Patent ID: 8151579

Claim:
An air conditioning system comprising: a fluid chiller that receives a liquid-phase fluid at a first temperature and outputs the liquid-phase fluid at a second temperature that is lower than the first temperature; a cooling coil that receives the liquid-phase fluid from the fluid chiller at approximately the second temperature, which is sufficient to cause condensation of moisture from received air; a cooling recovery coil comprising an inlet connected via a fluid recovery conduit to an outlet of the cooling coil to receive at least some of the liquid-phase fluid outputted by the cooling coil; chilled fluid return piping to return the liquid-phase fluid exiting the cooling recovery coil to the fluid chiller; an air handling unit that receives the received air from an inlet source and moves the received air first past the cooling coil and then past the cooling recovery coil such that the received air is cooled and at least some moisture from the received air is condensed at the cooling coil, the cooling and condensing of the at least some moisture from the received air at the cooling coil causing the liquid-phase fluid to be at a third temperature that is higher than the second temperature when the liquid-phase fluid is received by the cooling recovery coil via the fluid recovery conduit from the cooling coil; and a control system that, when a received air humidity or demands of a conditioned space require dehumidification of the received air, is configured to perform functions comprising: causing a supply air temperature of the received air leaving the cooling coil to be cooled to an air temperature at which water is removed from the received air to generate dehumidified and cooled air, the causing comprising selectively modulating at least one first flow control valve to control flow of the liquid-phase fluid from the fluid chiller to the cooling coil; and continuously varying a supply air temperature of the received air leaving the cooling recovery coil to maintain needs of occupant or process cooling loads and relative humidity in a conditioned space, the continuously varying comprising selectively modulating at least one second flow control valve controlling flow of the liquid-phase fluid outputted by the coiling coil to the cooling recovery coil to transfer heat to the dehumidified and cooled air from the liquid-phase fluid to and to thereby lower a cooling demand of the fluid chiller.