Terminology 289

made by suspended dirt particles in the room air which is then

entrained in the mixed air stream and deposited on the ceilings
and outlets.

Terminal Box: A device or unit which regulates supply airflow,

temperature and humidity to the conditioned space. Terminal
boxes are classified as single duct, dual duct, constant volume,
variable volume, medium pressure, high pressure, pressure de-
pendent, pressure independent, system powered, fan powered,
induction, terminal reheat and bypass. They may also contain a
combination of heating or cooling coils, dampers and sound at-
tenuation. The airflow through the box is normally set at the fac-
tory but can also be adjusted in the field. Terminal boxes also
reduce the inlet pressures to a level consistent with the low pres-
sure, low velocity duct connected to the discharge of the box. Any
noise that is generated within the box in the reduction of the pres-
sure is attenuated. Baffles or other devices are installed which
reflect the sound back into the box where it can be absorbed by
the box lining. Commonly, the boxes are lined with fiberglass
which also provides thermal insulation so the conditioned air
within the box won’t be heated or cooled by the air in the spaces
surrounding the box. Terminal boxes work off static pressure in
the duct system. Each box has a minimum inlet static pressure
requirement to overcome the pressure losses through the box plus
any losses through the discharge duct, volume dampers, and
outlets.

Variable Air Volume Box: VAV boxes are available in many com-
binations that include: pressure dependent, pressure indepen-
dent, single duct, dual duct, cooling only, cooling with reheat,
induction, bypass and fan powered. VAV boxes can also be clas-
sified by (1) volume control: throttling, bypass, or fan powered (2)
intake controls and sensors: pneumatic, electric, electronic, DDC,
or system powered (3) thermostat action: direct acting or reverse
acting and (4) the condition of the box at rest: normally open or
normally closed. The basic VAV box has a single inlet duct. The
290 HVAC Fundamentals

quantity of air through the box is controlled by throttling an in-

ternal damper or air valve. If the box is pressure dependent, the
volume control device will be controlled just by a room thermo-
stat, whereas, the pressure independent version will also have a
regulator to limit the air volume between a preset maximum and
minimum. Inside the pressure independent box is a sensor.
Mounted on the outside is a controller with connections to the
sensor, volume damper and room thermostat. The quantity of air
will vary from a design maximum cfm down to a minimum cfm.
The main feature of the VAV box is its ability to vary the air
delivered to the conditioned space as the heating load varies.
Then, as the total required volume of air is reduced throughout
the system, the supply fan will reduce its cfm output. This mean
a savings of energy and cost to operate the fan. The exception to
this is the VAV bypass box. The types of controls used to regulate
the flow of air through VAV boxes are as varied as the types of
boxes. Many boxes are designed to use external sources of power:
pneumatic, electric or electronic DDC. These boxes are sometimes
called non-system powered. Other boxes are system powered
which means that the operating controls are powered by the static
pressure from the main duct system. System powered boxes don’t
need a separate pneumatic or electric control system. This reduces
first costs, however, they usually have a higher required mini-
mum inlet static pressure which means that the supply fan will be
required to produce higher static pressures, resulting in increased
operating costs. All controllers, except for the bypass box type,
reduce airflow.

Water Vapor: In HVAC systems, the amount of water vapor, or

moisture, present in the air (OA, RA, MA, or SA) is measured in
pounds of moisture or grains of moisture per pound of air. There
are 7000 grains of moisture in one pound of moisture. For ex-
ample, 60 grains is 0.009 pounds.