Article DetailsHVAC Professionals |
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| Date Added: February 13, 2008 11:48:21 AM | |
| Author: Ahead Team | |
| Category: Computer & Internet Technology: CAD & CAM | |
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HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. The HVAC professional seeks to design systems that make indoors both comfortable and healthy. The systems are then integrated into the building design.Most of us spend the largest proportion of our time indoors. In urban areas with high levels of pollution, dust and congestion, the air indoors can get both uncomfortable and unhealthy. HVAC systems address this problem.HVAC systems also serve confined areas like pressurized air cabins, submarine interiors and others. Heating the Indoors When the weather is cold, you heat your room to make it comfortable for occupants. Heating devices vary from the traditional fireplace to electrical heaters and geothermal heating systems. Circulating water and controlled air currents can also be used as heating and cooling systems.Heat control involves not just heating cold rooms. It also involves cooling hot rooms. When it is cold outside, you heat the space indoors; when it is hot outside, you cool the interiors.You do not always need specific heating devices to control indoor temperature. Transparent walls and roofs that can let in sunlight can take advantage of sun's rays to keep indoors warm. In contrast, sun control films and heat-sensitive partitions can help keep the interiors comfortably cool during hot weather.The burden on HVAC systems will be much less where buildings use such natural heating and cooling designs. Ventilation Ventilation involves controlled movement of outside air into rooms. Ventilation is also concerned with indoor air quality. In confined spaces and crowded rooms, carbon dioxide and water vapor can accumulate. Odors from different sources, carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants can make indoor air uncomfortable and unhealthy.Ventilation seeks to bring in clean air to replace the stale air indoors. Movement of air can be facilitated using mechanical devices or through natural means. Processes such as air filtration and treatment are used to remove unhealthy elements from indoor air. Air Conditioning Air conditioning is the modern solution to ensure indoor comfort and health. It attends to heating and ventilation functions, and such other tasks as humidity control and disinfections. Air conditioning can work using the refrigeration cycles or evaporation.Presently, the focus in air conditioning is on finding refrigerants that do not cause global warming. Air conditioning technology also seeks to achieve higher energy efficiency and improved air quality. The Need for HVAC Uncomfortable working conditions can affect productivity levels. Accumulation of carbon dioxide can make people lethargic. HVAC systems address these problems and create an environment conducive to high productivity.Bad odors, carbon dioxide, airborne microorganisms and water vapor generated through perspiration can all lead to discomfort or even health risks. By removing these from indoor air, HVAC systems make the indoors both comfortable and healthy. Design of HVAC Systems The design of HVAC systems depends on the type of building. Both the size and architectural design of buildings can affect the kind of HVAC system needed. The use to which a building is put can also affect the emphasis of HVAC. For example, in a hospital, much greater emphasis would be placed on disinfection through filtration of the air. In industrial clean rooms, the emphasis would be on minimizing airborne particles and controlling temperature and humidity.Components such as duct pipes, chillers, filters, fans and others go into an HVAC system. HVAC design would involve identifying the range of temperature, humidity and other factors to which the interiors are exposed and then developing systems that can maintain these within desired levels.HVAC system design would also have other objectives such as ease of installation and use, achieving desired results at optimum costs and aesthetics.Traditionally, designers worked by hand and used calculators, paper, pencil and drawing tools like tee square to develop designs. Today, they work much faster and better using software tools like CAD that speeds up calculations, drawing and printing. Changes are also easy because in a digital environment, you can take an existing drawing and make just the changes needed, instead of drawing the whole thing again.HVAC system design is also facilitated by the availability of ready HVAC details, i.e., pre-drawn components that can be edited suitably and inserted into your design drawings. You are thus saved the time to design and draw these components from scratch. |
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