The relatively new Engineering Science and Research additon to Barrows Hall is uses 65,000 cfm. of outside ventilation air 24 hours ar day, 7 days a week. OSHA mandates high ventilation air rates for laboratory spaces which may expose the space air to volatile substances. At present the building has no provision to recover energy from the heated or cooled ventilation air which is exhausted from the building after passing through the conditioned spaces; however, its air handlers have space in them to accept heat recovery coils so energy recovery capability could be installed.
Heat pumps have long been recognized as capable of moving thermal energy from a lower temperature source to a higher temperature need, delivering more energy to the need, than the work required to move it from the source. In recent years a new refrigerant compressor design has come on the market, which uses magnetic levitation bearings and requires no oil for lubrication. This eliminates oil migration from the compressor, a major potential problem with a refrigeration machine operating over a wide range of states during a year. In the southeastern part of the U. S. heat pumps are used for air conditioning in summer and heating in winter equipped with a reversing valve allowing them to switch operating modes with the change from cooling to heating season.
This project seeks .to design an exhaust air energy recovery system for year around use in the Engineering and Science Research Building based on the new oil-less refrigerant compressor. The design will be complete with heat transfer coils compressor and electronically operated refrigerant flow control valves.