View Single Post
Old 10-23-12, 06:51 AM   #6
osolemio
Hong Kong
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 108
Thanks: 20
Thanked 17 Times in 13 Posts
Default

Thank you for your answers so far - it is an interesting subject, with huge potential, for global energy savings, comfort as well as for economics.

Adding moisture in the winter, as mentioned by Daox is just as important, depending on where you live. Adding moisture is easier, and it does make it possible to have a lower temperature inside and still not freeze. It is important to have a system to keep the moisture more or less constant during the year - the latter is also important for the well being of a house structure. Not too dry, not too moist, and all will be good!

After all, when we speak of "heating" and "cooling", "humidifying" and "dehumidifying" ... we are really talking about keeping it CONSTANT inside, or near constant. We add heat to counter a temperature fall in winter, or cool down, to counter a temperature rise in summer. Likewise with the humidity.

To solve the humidity issue - finding a smart way to add or remove humidity in a cheap and clean way, is the way forward, both for comfort, building preservation, energy saving and economy.

I don't think anything involving combustion of fossils is the way forward, though, no matter how efficient.

Usually, at times when you require cooling (or dehumidification), there is lot's of sunshine available. Turn that excess energy into cooling/dehumidification, and the world can save immense amounts of energy. We just have to find an efficient and sustainable way to exploit and control it.

But we also need to educate people and developers about humidity. An example:

Another place to live, built in 2005, with a central air-condition, and the problem is still the same, "faulty" type of A/C design: It has two modes it cycles between, as the temperature changes:

1) Very cold, dry air is pumped in, as long as the thermostat says "it's too hot"

2) When the thermostat says the set temperature is reached, the ventilation keeps going, but now with hot ambient (and humid!) air, until the thermostat again says "it's too hot"

The result is a cycling between "dry fridge" and a very humid hotter air, where everything becomes sticky. Both of these are quite uncomfortable, one too cold, the other too humid.

Instead, the A/C should have cycled on when it's too hot, but completely off until again required. Pumping in ambient hot/humid air is counter-productive and downright stupid, in all regards. I wish I could re-rig the A/C, but for now, where cooling requirements are less, a solution is to keep the A/C running in one room only, at lowest fan setting. This room is then quite chilly, but the air spreads to the other rooms, which are then quite comfortable - and not too humid!

When it is really bad, it becomes so humid that normal stationary paper loses that crackling sound when you handle it. On the other hand, when it is really hot outside, it's not a problem, as the A/C keeps in the cooling mode (as long as the fan setting is low). The problem is mainly present at times of fall/spring intermediate ambient conditions.
__________________
Space heating/cooling and water heating by solar, Annual Geo Solar, drainwater heat recovery, Solar PV (to grid), rainwater recovery and more ...
Installing all this in a house from 1980, Copenhagen, Denmark. Living in Hong Kong. Main goal: Developing "Diffuse Light Concentration" technology for solar thermal.
osolemio is offline   Reply With Quote