside air at the source and processes conventional HVAC systems from the first cost and
the same to a very low dew point thereby enabling it the operating cost perspectives.
to take care of the rest of the internal latent load too. The various DOAS technologies available are:
The internal cooling devices are then limited to
sensible cooling only. If one wants to draw an analogy Consider a two storied call center in Mumbai
its like making the "naughtiest boy" of the class as the with the following load profile
"class monitor". 1) Peak Wet Bulb temperature with mean = 93°F DB/82°F WB
This approach now opens up a whole new world of coincidental dry bulb (0.4%) 149 gr/lb
(peak enthalpy)
innovative designing and helps the designer to
2) Inside condition = 72°F DB/55% RH
maintain the right RH throughout the year irrespective 65gr/lb
of the weather pattern outside. The IAQ and RH 3) Inside Load pattern
management both get resolved and one is able to GROUND FLOOR (GF)
overcome all obstacles being experienced by Effective room Sensible Heat = 451680 Btu /hr
Effective room Latent Heat = 98000 Btu/hr
Occupancy = 300 Persons
FIRST FLOOR (FF)
Effective room Sensible Heat = 515832 Btu /hr
Effective room Latent Heat = 101000 Btu/hr
Occupancy = 325 Persons
4) Outdoor Air Flows (with 20 cfm per person)
GROUND FLOOR (GF) = 300 x 20 = 6000 cfm
FIRST FLOOR (FF) = 325 x 20 = 6500 cfm
5) Humidity Ratio rise for DOAS to maintain 65 gr/lb inside
GROUND FLOOR (GF)
Effective room Latent Heat = 98000 Btu/hr
Bypassed OA Latent Heat
(6000 x (149-65) x 0.68 x 0.12) = 41126 Btu/hr
(0.12 - Bypass Factor)
Internal Latent Loads W/o OA load = 56874 Btu/hr
Humidity Rise DWGF = 56874 = 13.9 gr/lb
0.68 x 6000
FIRST FLOOR (FF)
Effective room Latent Heat = 101000 Btu/hr
Figure 5 : High Energy of Reheat based system. Bypassed OA Latent Heat
(6500 x (149-65) x 0.68 x 0.12) = 44554 Btu/hr
conventional systems. Internal Latent Loads W/o OA load = 56446 Btu/hr
The designer can now increase the chilled water 56446
Humidity Rise D WFF = = 12.8 gr/lb
temperature feeding the internal air handling units, 0.68 x 6500
Hence we choose DW Selected = 13.9 gr/lb
reduce the row deeps (as ADPs can be increased) and
6) Supply air dew point (DOAS)
can optimize between the air volume and ADP W supply = W inside - W Selected
(thereby chilled water temperature) as one is now not = 65 - 13.9 = 51.1 gr/lb
limited by the Sensible Heat Factor (SHF) any longer, T supply = 49°F Dew point
to get the maximum energy and space efficiency. 7) Supply air Temperature (DOAS) = 70°F
DOAS Technology Option
Hence one can design a Dedicated Outside Air System with 70°F DB/ 49°F
Various technologies are available in the market DP as supply air condition and internal AHU's will work as sensible cooling
today and each one of them carries a few advantages devices only.
unique to them. No technology is a panacea and each Sample Calculation for a DOAS.
continued on page 68
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OA OA
HVAC system
dedicated dedicated
C H outdoor-air unit C H outdoor-air unit • Higher ADPs of sensible cooling devices hence
lower row deeps (lower pressure drop) and
blower-coil CA higher CHW temp of main chiller.
• Better performance of the chiller in terms of
CA CA
ikW/TR due to higher CHW temperature
SA RA RA SA Option II – Rotary passive desiccant heat
EA SA exchanger with coil and rotary sensible heat exchanger.
EA EA (Refer Figure 8).
fan coil

RA 84°F 53°F 72°F

129 gr/lb 60 gr/lb 64 gr/lb
Exhaust Air Return Air
Figure 6 : Conditioned OA.
(Source : The ABC’s of DOAS by Wayne Morris)

Option I - Rotary passive desiccant air-to-air Outdoor Air

93°F 61°F 48°F 67°F
Supply Air
67°F
148 gr/lb 78 gr/lb 50 gr/lb 50 gr/lb 50 gr/lb
heat exchanger coupled with dehumidification
coil. PASSIVE DESICCANT COOLING SENSIBLE

Option II - Rotary passive desiccant air-to-air heat RECOVERY WHEEL COIL RECOVERY
WHEEL

exchanger coupled with dehumidification coil and Figure 8 : Option II

sensible air to air heat exchanger.
Option III - Active desiccant dehumidification This option is designed keeping in mind the
wheel (with condenser heat reactivation) coupled with following objectives:
DX cooling coil. • Always provide conditioned air that is drier than
Option IV- Rotary passive desiccant air-to-air heat the air in the space
exchanger coupled with dehumidification coil and • Deliver cold conditioned air whenever possible,
passive desiccant dehumidification wheel. and use recovered energy to reheat during mild
Lets examine each option now. weather.
Option I - Rotary passive desiccant heat exchanger • Select equipment to limit indoor relative
with coil. (Refer Figure 7). humidity to 55 % in all seasons
This option gives high efficiency heat recovery and This option has all the features of Option I and in
reduces the total installed tonnage of the HVAC addition supplies air at almost room temperature. The
system. Since the recovery reduces both latent and advantage here lies in the fact that during moderate
sensible load of the outside air (the recoveries can be weather i.e. when outside ambient temperature is low
as high as 85%) and the dehumidification coil reduces but latent load is high (typically monsoons weather),
the dew point to almost 50°F, this approach is most the option I too can have difficulty in handling the
widely used and is highly cost effective and paybacks
are often negative.
The benefits of this option are :
• Installed tonnage reduction
• Lower power consumption of the installed

Exhaust Air Return Air

88.5°F 88.5°F 72°F
130 gr/lb 130 gr/lb 64 gr/lb

Outdoor Air Supply Air

93°F 76.5°F 48°F 48°F

148 gr/lb 82 gr/lb 50 gr/lb 50 gr/lb

PASSIVE DESICCANT COOLING

RECOVERY WHEEL COIL

Figure 7 : Option I Figure 9 : Psychrometrics of Option III

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RH. • Meets ASHRAE Standard 90.1 requirements.
This option supplies air at almost room temperature • COP 65% more than a conventional DX system
with lower dew point than the space, hence it can with reheat.
continue to control the moisture without the risk of • Uses recycled heat from DX system for
lowering the temperature. reactivation.
The benefits of this option are : • No active reheat required.
• Possibility of obtaining almost 80% of LEED • Maintains RH control in all the seasons
points. (including for areas having high internal latent
• Good RH control in all the seasons loads)
Option IV - Rotary passive desiccant heat
exchanger with cooling coil and passive desiccant
Exhaust Air
dehumidification wheel. (Refer Figure 11).
Outside Air
This approach utilizes the strengths of passive total
energy recovery, conventional cooling and a new type
of desiccant rotor, the passive dehumidification wheel.
CONDENSER COIL The ability of this system lies in the fact that it optimizes
Outdoor Air Supply Air
the moisture removal between the cooling coil and
93°F
148 gr/lb
55°F
65 gr/lb
68°F
45 gr/lb
68°F
45 gr/lb the desiccant wheel without the need of active re -
activation. The passive desiccant wheel removes
moisture from saturated air stream in an highly energy
ACTIVE
DX COIL
DEHUMIDIFICATION WHEEL efficient manner.
Figure 10 : Option III The benefits of this option are :
• Reduced installed tonnage and lower power • Extremely good RH control in all seasons
consumption of HVAC system. • High energy efficiency
• Internal sensible cooling devices have higher • Lower dew point of supply than the other three
CHW, lower ADPs resulting in reduced pressure options.
drops and better ikW/TR for chiller. • Versatile and adjusts well to varying climate
Option III - Active desiccant dehumidification • Installed tonnage reduction for the HVAC
wheel (with condenser heat reactivation) coupled with system.
DX cooling coil. (Refer Figures 9 & 10). Parallel Sensible Cooling Options
This option combines the benefits of desiccant When using the DOAS approach the internal
dehumidification with cooling of the DX air cooling devices work only as sensible cooling devices.
conditioners. Contrary to the first two options, this The options available for internal cooling / heating
approach uses the desiccant wheel to remove moisture are:
and lower the dew point of the supply air instead of • Unitary equipment
using a cooling coil. • Terminal AHU / FCU
The reactivation of the desiccant wheel is • VAV system
undertaken by recycled heat from the DX condenser • Radiant cooling panels
air. Each one of these has its own distinct advantages
The benefits of this option are : for type of zoning required for specified HVAC
application.
Conclusion
The indoor air quality requirement of higher
ventilation rates along with proper RH control and
Exhaust Air Return Air
87°F 62°F 62°F 72°F energy management will push the HVAC designer
133 gr/lb 78 gr/lb 78 gr/lb 65 gr/lb
to the use of "dedicated outside air systems" in the
near future. DOAS holds a lot of promise with its
Outdoor Air Supply Air

93°F 69°F 55°F

65°F ability to maintain the right humidity in all weather
53 gr/lb
148 gr/lb 93 gr/lb 63 gr/lb
conditions. The "divide and conquer" approach
PASSIVE DESICCANT
RECOVERY WHEEL
COOLING COIL PASSIVE DESICCANT
DEHUMIDIFICATION WHEEL
definitely allows the designer to have better
Figure 11 : Option IV management of the two key elements of air
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conditioning i.e. temperature and moisture. The "traditional problems". In the words of Albert Einstein,
original definition of air conditioning can now be Science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
met in an energy efficient manner. References
The DOAS has already proved itself with high 1) Dehumidification and Cooling Loads from Ventilation
potential of energy savings in nearly all applications Air - Lewis Harriman, Plager D, Kosar D.
and weather profiles. However the benefit of Options- 2) Current Trends of Desiccant Technology Uses in
II, III and IV over the first option in terms of energy Commercial HVAC - Deepak Pahwa & Manoj Bhatia.
saving is seen in a few applications only. Otherwise, 3) Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refri-
from the energy point of view Option-I has come out geration (HVAC & R) Engineering - Charles E,
to be the most cost effective. Gulledge.
However in RH control the last three options 4) Indoor Air Quality - Mold - EPA.
discussed have performed better for a wide variety of 5) Dehumidification Equipment Advances - Lewis G.
applications and weather profiles. To clearly state that a Harriman III and James Judge.
particular option is the best solution would be a 6) Designing Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems - Stanley
meaningless statement as proper simulation exercises A. Mumma.
need to be conducted on a few key applications for a 7) Designing for Absolute Moisture Control - R. Mark
few weather profiles and "first cost + operating cost" Nunnelly and J. Patrick.
matrix tabulation, giving due consideration to the 8) ABC's of DOAS - Wayne Morris.
importance of RH control. Some studies have indicated 9) Rx for Sick Buildings - John S. Manuel.
that the installed first cost of DOAS approach is lower 10) Initial Evaluation of Displacement Ventilation
than a conventional system for certain applications. A and Dedicated Outdoor Air System for US
paradigm shift is taking place and designers are now Commercial Buildings - Steven J. Emmerich and
actively considering these options to weed out the Tim McDowell.

$Q$GYWDSSHDUHGKHUH

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