The Psychrometric Testing Facility at the Riverside Energy Efficiency Laboratory at Texas AandM University has not been operational for several years. The goal of this project was to restore the testing facility to a fully operational condition for the purpose of supporting research and cooling capacity testing, with the latter following the appropriate standards. Numerous changes were made to the coolant piping system, the data acquisition system, instrumentation, and temperature and humidity control to update and improve the facility. In addition, a computer program was developed and implemented that allows for flexible control of the facility’s conditions and collection of data while showing real time performance and refrigerant and psychrometric calculations. The current program flexibility, along with the proper combination of instrumentation, allows the Psychrometric Facility to operate with separate steady state environmental conditions in each room, according to, and meeting, the AHRI 210/240 standard. Cooling capacity testing done on a split system residential unit was compared to the published AHRI rating to benchmark the state of the facility. Tested cooling capacity was about 3 percent below the published cooling capacity; tested EER was about 7 percent below the published EER; and finally, the calculated SEER based on the default degradation coefficient was about 10 percent below the published SEER. The difference in the calculated performance parameters to the published are expected due to unknown testing conditions used to calculate the published rating.

This Thesis is focused on the study of the problem of condensation on the inner surface of Fullrigaren building’s large single pane window. This has serious consequences as water on the floor, corrosion or mould growth. As the climate in Nordic countries is cold for several months a year, windows are a crucial part in building envelopes. Condensation on a window may be suitably discussed only with respect to the climate considered as cold, moderate and warm climates pose different requirements on the windows, and this is why a characterization of Gävle by its climate is necessary. This Thesis will include the energy analysis of the staircase considered which is required to understand the source of the actual problem. Both heat and moisture transfer will be studied. In this purpose, an IDA model will be built to simulate the conditions throughout the year and hand-made calculations will be done for the average and most critical situations. The results show that condensation will already occur for the monthlyaverage conditions having as an additional problem that if temperature drops below zero it will freeze. Results will also be compared to an initial installation of a 2 pane window reaching as a conclusion that its original installation would had avoided the problems for most of the time. The Thesis will end with several proposals posed to solve the problem by either increasing the temperature or reducing the moisture content of the ambient air, and the selection of the best one. The final aim of the Thesis is to achieve an energy efficient window which should provide good lighting during the day and good thermal comfort both during day and night at minimum demand of paid energy. And for this, the selection of the electrically heated window is proposed.

Moisture from concrete has been estimated to be responsible for over $1 billion annually from damages in floor coverings. To prevent damages, flooring manufacturers require installers to test concrete moisture levels to determine if the concrete has dried sufficiently to receive flooring or covering. Two of the main tests used in the United States to determine concrete moisture levels are moisture vapor emissions rate (MVER) tests and relative humidity (RH) tests. Changes in ambient temperature can affect the results of both RH and MVER tests. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of ambient temperature changes on the RH of concrete, and compare the sensitivity of RH measurements to the results of MVER tests at the same ambient temperature. The RH of concrete was measured at 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% of depth in each sample and tracked over a period of 24 days to develop drying curves at each depth, and drying profiles of each sample. The changes in concrete RH due to a change in ambient temperature were predicted using the psychrometric process and a model developed during this study. Due to size constraints on the concrete samples, ASTM 1869 had to be altered during the MVER tests. Typical RH change in the concrete samples was under 4% RH after either an increase or decrease in an ambient temperature of 5.5°C (10°F). The psychrometric process predicted that the concrete RH would change between 20% - 40% RH after the ambient temperature changed by 5.5°C. Psychrometric properties were not able to full describe the behavior of air in concrete pores so a new model was created to better predict the change in concrete RH after a change in ambient temperature. The developed model was able to predict concrete RH change within 5% error over the range of tested temperatures. / Master of Science

The thesis describes the various ventilation and air conditioning systems used to maintain suitable, temperature-humidity parameters of air in office buildings. The thesis deals with their advantages and disadvantages and assessing the suitability of using several systems for the application. The main task is to choose the most suitable system and it's calculation. For the actual system design is needed to detect a heat loss and gains the specified object and calculate the minimum amount of ventilation air. There will also be given psychrometric calculation of a device and drawing documentation, including draft of an engine room.

Diploma thesis is focused on the design and dimensioning of the central air-condition system of the offices in two-story building. The thesis consists of a theoretical part which deals with air- condition systems, and computation and design part. The computation part is comprised of calculation of quantity of ventilation air, calculation of heat losses and heat gains and psychrometric evaluation of operation during summer and winter. Design part consists of design and dimensioning of air-distriutions and air ducts and consist of design of air-conditioner and machine room. There are specification of materials and drawing documentation in the end of thesis.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to design the air conditioning system for one floor of the offices. The thesis is divided into theoretical, computational and design part. The computational part consists in determining the amount of ventilation air, calculation of heat losses, heat gains and psychrometric calculations for summer and winter season. Based on the calculated values, air ducts, end-points and air-conditioning units are designed. The diploma thesis is supplemented with a list of materials and drawing documentation.