Effect of Humidity on the Amount of Water Collected from Air-Condition Systems: Experimental Approach

Abstract

More than 60% of the total electricity produced in the Kingdom of Bahrain and other Arabian Gulf Countries in the summer seasons are being used to meet air conditioning demands. The process involves the extraction of heat as well as the extraction of moisture (humidity) from the air.  Those and many other countries, with hot and humid environment, usually have severe water scarcity and poor endowment of water resources. Harvesting and collecting of the by-product condensate water from air conditioning system provide a good alternative water supply, mainly for non drinking requirements. In this study, the effect of atmospheric (outside) humidity and humidity inside the buildings (indoor) on the amount of water collected from the air conditioning system, as a byproduct, have been studied experimentally. The data has been collected for two years (2017 & 2018) during the period from April to October in the Kingdom of Bahrain for different days on hourly basis from two tons of refrigeration split unit system. Atmospheric humidity, the room inside humidity, the atmospheric temperature, and the room temperature, have been recorded. Respected dew points have been calculated. The measured atmospheric relative humidity was compared to the officially recorded relative humidity at Bahrain Airport. It has been found to perfectly agree with each other with a mean deviation of 0.44% and 1.27% for the two consecutive years.  The collected average amounts of water from the air conditioning system for the two years and for each month is fully consistent and reflect the effect of humidity in form of liner relationship.

Keywords: Water resource, air conditioning system, humidification-dehumidification

DOI: 10.7176/JETP/9-7-05

Publication date:October 31^st 2019