CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Central air conditioning is one of the most convenient and efficient ways of getting relief and comfort from the harsh climatic conditions prevalent in our environment. The ‘central’ in central air conditioning comes from the fact that the system conditions the entire building from one central location in a building. This system cools and dehumidifies the air and then blows the cool air into a well-designed duct system and out through the supply air registers located in the building (Andrew Althouse D, 2001).

However, this technology has not gained the required publicity in Nigerian schools today. Despite cost of installation, It is in fact a more preferable alternative when compared to the window type air conditioners. Therefore this project is directed towards designing a central air conditioning system for a one thousand capacity lecture theatre in the University of uyo,

1.2   Statement Of Problem                       This one thousand capacity lecture auditorium has a lot of classrooms and offices and will require much work to be done in providing and maintaining the desired amount of thermal comfort for the occupants under lecture and working conditions simultaneously. Hence we want to design a central cooling system for this auditorium so as to implement the following conditions as opposed to installing window units all over the auditorium.

Quick response to temperature changes, air filtration and adjusted humidity for comfortable  healthy indoor air, humidification and dehumidification with central air conditioning, automatic circulation of quality air all year round, Quiet operation with built-in vents and registers, Lower fuel costs with heat pump options, improvement of the physical aesthetics of the building.

The objectives of this design include the following.

1. To design a central air conditioning system for a lecture theatre of 1000 capacity.
2. To determine the installation capacity required for the air conditioning system.

• To describe the layout of the distribution system.
  • Significance of the Study

The completion of the analysis of a central air conditioning system for a 1000 capacity lecture theatre gave the us great exposure to requirements, tools and techniques that are required for carrying out a central air conditioning system design. It also exposed us to the inherent difficulties and challenges involved in the design process using manual computation methods compared to the use of a computer software (though the cost of acquiring the software could be prohibitive in some cases).

The project involved theoretical analysis of a 1000 capacity lecture theatre; for this reason, selection of actual brands of equipment was not considered. Due to the cost of acquiring computer software for the cooling load estimation, a manual method of estimating the cooling load was used.