HVAC & Building Systems

What you'll learn

• Describe the roles of building HVAC systems, the stages of building design and the documents that record requirements and design decisions, and make first-pass estimates of loads, flows and space.
• Calculate moist air properties at site pressure, analyse coil, mixing and humidification processes, and set the leaving condition of a dedicated outdoor air unit from the latent load it must absorb.
• Set thermal comfort, humidity, ventilation, filtration and pressure criteria for different spaces, including health care spaces and occupants such as gowned patients.
• Calculate design heating loads from envelope conduction with thermal bridging, infiltration and ventilation with energy recovery, and size low-temperature heating terminals.
• Calculate cooling loads by the radiant time series method, distinguish heat gain, cooling load and coil load, and size terminals for room peaks and plant for block loads.
• Compare constant volume, variable air volume and dedicated outdoor air systems with their terminal units on energy, space, ventilation, humidity control and maintenance, and justify a selection.
• Size ducts by equal friction and static regain, determine the critical-path pressure including components and system effect, and select fans using fan laws and system curves.
• Design hydronic heating and chilled water systems with appropriate temperature differences, pipe sizes and pumps, avoid low delta-T syndrome, and size energy transfer station heat exchangers for a district connection.
• Compare boilers, chillers, heat pumps, heat recovery chillers and ground-source systems with district energy on purchased energy and carbon, and screen a borefield for peak and annual balance.
• Write sequences of operation using ASHRAE Guideline 36 practice, including trim-and-respond resets, dead bands, failure responses and fault detection, with attention to network security.
• Explain prescriptive and performance compliance with the governing energy code, and estimate annual energy by degree-day, bin and hourly simulation methods to test design measures.
• Prepare and review a concept design report with life-cycle cost, carbon, risks and a justified recommendation.