IMPROVING AHU PERFORMANCE BY MINIMIZING APPROACH TEMPERATURE, REDUCING AIR MALDISTRIBUTION, AND EFFICIENTLY HANDLING SENSIBLE AND LATENT LOADS

Residential air handling units (AHUs) have essentially stayed the same in size, shape, form and efficiency for the past 30+ years. While incremental improvements have been made to address safety, functionality, and energy-efficiency concerns, the overall structure has remained the same. Significant change is needed to develop a next generation design that can more readily address the increasing energy challenges of tomorrow. In partnership with Goodman Manufacturing Company, L.P., Optimized Thermal Systems, Inc. (OTS) will design, model and analyze a next generation AHU cable of delivering improved thermal comfort, adequate ventilation, and reduced energy consumption. To achieve the desired levels of AHU and system level performance, OTS will focus on methods to reduce the approach temperature and pressure drop within the heat exchanger, but as integrated within the context of the full AHU. This requires improvement not only in the heat exchanger design, but also in establishing proper air distribution and improving dehumidification capability. OTS will leverage Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in addition to proprietary analytical methods and software tools to identify and assess suitable improvements to the residential AHU. Optimization will be conducted using a variety of criteria and constraints to meet objectives including minimizing cost and maximizing energy efficiency. Phase I work will focus on the design and analysis effort while Phase II will build and test a physical prototype system.