Sensible and Latent Cooling

When you look at manufacturer’s tables showing the capacity of their units, you will notice terms such as latent capacity, sensible capacity, or total capacity. The sensible capacity expresses the unit’s ability to reduce the air temperature. In most conditions, only part of the system cooling capacity goes into reducing the air temperature. The name comes from the idea that this change in heat can be sensed, or measured with a thermometer. I have had students tell me they remember it because it makes “sense,” and is therefore “sensible.” The word latent means hidden. Latent cooling capacity is used to take water out of the air. It is latent, or hidden, because you cannot measure it through temperature change. Latent changes involve a change of state. The water in the air is changing state from a vapor to a liquid. To accomplish this, the heat that went into the water to vaporize it must be removed. A system’s capacity is not fixed – it changes with the temperature, relative humidity, and volume of the air blowing across the evaporator coil. System capacity used for latent cooling is not available for sensible cooling. So as you increase the percentage of latent cooling a system performs, you decrease its sensible capacity. Here in the southeast, latent cooling is just about as important as sensible cooling. We MUST remove water from the air to be comfortable. In other parts of the country, such as the southwest, taking water out of the air may be undesirable. We can have some control over this by controlling the airflow. As a general rule, as you increase airflow across the evaporator coil, you increase sensible cooling and decrease latent cooling. In a humid area it makes sense to set the system airflow to a level that will increase latent cooling. For example, 350 CFM per ton rather than 400 CFM per ton. In a dry area, you may want to increase airflow to minimize latent cooling. For example, 450 CFM per ton. Although most systems will operate at 400 CFM per ton with no mechanical problems, that may not be the ideal airflow for your application.