Case Study

The Humidity Expert

Saving a recreational facility from corro-sion and other moisture related issues is atypical day for the engineers at EI Solutions.

So it was not out of the ordinary when they were asked to help solve thehumidity issues at the Centennial Recreation Centre's natatorium inToronto. Already a leader in their Country for ice arena dehumidification,EI Solutions proved to the Canadian engineers in charge of the retrofitproject that the Munters product would work in a swimming pool environ-ment just as well if not better than the competitor's products and tech-nologies.

While desiccant dehumidification of natatoriums is not common inCanada, it is a large and growing market for Munters around the world. Allnatatoriums require dehumidification and heating most of the year. In theUK, Munters' dehumidification units have become a standard in natatori-ums. In the United States, Munters' units are increasingly being applied tonew and retrofit pool applications because of the now proven andincreased reliability over packaged mechanical dehumidification systems.Clients with many years of experience in the operations of natatoriums areextremely pleased with the reduced maintenance costs the Munters' unitsprovide over their previous cooling-based dehumidification systems.

The AM20-1300G uses a desiccant wheel for dehumidification andheat recovery to pre-treat the outside air. The unit also has post heat andcooling. It is the first Munters unit for a large scale pool application to besold in Canada. EI Solutions jumped at the opportunity to open the win-dow to natatoriums. As Art Doramajian of EI Solutions stated, "It wasthe right time to make the move into the pool market in Canada.Centennial had an older technology system that wasn't working- weoffered a product with lower operating costs and greater reliability."

Retrofit

Centennial Natatorium

Avoid Structural Decay

Lower Operating Costs

Enhance Indoor Air Quality

Reduce Condensation

Benefits:

not condense out of the air stream andonto the rotor. Any coils and ancillaryequipment downstream of the rotorhave dehumidified dry air pass overthem so moisture related damage ismitigated. In conventional mechanicaldehumidifiers, condensation is for themost part continuously occurring oncoils, while drain pans remain wet alongwith auxiliary components. In a corro-sive environment such as a chlorinatedpool, this reduces the service life ofequipment. In addition, the extendedoperating hours the pool environmentdemands from the compressorsrequires much more servicing than adesiccant rotor. The consulting engi-neer was aware of these issues when hedecided to proceed with a Munters des-iccant solution for Centennial.

Once commissioned, the Muntersunit dried the building in less than twohours. Building maintenance personnelquickly remarked that the glass area inthe pool's lobby had never once beenclear. Also, some of the staff wereinterested to know that many forms ofsuspended bacteria would be killedbecause of the operating temperatureof the desiccant rotor. The success ofthis project has taken technologyproven around the world and demon-strated the positive and healthy changescompared to the traditional approachof dehumidifying natatoriums inCanada.

The driving decision to choose thedesiccant dehumidification system wasmade only after a thorough review ofreferences conclusively showed theimproved reliability of the Munters'equipment. When familiar with theappropriate performance criteria, engi-neers have always recognized theMunters desiccant rotor as the mostefficient in the industry in terms of theleast amount of energy required formoisture removal. Following EISolutions' design load and equipmentselection, EI Solutions qualified theequipment operating costs by compar-ing the performance to a similar capac-ity cooling-based dehumidifier. TheCentennial comparison indicates thatthe utility operating costs for the desic-cant unit is 10% less than a comparablemechanical unit ($47.5K vs. $51.6K).

With Canada's long, cold winters,natatoriums require dehumidificationand space heating at least 85% of the

time. The evaporation occurring at thesurface of the pool (100' x 50') atCentennial accounts for over 15-tons ofcontinuous cooling-effect to the space.When desiccants dehumidify theyadsorb moisture, which raises the tem-perature of the air stream. Thus, theheat added to the air stream by the des-iccant dehumidification process is anexcellent compliment to the space heat-ing load requirements of most natatori-ums.

The improved reliability and lowermaintenance costs of the system stemsfrom the simple method Munters uti-lizes to perform the dehumidificationprocess. A Munters desiccant rotoradsorbs moisture from the air in thevapor state versus mechanical (cooling-based) dehumidifiers that require con-densation over a coil to remove water.Furthermore, the pool chemicals donot adversely impact the impregnateddesiccant rotor since these chemicals do

Product Comparison

The Humidity Expert

Munters Corporation-Commercial Dehumidification Division16900 Jordan Rd. Selma, TX 78154Tel: (800) 229-8557 Fax: (210) 651-9085www.munters.us

CS0014-00 12/05

The AM20-1300G at Centennial is the first Munters' unit for a large scale pool appli-cation to be sold in Canada.

Hours ofOccurrence

Latent Load(Lbs/hr)

Nat. GasBtu/h

Total Elec.kW

DX Coil(tons)

Total Elec.kW

34 268 509,641 24.6 375,302 54.2 66.8 429,697 151 216 410,400 24.6 293,490 48.4 61.6 343,840 537 165 312,686 24.6 209,064 42.0 55.8 248,310 772 113 214,971 24.6 123,287 35.4 49.9 149,953

2,190 90 170,050 14.6 129,775 24.2 39.8 36,096 1,354 62 117,257 24.6 31,166 27.7 42.9 35,526 2,000 10 19,543 24.6 80,126- 16.8 33.1 126,964- 1,722 - - 24.6 136,755- - 18.0 274,050-

$47,503 $51,632Annual Operating Costs with Heat Recovery

Location: Toronto, ONMunters AM20-1300G Cooling-Based Dehumidifier

Energy Required AvailableHeat

(Btu/h)

Energy Required AvailableHeat

(Btu/h)

Contact Munters Canada Sales Rep.:

EI Solutions2855 Halpern St-Laurent Quebec H4S 1P8Tel: (905) 333-9455 or 866-920-0021www. energieinnovation.com

Data is an estimate and provided by EI Solutions.