ASHRAE Journal - October 2020 - 82

RESEARCH REPORT

envisioned that the air space behind the selected claddings will include
assemblies with and without at least one surface that is perpendicular
to the primary direction of heat flow with an initial total hemispherical
emittance less than 0.10. Air exchange rates or ventilation flows into and
out of the airspace and the impact on thermal resistance will be assessed
and used in testing and analysis of thermal performance. Results will be
used to recommend changes and additions to applicable test standard s),
the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals [9], and ASHRAE Standard 90.1.
1760-RP

Update of Clothing Database for Existing and New
Western Clothing Ensembles, Including Effects of
Posture, Body and Air Movement

April 2018 - August 2021 (P); Loughborough University; Principal Investigator: George
Havenith; TC 2.1, Physiology and Human Environment,

To improve the clothing database, to provide data that are not presently
available for input into Standard 55 and other models, and to make these
standards and methodologies more accurate in their application to situations
where western attire is worn.
1762-RP

Update the ASHRAE Design Guide for Combustion
Turbine Inlet Air Cooling Systems Published in 1999

January 2018 - August 2020 (P); Avalon Consulting; Principal Investigator: Dharam V. Punwani;
TC 1.10, Cogeneration Systems

The overall objective of the proposed project is to update the CTIC
Design Guide published in 1999. The specific objectives of the project
are to perform a thorough review of the literature and extract all relevant
information for updating the guide in the following areas: Include environmental benefits of CTIC for reducing emissions of carbon and NOx for
power generation. Include information on several new commercially available
CTIC cooling technologies: indirect evaporative cooling, wet compression
and hybrid systems. Include quantitative CTIC design guidelines and a
performance tool for comparing the performance of various CTIC technologies. Enhancement of the Economic Evaluation section, from the current
one-page qualitative description, to include a typical data sheet useful
for collecting the data needed for a better economic evaluation. Include a
new section for the selection and specification of some of the important
and major components of CTIC systems: media for wetted media, cooling coils for chiller systems, mist eliminators for all cooling technologies,
detrimental effects of non-uniform distribution of cooled air temperature
across the inlet area of compressors and methods for achieving acceptable
temperature distribution.
1767-URP Moist Air Transport Properties Research
July 1, 2016 - January 2021 (P); Kretzschmar Consulting Engineers, Principal Investigator:
Hans-Joachim Kretzschmar; TC 1.1 (Thermodynamics & Psychrometrics)

The objective is to make the ASHRAE technical literature and ASHRAE
Handbook of Fundamentals the most current and most accurate source of
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ASHRAE JOURNAL

ashrae.org

O CTO B E R 2020

research highlight

How Well Do Low-Cost
Particle Sensors Monitor IAQ?
As consumer-grade, low-cost particle sensors enter the market, they
could provide a way to inexpensively monitor indoor air quality and,
eventually, control building systems. A study evaluated several of these
sensors as part of ASHRAE Research Project 1756, Evaluation of Particle
Sensors for Indoor Air Quality Monitoring and Smart Building Systems.
The final research report is not available yet, but the researchers
recently published an article about the study in Science and Technology
for the Built Environment, ASHRAE's archival research publication. In the
article, researchers address how the research team evaluated the performance of the best-performing, low-cost sensors.
Researcher Jordan Clark, Ph.D., Member ASHRAE, discussed the
research with ASHRAE Journal earlier this year.
There are dozens of models of low-cost airborne particle sensors
commercially available, and most offer some useful information about
the amount and type of airborne particulate matter in a given environment, he said.
"Many in the buildings community are looking forward to the time
when such sensors are ubiquitous in smart buildings and used to
characterize and control indoor environments. However, it is widely
understood that performance varies substantially among the various
models and among different applications in which they may be used,"
Clark said.
1756-RP examined the performance of several commercially available
low-cost particle sensors; identified the variables that affect performance of these sensors and the needs of various applications in smart
buildings; and developed methods for characterizing sensor performance
that are useful for building designers, operators and occupants.
"We learned a lot about the performance of these sensors over the
course of this two-year project. In general, all sensors tested were able
to give a binary indication of typical particle emission events in homes
they were subjected to, and to return to baseline operation after the
event," he said. "However, comparison of continuous low-cost sensor
outputs with those of research-grade equipment showed performance
varied widely among models and sometimes among different instances
of the same model."
The research's results provide performance data for several models of
low-cost particle sensors, both in laboratory and field tests, and identify
several considerations that need to be taken into account when characterizing the performance of one of these sensors, and methods for doing
so, said Clark.
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ASHRAE Journal - October 2020

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