- If assuming the beams used are 2’ deep, the most, then distance between top of floor to top of the HVAC ducts is 9’-2”. The heights of the ducts should be no more than 18-inches, placed on the ceiling, under the structural framing. I will try to lay the duct work near the edges of the spaces to reduce visual distraction.
- Analyze the model.
- By reviewing the space schedule, the spaces are fully enclosed, up to the right level. The spaces are set to the right conditions and types overall, except for public space on Level 1 (discussed in 5 below).
- There are two HVAC zones defined for the building, east and west. The zones’ layout overall looks fine, and ducts can be easily placed accordingly, but I might do something different if I were to design the zones that I might group the spaces into zones based on their functions.
- The space schedule looks normal to me. There are two conference spaces that are not named, but I don’t think that’s a big issue. The information provided by the heating and cooling report overall looks okay to me. However, on the first floor, the public area has a lower number of people than the conference room while it has a higher cooling demand than the conference room. When I investigated the space property set for this public area, I saw the issue that this space was set to be public and staff lounge for hospital and healthcare, which isn’t the case for this building.
- Diffusers are placed 7’6” above the floor. There are surplus of airflow in each space as shown below in the last column. 4 branches are modeled for the two zones on each floor. I modeled the AHU for practice. Some of the diffusers’ airflows are reduced depending on the space’s need.
Level 0:
Level 1:
3D View:
- I used the sizing tool to size the ducts, except for the portion in the mechanical room…
- Upload the HVAC model to Autodesk construction cloud and merge it with other files.
- Merged model views:
Summary: There was one challenge that I encountered which was using the auto sizing tool to size the ducts. Sometimes I had to redraw the ducts. Other aspects of the exercise were fine to me. I believe my proposed design meets the project’s spatial design goals since I did not cover any floor openings (elevator, stairs, or atrium). The ducts and beams do not conflict with each other because I did some calculation to determine what will be the max height and middle elevation for the ducts. I also avoid the conflicts between the ducts and the columns. I might place ceilings at places that have lots of diffusers, and I would leave other areas open. The ceiling’s height will be 8’-0”. The overall building aesthetics won’t be affected by the ducts too much because I would try to keep the ducts at the sides of the rooms. To make the design more sustainable and lower the heating and cooling loads, I will revise some of the area/person value for the spaces because some of them can be reduced/increased, for example to reduce the value for conference room but increase the value for the public meeting space.