A complete, upgradeable, instrumented air conditioning laboratory unit mounted on a steel frame and castor wheels. Upgrades may be added at any stage in the unit’s long life to spread the investment costs.
The base unit comprises a variable speed radial acting axial flow fan discharging into a 250mm square duct with steam humidifier, electrical pre-heaters, direct expansion cooling coil/de-humidifier, electrical re-heaters and orifice plate for airflow measurement. Air-cooling is provided by vapour compression refrigeration system with pressure, temperature and refrigerant flow measurement. This allows the construction of a full cycle diagram and the balancing of refrigerant system energy balance against the airside energy transfer. Air condition is recorded before and after each process using precision wet and dry bulb sensors. Instrumentation allows the electrical power to each resistive load to be measured and balanced against the air enthalpy change and mass flow.
