In a constant temperature and humidity laboratory, should one choose precision air conditioning or regular air conditioning?
Release time:
2024-12-13
Characteristics and advantages of precision air conditioning
High precision in temperature and humidity control
The temperature control precision of precision air conditioning can reach ±0.01℃ or even higher, and the relative humidity control precision can reach ±2% - ±5%. For example, in a constant temperature and humidity laboratory for electronic chip testing, the performance testing of chips requires extremely high environmental temperature and humidity. Precision air conditioning can stabilize the temperature at 20±0.5℃ and maintain the relative humidity at 40%±2%. Such high-precision control can ensure the accuracy and repeatability of chip test results.
High reliability
Precision air conditioning generally adopts redundant designs such as dual refrigeration circuits. When one refrigeration circuit fails, the other can continue to operate, ensuring the normal operation of the air conditioning system. Moreover, its key components (such as compressors, controllers, etc.) are usually selected from high-quality products, undergo strict quality testing, and have a long service life.
High sensible heat ratio
When handling air, precision air conditioning is mainly used to adjust temperature, which is to handle sensible heat. Its sensible heat ratio is usually between 0.9 - 1.0, which means that during temperature control, there will not be significant fluctuations in temperature and humidity due to excessive dehumidification or humidification. In some humidity-sensitive experiments, such as the assembly of high-precision optical instruments, precision air conditioning with a high sensible heat ratio can effectively prevent lenses from fogging due to humidity changes, affecting assembly accuracy.
Strong air filtration function
Precision air conditioning is equipped with efficient air filters that can filter out small particles in the air, such as dust and pollen, with filtration efficiency reaching medium or even high efficiency levels (the filtration efficiency for 0.3μm particles can reach 90% - 99.97%). In biological laboratories, good air filtration can prevent external microorganisms and impurities from entering the laboratory, ensuring the cleanliness of the experimental environment.
Adaptability to harsh environments and high load operation
Precision air conditioning can start and operate normally within a wide temperature range (e.g., -10℃ - 45℃) and humidity range (e.g., 20% - 80%). In some industrial environment laboratories or when laboratory equipment generates a lot of heat, precision air conditioning can work continuously and stably to meet temperature and humidity control requirements.
Characteristics and limitations of ordinary air conditioning
Lower precision in temperature and humidity control
The temperature control precision of ordinary air conditioning is generally around ±2℃, and the relative humidity control is almost non-existent or very poor, usually above ±10%. If used in laboratories with strict temperature and humidity requirements, such as pharmaceutical stability testing laboratories (requiring temperature 25±1℃, relative humidity 60±5%), ordinary air conditioning is difficult to achieve such precision, which may lead to deviations in pharmaceutical test results.
Low sensible heat ratio
The sensible heat ratio of ordinary air conditioning is usually around 0.6 - 0.7, which means that during the cooling process, a large amount of dehumidification occurs simultaneously, easily leading to excessively dry indoor air. In some experimental environments with humidity requirements, such as plant tissue culture laboratories, overly dry air can cause the culture medium to lose water too quickly, affecting plant growth.
Insufficient reliability and stability
The design of ordinary air conditioning is mainly to meet general comfort air conditioning needs, and its components' durability and stability are relatively weak. In laboratory environments with long-term high-load operation, such as chemical synthesis laboratories conducting continuous experiments, ordinary air conditioning is prone to failures, such as compressor overheating protection and refrigerant leakage.
Poor air filtration function
The air filters of ordinary air conditioning can generally only filter larger dust particles, with low filtration efficiency, and have almost no filtering effect on some small impurities and microorganisms. In laboratories with high cleanliness requirements, such as microbiology laboratories and electronic chip manufacturing laboratories, ordinary air conditioning cannot provide sufficiently clean air.
Comprehensive consideration of factors
Experimental requirements
If the experiments in the laboratory have extremely high precision requirements for temperature and humidity, such as in the electronics, pharmaceuticals, and precision instrument manufacturing industries, precision air conditioning is a better choice. For example, in an electronic chip packaging laboratory, even slight temperature and humidity changes may lead to a decline in chip packaging quality, and precision air conditioning can provide the required high-precision temperature and humidity control environment.
Budget situation
The price of precision air conditioning is usually much higher than that of ordinary air conditioning, generally 2 - 5 times or even higher. Moreover, the installation and maintenance costs of precision air conditioning are also relatively high. If the budget is limited and the experimental requirements for temperature and humidity precision are not particularly high, after appropriate modifications to ordinary air conditioning (such as adding independent dehumidification or humidification equipment, improving air filtration capacity, etc.), it can also meet basic experimental needs.
Laboratory size and layout
For small and simply laid out laboratories, ordinary air conditioning may be able to cover the temperature and humidity control range after modification. However, for large and complexly zoned laboratories, the zoning control and remote monitoring functions of precision air conditioning have more advantages. For example, in a large material aging laboratory, different testing areas may require different temperature and humidity environments, and precision air conditioning can achieve precise temperature and humidity adjustment in each area through zoning control.
