Wow this week was definitely a doozy for me. I will take you through what I implemented in my HVAC design for my project. There were many things that I really wanted to implement, but at the end of the day, it was really hard to get my ideas out on paper.
Overall HVAC Design:
My overall design plan was to have AHUs outside in an enclosure, and then to have VAVs feeding specific zones. The first line of defense would be passive heating and cooling using the glazing, open windows, and sliding glass doors, and then to move into the active heating and cooling. As far as the actual design, the HVAC system would be hard ducted from the AHU’s outside and then have the main supply and returns with the rigid ductwork, and then use flexible ductwork to each air terminal. I am using 18”x12” supply air ducts and 12”x12” return air ducts for my design. The supply ducts are running below the return air ducts currently.
My Heating Strategy and How It Was Implemented:
My heating strategy was to use the AHU with the furnace and to use the installed ductwork system to distribute the heat throughout the building in the overhead system. Since my building is using the Jasper Ridge site, the temperature is fairly temperate so I don’t see the heating being used that often but it is available for certain days of the year in the winter time when needed.
My Cooling Strategy and How It Was Implemented:
My cooling strategy was to first use passive cooling (glazing, open windows, sliding glass doors, etc.) and then implement the use of the air-handling system and the VAVs within the building to cool the building. The ducting would run overhead and then the air registers would be placed to feed each room the required airflow. The intent would be that if the rooms were room, the first defense would be to open a window before going to run the air-conditioning to try and prevent the use of the system first, and then use the system if the passive cooling wasn’t working.
Special HVAC Challenges:
The biggest challenge for me on this project was that I couldn’t get the systems analysis report to work for me. Glenn ended up having the run the report himself on his computer and then sharing the files with me, and then I had to integrate those files into my model in order to figure out the loads for my building. That pushed my productivity down. The second biggest challenge was placing the ductwork as that was hard just to get everything to connect and work out. I found so many times that I couldn’t get the ductwork to connect together, or it would connect in really strange ways. My third biggest challenge was that I couldn’t really find enough ceiling space to fit everything for both the supply and return air. Not only was there not enough space in the ceiling width-wise, but even space wise, I feel like everything was so jumbled, it felt like playing Tetris, trying to fit everything into every little space.
