Sensible Heat Ratio (SHR) Every piece of airconditioning equipment is capable of moving a certain amount of heat BTUs (British Thermal Units) at set conditions. In most eases during the cooting mode, a portion of those BTUs will go toward changing the temperature of the air and a part will go towards changing vapor water inthe ai info water chat colects on the evapora and then drains out ‘The BTUs that go towards changing the TEMPERATURE of the sir are called SENSIBLE and the ones that go towand removing water fiom the air are called LATENT. The percentage ofthe capacity that goes toward sensible cooling ata given set of conditions for a given piece of equipment or space is called SENSIBLE HEAT RATIO (SHR). So a system that has an SHR Of 0.70 and 30,000 Total BTUs of capacity at a set of conditions would produce 21,000 BTUs of sensible cooling and 9,000 BTUs of latent removal because 30,000 x 0.7 = 21,000 and the rest 30,000 x 0.3 = 9,000, Higher SHR (closer to 1.0) = More change in temperature and less humidity removed Lower SHR = less change in temperature and more humidity removed In the HVAC industry, thee is a set of standatd conditions used to compare one piece of equipment to another, When system has an SUI rating listed it would offen be at ALIRI conditions ualess the spees state otherwise ARI testing Standards: Normal Design Conditions: 95° F Outdoor temperature 95° F Outdoor temperature 80° F Indoor temperature 75° F Indoor temperature 50% Relative humidity 50% Relative humidity ‘When doing a load calevlaton a good designer will calculate and consider the intemal and extemal latent and sensible loads and mateh up with equipment accordingly besed not only on one set of design conditions but on the range of seasonal and ‘occupant conditions that the structute i likely to experience based on the use, design and climate. By following ACCA, (Manual J & S) and ASHRAE (62.2 & 62.1 for example) standards e designer will have guidelines to follow and this includes ‘matching the space SHR to a piece of equipment that will make a good match at similar conditions. It does often need some ligging into manufactures specs to interpret this data for the equipmentOutdoor Air Temperature 1 Total 85°F (29°C) 95°F (35°C) eneane| Air Total Sensible To Total | Total ‘Sensible To Total [Tempera- Cooling [Com] Ratio (S/T) Cooling Ratio (ST) ‘ture Capacity [Maver Dry Bulb Dry Bulb 75°F | 80°F | 85°F 75°F 85°F cfm | Us |kBtun | KW [Input 24-6 | 27°c | 29°¢ |KBUM 24°c | 27°¢ | 29°C THO [STS] HE TOT | 2B] 7%] BH | 100 7 ee 1225 | 580 | 354 |104| 229] 78 | 94 | 1.00 0 1380 |650 | 362 |106 | 230] 81 | 96 | 1.00 8 ore 515 | 66 [Tor | 231 | | 73 | 87 @ 580 | 376 |110 | 231 | 61 | 76 | 90 62 or 650 | 385 [113 | 231 | 63 | 79 | 95 Cc THO [SIS | SS |S [Zz aS SIT a Garey | 1225 [880] 305 | 116 | 232 | 46 | 0 | 74 | 46 1360 }650 | 405 [19 | 233 | 46 | 62 | 77 At n the example above fom a Lennox unit, you can see that the SHR is listed and highly variable based on outdoor bub temperatures. In this example, you would need to impor air Now setting a¢ well as indoor wet ul and dry ‘multiply the total capacity x SHR to calculate the actual sensible and latent capacity. DETAILED COOLING CAPACITIES* CONTINUED swe Pasar | sme_[ sare ere Se_[— er Sn —sa—[oe-> an] ae wef er ‘This example fom Carrier has no SHR listed, instead, it lits the specific sensible and total capacities You can easily calculate the SHR by dividing the scasible capacity by the total capacity and the ateat is simply the sensible subtracted from the total ‘The cool thing is that this understanding ean help both designers and commissioning technicians to match equipment properly and even make further adjustments using aifow fo get a near perfect match which leads to lower power consumption, less short cycling and better humidity control. Bryan