Monday, October 24th, 2016
Autumn is finally here... open the windows, turn off the A/C and enjoy the fresh cool air. Many non-residential buildings are also enjoying this same benefit by using air-side economizers which allows “free cooling” through the HVAC system.
The benefits are obvious but the lower moisture content in the cool air can make it difficult to maintain humidity levels. Conventional wisdom would assume that adding a steam humidifier to raise the relative humidity would resolve the issue, but since they require approximately 1,000 BTUs of energy to evaporate just 1 lb of water, the energy consumption can potentially offset any savings provided by the economizer. For this reason, many building operators will disable the economizer and mechanically cool the return air instead of running the boiler for humidification. Essentially picking the lesser of two evils and simplifying the sequence of operation.
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So how do you take advantage of the full energy savings available from using an air-side economizer while also maintaining the desired relative humidity? Easy, by using an atomizing humidifier manufactured by GoFog.
I know what you’re thinking... atomizing humidifiers also require 1,000 BTUs to evaporate 1 lb of water so what’s the difference? The energy has to come from somewhere, right? Well, since an atomizing humidifier uses the energy from the air to evaporate the fine water droplets, the only energy required is for the high pressure pump unit which uses less than 0.003 kW per pound of water evaporated. This is less than 1% of the energy consumed by a steam humidifier.
As the atomizing humidifier evaporatively cools the air, the economizer will automatically offset this cooling by reducing the amount of outside air and increasing the return air. Since the outside air is reduced, the humidifier load is also reduced. Saving water and energy while taking full advantage of the economizer.
About GoFog, Inc.
Headquartered just outside of Charlotte NC, GoFog provides custom built atomizing humidifiers for the commercial, industrial, and agricultural markets. The GoFog System uses only a fraction of the energy used by traditional humidifiers.
For more info call 803.220.0101 or visit us at www.gofoginc.com.