Overview
Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC systems) account for 39% of the energy used in commercial buildings. Consequently, almost any business or government agency has the potential to realize significant savings by improving its control of HVAC operations and improving the efficiency of the system it uses. The use of high performance HVAC equipment can result in considerable energy, emissions, and cost savings (10%-40%). Whole building design coupled with an “extended comfort zone” can produce much greater savings (40%-70%). Extended comfort includes employing concepts such as providing warmer, but drier air using desiccant dehumidification in summer, or cooler air with warmer windows and warmer walls in winter. In addition, high-performance HVAC can provide increased user thermal comfort, and contribute to improved indoor environmental quality (IEQ).
Heat Loss / Gain Calculations are the basis for system design. Accurate calculations and analysis are necessary to correctly size system components. Comfort, efficiency and reliability are closely related to the correct sizing and selection of heating equipment. When equipment is oversized, efficiency is reduced.
Duct Design encompasses many factors of the design process. Consideration to Load calculations, system zoning, duct (branch and trunk) sizing and structure layout. All duct designs are developed in good engineering practice with reference to ASHRAE handbooks and HRAI Residential Air System Design.
Existing HVAC system not working right? Considering a new chiller? Tired of high energy bills and poor performance? The solution may be HVAC System Blueprinting. This is a process which is designed to bring the existing system up to its best possible operating capability and involves:
- Calculating actual heating & cooling requirements for each room/zone
- Measuring the actual airflow and heating/cooling delivery to each room/zone.
- Adjusting the system to deliver as closely as possible the correct amount of heating/cooling in each zone