HVAC

HVAC work continues throughout the building and has begun on the 3rd floor. HVAC, which stands for "heating, ventilating, and air conditioning," is sometimes referred to as climate control and is particularly important in the design of medium to large industrial and office buildings, where humidity and temperature must all be closely regulated while maintaining safe and healthy conditions within (www.wikipedia.com).



Ductwork deals with conditioned air, whether heated or cooled. The air comes from a rooftop unit that takes a percentage of outside air and combines it with air that is circulated throughout a building. Dampers throughout the ductwork open and close depending on how much conditioned air is required according to the temperature set on the thermostat.

The ductwork is being installed throughout the Carpenters Centers by sheet metal workers working for United HVAC. On each floor, once the rough sheet metal work is complete, the other mechanical trades can run their pipe work and metal frame work can begin.



There are fans on the roof that turn the air and push it down through the ductwork. Air enters the building through the diffuser ductwork, which connects to branch ducts that run horizontally across the ceiling of each floor of the building. The sweeping elbow units (like the one below) move the air between floors and allow it to turn direction to run horizontally throughout the building.

The air is moved along to the exterior walls where it is pushed down the wall and across the floor to the interior return registers. These return registers have fans that draw the air back up to the air handler on the roof. This conditioned air is then reconditioned and sent back down into the building.



The double wall insulated unit seen here weighs approximately 600 pounds. This unit carries the air from one floor through to another. Because the unit is passing through the concrete floor, the exterior cannot be wrapped continuously in insulation, so the interior of the unit is insulated, eliminating the need for exterior insulation.