www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course M143 www.PDHonline.

org

Important Design Considerations for HVAC Systems

The 4 important air-conditioning design considerations for clean room system design are:

1. Supplying airflow in sufficient volume and cleanliness to support the cleanliness rating of

the room.

2. Introducing air in a manner to prevent stagnant areas where particles could accumulate.

3. Conditioning air to meet clean-room temperature, humidity and filtration requirements.

4. Ensuring enough conditioned makeup air to maintain the specified positive

pressurization.

Besides the room preparation in terms of materials and finishes play an equally important role in

meeting these requirements. The idea is to minimize the internal generation of contaminants from

the surfaces.

What differentiates clean room HVAC to conventional systems?

Clean room design encompasses much more than traditional temperature and humidity control.

Design must consider aspects such as control of particulate, microbial, electrostatic discharge,

gaseous contaminants, airflow pattern control, and pressurization and industrial engineering

aspects.

The primary design goal of clean room is the particulate control

The size of these particles ranges from 0.001 to several hundred microns.

Particles of different sizes behave differently as air moves through a room. For example, in an

eight-foot high room, a particle in the 50-micron range might take 60 seconds to settle, while a 1-

micron particle might take 15 hours to settle. Particles larger than 5 microns tend to settle quickly

unless air blown.

Page 6 of 61