Conference Year
July 2018
Keywords
destratification, ventilation, warehouse
Abstract
A significant source of energy consumption comes from maintaining desired indoor environment conditions in warehouses and other industrial facilities. To combat the raising energy costs, studies into more efficient heating and cooling strategies has been a topic of consideration for a number of years. One of the areas of investigation is the implications of a thermally stratified environment. In heating, removing the stratification phenomena has been linked to savings in the cost of fuel to heat an environment. Whereas in cooling a highly stratified environment is desired. The primary method of de-stratification is the utilization of ceiling fans. The use of fans reduces the overall savings of de-stratification for heating purposes. A solution to offset the reliance on grid power is the use of solar powered ceiling fans. The challenge with utilizing solar power during heating seasons is a reduction in the time the sun is available to charge and store energy to run the fans. While there are studies on the impact of thermal stratification, with air as a medium in an indoor environment, there is a lack of information on the frequency at which the ceiling fans need to operate to maintain a de-stratified environment. The determination of a fan operation frequency, to maintain a de-stratified environment, informs potential designers on the viability of installing solar powered fans as an alternative to grid powered fans. In the event that solar powered fans were not a viable option, it also provides information on the frequency that a grid powered fan would need to run to maintain de-stratification. To determine a fan operating frequency, a numerical analysis will be performed. This numerical analysis will assess the time required to de-stratify an environment based on inputs such as flow rate and spatial considerations. In order to establish the quality of the numerical analysis, two experiments have been conducted to observe the impact of de-stratification. One experiment is located at a large retail warehouse distribution center, the other is a small classroom. The data collected from these experiments will be compared to the models developed to predict the change in stratification with time.