Chapter 1
Procedure Outline - The Clean Sheet
Scope
This book is not intended to teach engineering fundamentals, but to help trained
mechanical engineers and technicians understand and undertake the HVAC design of
small commercial and institutional buildings. This chapter will outline the tasks that
must be executed to arrive at a successful and cost-effective design. Cost-effective
from the standpoint of the project cost, but also from the standpoint of the design
effort. Clients for small building design, generally owners, architects, or contractors,
have legitimate cost constraints, and designers who cannot work within those
constraints will soon find themselves out of work.
Important Terms
The following terms will be used throughout this book. They have specific meanings
in connection with HVAC systems, ventilation, and indoor air quality.
A building is a roofed and walled structure with controlled environment, built for
human occupation and use.
The thermal envelope of a building is the primary insulation layer of the building
where resistance to heat transfer is the greatest.
The pressure envelope is the primary air barrier of the building, which is sealed to
provide the greatest resistance to air leakage.
A zone is a group of spaces within the thermal and pressure envelopes which are
served by a single air handling system.
A sub-
sub-zone is a group of spaces within a zone that may be served by a single terminal
component such as a variable air volume unit.
A space is a single room, with or without a ceiling plenum.
A room is the part of a space bounded by walls and a ceiling that is usually routinely
occupied and served by grilles and registers to supply and recirculate or exhaust
conditioned air.
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A ceiling plenum is a cavity within the pressure envelope that is above a room and
that is formed by a dropped lay-in ceiling and floor or roof structure above. Room
walls do not necessarily extend above the dropped ceiling to the structure above.
A return air plenum is a ceiling plenum with an unobstructed path to an air handler
return, and that contains no flammable materials or surfaces.
Supply air is the all of the air delivered by the cooling/heating apparatus to the
supply air diffusers in the zone.
Outdoor air,
air also called ventilation air,
air is air from outdoors that is mixed with return
air before passing into the cooling apparatus.
Return air is the portion of the supply air that is recirculated after being collected by
the return grilles in the zone.
Exhaust,
Exhaust or exhaust air,
air is the portion of the supply air that is discharged from the
zone to outdoors after passing through the zone.
In general, the thermal and pressure envelopes must coincide. However, if they don’t,
they must be arranged so that outdoor air cannot leak into the space within the
thermal envelope – remembering that the thermal envelope generally offers no
resistance to air leakage.
Proceeding to the HVAC Blueprint,
Blueprint, an Outline
The following outline follows the organization of the chapters in this book.
Gathering Information - This may be the most important part of the designer’s job.
Chapter 2 discusses the types of information that are needed, what to look for, and
the responsibilities of the HVAC designer to review the data supplied and point out
problems that may adversely affect the HVAC design or the building operation. The
base sheet should be prepared (Chapter 11) as soon as the architect’s floor plan is
received.
Preliminary Design – Decisions are made about the types of systems to be used,
building zoning, equipment locations, and routing of ductwork.
Establishing the Building Air Balance – The requirements for exhaust air and outdoor
supply air for each zone must be established prior to calculating cooling and heating
loads to ensure that the building remains under positive pressure at all times when
occupied, and positive or neutral when unoccupied. Commercial kitchens and
assembly occupancies present special problems. Chapter 4.
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Estimating Peak Cooling and Heating Loads – In many ways the easiest task, the
designer must nonetheless subdivide the building into zones and spaces, and
calculate sensible and latent cooling loads and heating loads for each. Chapter 5 is a
discussion of building heat gain and loss, and Chapter 6 discusses the estimating
methods that are the most applicable to small commercial buildings.
Selecting the Primary Equipment – In many ways, this is the most complex task. The
cooling equipment must be matched to the sensible and latent peak loads, while at
the same time addressing part-load operation as it may affect indoor air quality and
moisture problems. Chapter 7 discusses psychrometric considerations and Chapter 9
describes methods for selecting the cooling and heating equipment.
Determining the Optimum Distribution of Supply Air – In chapter 9, a method of
determining the air supply to each space for each zone is described. The differences
between variable air volume (VAV) and constant volume systems is touched on.
Determining a Control Strategy – Chapter 10. Discusses how all the equipment of a
project should be tied together to accomplish the intent of the design.
Design Documents, The Blueprint – Chapter 11. The System Layout – Creating the
drawings, schedules, and specifications that fully and accurately describe the HVAC
design.
Design Documents – Instructions to the Contractor – Insuring that the design
documents convey to the HVAC contractor what the designer wants by clarifying
features shown on the drawings and described in the schedules and specifications.
Checking the Work – Quality Control – Chapter 12. Designers working alone are
particularly vulnerable to errors and omissions. This Chapter discusses techniques
that help avoid mistakes.
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