Building Services III

BARC 0506, V Sem., 2017

Acoustics & HVAC systems in Buildings

School of Planning & Architecture, Bhopal.

Lecture by:

Ar Jyotika Nigam
jyotika.nigam@spabhopal.ac.in

HVAC Systems in Buildings

The Components
“The objectives of HVAC systems are to provide an acceptable level of
occupancy comfort and process function, to maintain good indoor air
quality (IAQ), and to keep system costs and energy requirements to a
minimum.”
 Heating, Ventilating, And
Air Conditioning Systems
• Commercial heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
provide the people working inside buildings with “conditioned air” so that
they will have a comfortable and safe work environment.

• People respond to their work environment in many ways and many factors
affect their health, attitude and productivity.

• “Air quality” and the “condition of the air” are two very important factors. By
“conditioned air” and “good air quality”, we mean that air should be clean
and odor-free and the temperature, humidity, and movement of the air will
be within certain acceptable comfort ranges.

• An HVAC system is simply a group of components working together to move

heat to where it is wanted (the conditioned space), or remove heat from where
it is not wanted (the conditioned space), and put it where it is unobjectionable
(the outside air).
The components in a typical roof-mounted
package HVAC system are:
1. An indoor fan (blower) to
circulate the supply and return
air.
2. Supply air ductwork in which the
air flows from the fan to the room.
3. Air devices such as supply air
outlets and return air inlets.
4. Return air ductwork in which the
air flows back from the room to
the mixed air chamber (plenum).
5. A mixed air chamber to receive
the return air and mix it with
outside air.
6. An outside air device such as a
louver, opening or duct to allow
for the entrance of outside air
into the mixed air plenum.
7. A filter section to remove dirt
and dust particles from the air.
8. Heat exchangers such as a
refrigerant evaporator and
condenser coil for cooling, and a
furnace for heating.
9. A compressor to compress the
refrigerant vapor and pump the
refrigerant around the
refrigeration system.
10. An outdoor fan (blower) to
circulate outside air across the
condenser coil.
11. Controls to start, stop or regulate
the flow of air, refrigerant, and Roof-mounted Package Air
electricity. Conditioning Unit
 HVAC Components
Fire Tube Boiler
H is for Heating Furnaces
Boilers • Furnace Fuels
• Types of Boilers – Natural Gas
– Steam – Oil
– Water – Coal
• Boiler Pressures – LPG
– Low – Electricity
– High Heating Coils
• Boiler Fuels • Types of Heating Coils
– Natural Gas – Steam
– Oil – Water
– Coal – Electrical
– Electricity
• Boiler Configurations
– Fire Tube
– Water Tube

Natural Gas Furnace

 V is for Ventilation for each of the
following:
1. Approximately 20 cfm (cubic feet per minute) of air volume per person
of outside air (OA) for ventilation for non-smoking areas.

2. Make-up air (MUA) for exhaust systems such as:

– Kitchen hoods
– Fume hoods
– Toilets

3. Room (conditioned space) pressurization

– +0.03 to +0.05 inches of water gage for commercial buildings.
 AC is for Air Conditioning

For most of us, air conditioning

means comfort cooling with either
chilled water systems or refrigerant
systems. Both of these systems
include cooling coils to remove heat
from the air.
• Chilled Water Systems
– Vapor-compression system
– Absorption system
• Refrigeration (DX) Systems
– Vapor-compression system
• Cooling Coils
– Water coil
– Refrigerant (DX) coil

Hot Water Heating Coil

 AC (Air Conditioning) also means
conditioning the air in the following ways:

• Temperature (tempering the air)

– Cooling (removing heat)
– Heating (adding heat)
• Humidity control
– Dehumidifying (removing moisture)
– Humidifying (adding moisture)
• Volume of airflow
– cfm (cubic feet per minute)
• Velocity (speed) of airflow
– fpm (feet per minute)
• Cleaning
– Filtering
• Pattern of airflow
– Direction
• Horizontal
• vertical
 Central HVAC System Components

• Cooling Tower, CT • Boiler, B

• Condenser Water Pump, CWP • Supply Air Fan, SAF, SF
• Condenser Water Supply, CWS • Supply Air Duct, SA
• Condenser Water Return, CWR • Manual Volume Damper, MVD
• Condenser, Cond • Flex Duct, Flex
• Evaporator (Water Chiller, Water • Ceiling Diffuser, CD
Cooler), Evap
• Return Air Inlet, RA
• Compressor, Comp
• Return Air Duct, RA
The condenser, evaporator and
• Return Air Fan, RAF
compressor together are typically
called the Chiller, CH • Return Air Dampers, RA, ATC
Damper (Automatic Temperature
• Chilled Water Pump, CHWP
Control Damper)
• Chilled Water Supply, CHWS
• Exhaust Air (Dampers), EA, ATCD
• Chilled Water Return, CHWR
• Outside Air (Dampers) OA, ATCD
• Chilled Water Coil (Cooling Coil), CC
• Filters, F
• Heating Water Coil (Hot Water Coil,
• Water Valves, 3-way or 2-way ATC
Heating Coil), HC
Valve(Automatic Temperature
• Heating Water Supply, HWS or HHWS Control Valve). MBV (Manual
• Heating Water Return, HWR or HHWR Balancing Valve) or Self-regulating
• Heating Water Pump, HWP Balancing Valve
Air Handling Unit
(A.H.U)
Understanding

How An HVAC System Works??

 Ventilation Requirements

• We know that in the respiratory process the contaminate carbon dioxide

is exhaled. In buildings with a large number of people, carbon dioxide
and other contaminants such as smoke from cigarettes and odors from
machinery must be continuously removed or unhealthy conditions will
result.

• The process of supplying “fresh” air to buildings in the proper

amount to offset the contaminants produced by people and
equipment is known as “ventilation”.
Let’s say that an HVAC system supplies air to a suite in an office complex
and the code requirement is for 20 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of outside
air for each building occupant.

If the suite is designed for 10 people then the total outside air requirement
for the people in the suite is 200 cfm.

An additional amount of outside ventilation air may be required if there are

exhaust hoods such as laboratory fume hoods, kitchen hoods or there
are other areas where the air needs to be exhausted or vented to the
outside such as bathrooms and restrooms.

This ventilation air is called make-up air.

• Commercial office buildings are typically positively pressurized to about
0.03 inches of water pressure.

• This is done to keep outside air from “infiltrating” into the conditioned
space through openings in or around doorways, windows, etc.

• Other areas that need positive pressurization are hospital operating

rooms and clean rooms.

• Examples of negative rooms are commercial kitchens, hospital intensive

care units (ICU) and fume hood laboratories.
 Air Volume
• Using the roof top air handling unit as an example, the volume of air
required to heat, ventilate, cool and provide good indoor air quality is
calculated based on the heating, cooling and ventilation loads.

• The air volumes are in units of cubic feet per minute (cfm). The total
volume of air for this roof top unit (RTU) is calculated to be 5250 cfm.

• Constant volume supply air and return air fans (SAF and RAF) circulate
the conditioned air to and from the occupied conditioned space.

• The total volume of return air back to the air handling unit is 4200 cfm.

• The difference between the amount of supply air (5250 cfm) and the
return air (4200 cfm) is 1050 cfm. This is the ventilation air. It is used in the
conditioned space for make-up air (MUA) for toilet exhaust and other
exhaust systems.
• Ventilation air is also used for positive pressurization of the conditioned
space, and for “fresh” outside air to maintain good indoor air quality for
the occupants.

• The return air, 4200 cfm, goes into the mixed air chamber (plenum). The
return air is then mixed with 1050 cfm, which is brought in through the
outside air (OA) dampers into the mixed air plenum.

• This 1050 cfm of outside air is the minimum outside air required for this
system. It is 20% of the supply air (1050/5250). It mixes with the 4200 cfm
of return air (80%, 4200/5250) to give mixed air (MA, 100%). Next, the
5250 cfm of mixed air then travels through the filters and into the coil
sections.
• If more outside air than the minimum is brought into the system, perhaps
for air-side economizer operation, any excess air is exhausted through
exhaust air dampers (EA) to maintain the proper space pressurization.

• For example, if 2050 cfm is brought into the system through the OA
dampers and 4200 cfm comes back through the return duct into the unit
then 1000 cfm is exhausted through the exhaust air dampers (EA). This
maintains the total supply cfm (5250) into the space and maintains the
proper space pressurization.
 Airflow Diagram

• The airflow diagram looks like this:

• RA (return air)
• EA (exhaust air)
• MA (mixed air)
• OA (outside air)
• SA (supply air)
 Heating

• The heating load requirement is based on design indoor and outdoor

winter conditions. The design conditioned space heating load for this air
handling unit (AHU) is 198,450 Btu/hr. This is the amount of heat lost in
the winter (mainly by conduction) through the walls, windows, doors,
roofs, etc. An additional amount of heat is required to heat the outside
ventilation air based on design conditions. This additional amount of heat
is 45,360 Btuh (Btu/hr). To maintain the temperature and humidity in the
comfort zone for the conditioned space the heating cycle is this: The
supply air leaves the heating coil carrying 198,450 Btuh of heat. The air
goes through the supply air fan (SAF), down the insulated supply duct,
past the manual volume dampers (MVD) which have been set for the
correct amount of air for each diffuser, and into the conditioned space.
The supply air gives up all its 198,450 Btuh of heat to the conditioned
space to replace the 198,450 Btuh that is leaving the space through the
walls, doors, windows, ceiling, roof, etc. As the air gives up its heat it
makes its way through the room and into the return air (RA) inlets, then
into the return air duct and back to the air handling unit.
• The return air goes through the return air fan (RAF), through the return
air automatic temperature control (ATC) dampers into the mixed air
chamber and mixes with the outside air (OA). The mixed air flows
through the filters, through the cooling coil (which is off), and into the
heating coil. The mixed air travels through the heating coil where it picks
up heat via conduction through the hot water tubes in the coil. In addition
to the tubes, the heating coil also has fins attached to the tubes to
facilitate the heat transfer. 243,810 Btuh of heat is transferred from the coil
into the air. Of this amount of heat, 45,360 Btuh heats the outside air to
bring it up to the design room air temperature. The remainder, 198,450
Btuh of heat, leaves the heating coil in the supply air and goes into the
space and the air cycle repeats. The heating water, after giving up heat to
the air, leaves the coil and goes back to the oil-fired boiler through the
heating water return (HWR) pipe and into the boiler where it picks up the
same amount of heat that it has just given up in the coil. The water leaves
the boiler, flows through the heating water pump (HWP) and is pumped
through the heating water supply (HWS) or heating hot water supply
(HHWS) piping into the heating coil to give up its heat into the mixed air
and the water cycle repeats.
 Ventilating

• The ventilation requirement is 1050 cfm. 1050 cfm of outside air is

brought in through the outside air (OA) dampers into the mixed air
plenum. This 1050 cfm of outside air mixes with the 4200 cfm of return air
to form 5250 cfm of mixed air, which goes through the coil(s) and
becomes supply air.
 Cooling

• For this system, the total heat given off by the people, lights and
equipment in the conditioned space plus the heat entering the space
through the outside walls, windows, doors, roof, etc., and the heat
contained in the outside ventilation air will be approximately 154,000
Btu/hr.

• A ton of refrigeration (TR) is equivalent to 12,000 Btu/hr of heat.

Therefore, this HVAC system requires a chiller that can provide
approximately 13 tons of cooling
• (154,000 Btu/hr ÷ 12000 Btu/hr/ton = 12.83 TR)
 The Cooling Cycle

• The supply air (which is 20°F cooler than the air in the conditioned
space) leaves the cooling coil and goes through the heating coil (which is
off), through the supply air fan, down the duct and into the conditioned
space.

• The cool supply air picks up heat in the conditioned space.

• The warmed air makes its way into the return air inlets, then into the
return air duct and back to the air handling unit.

• The return air goes through the return air fan into the mixed air chamber
and mixes with the outside air.
• The mixed air goes through the filters and into the cooling coil. The
mixed air flows through the cooling coil where it gives up its heat into the
chilled water tubes in the coil. This coil also has fins attached to the tubes
to facilitate heat transfer.

• The cooled supply air leaves the cooling coil and the air cycle repeats.
• The water, after picking up heat from the mixed air , leaves the cooling
coil and goes through the chilled water return (CHWR) pipe to the water
chiller’s evaporator.

• The “warmed” water flows into the chiller’s evaporator— sometimes

called the water cooler—where it gives up the heat from the mixed air
into the refrigeration system.

• The newly “chilled” water leaves the evaporator, goes through the chilled
water pump (CHWP) and is pumped through the chilled water supply
(CHWS) piping into the cooling coil to pick up heat from the mixed air
and the water cycle repeats.
• The evaporator is a heat exchanger that allows heat from the chilled
water return (CHWR) to flow by conduction into the refrigerant tubes.

• The liquid refrigerant in the tubes “boils off” to a vapor removing heat
from the water and conveying the heat to the compressor and then to the
condenser.

• The heat from the condenser is conveyed to the cooling tower through
the condenser water in the condenser return (CWR) pipe. As the
condenser water cascades down the tower, outside air is drawn across
the cooling tower removing heat from the water through the process of
evaporation.

• The “cooled” condenser water falls to the bottom of the tower basin and
is pumped from the tower through the condenser water pump (CWP) and
back to the condenser in the condenser water supply piping (CWS) and
the cycle repeats.