Critical facilities have many of the same HVAC demands as other buildings, except the consequences of unexpected problems can be catastrophic and expensive.
The particular charms of panels, chilled beams, and related options seem to be at-tracting more attention from designers and owners these days. Design, installation, and even architectural considerations can earn a hard look at radiant for a surpris-ing number of applications.
Radiant HVAC — what is it? Heating is done in three ways in buildings — convection, conduction, and radiation. Heating and cooling with air is common in most building HVAC systems.
Leaning on experience and data from various K-12 cities and projects, the authors pursue some less conventional design approaches. They may revolve around radiant heating and/or cooling, but depending on school size and other factors, the smart use of heat recovery, DOAS, and improved central plants could also put a project on the HVAC honor roll.
In the recently completed Bullitt Center office building in Seattle, net zero energy and net zero water initiatives have been combined with the Living Building Challenge.
Engineers are rethinking the standard engineering design paradigm, using lifecycle cost analysis (LCCA) to compare system alternatives that fulfill the same functional requirements but differ in terms of initial and operating costs.
In an age when a three-year-old cell phone is considered to be obsolete, steam heating systems, which are often well over 50 years old, get no respect.