HVAC Systems 11

clean rooms. Examples of negative rooms are commercial kitchens,

hospital intensive care units (ICU) and fume hood laboratories.

Air Volume
Using the roof top air handling unit (Figure 1-5) as an ex-
ample, the volume of air required to heat, ventilate, cool and
provide good indoor air quality is calculated based on the heat-
ing, cooling and ventilation loads. The air volumes are in units of
cubic feet per minute (cfm). The total volume of air for this roof
top unit (RTU) is calculated to be 5250 cfm. Constant volume
supply air and return air fans (SAF and RAF) circulate the condi-
tioned air to and from the occupied conditioned space.
The total volume of return air back to the air handling unit
is 4200 cfm. The difference between the amount of supply air
(5250 cfm) and the return air (4200 cfm) is 1050 cfm. This is the
ventilation air. It is used in the conditioned space for make-up air
(MUA) for toilet exhaust and other exhaust systems. Ventilation
air is also used for positive pressurization of the conditioned
space, and for “fresh” outside air to maintain good indoor air
quality for the occupants. The return air, 4200 cfm, goes into the
mixed air chamber (plenum). The return air is then mixed with
1050 cfm, which is brought in through the outside air (OA) damp-
ers into the mixed air plenum. This 1050 cfm of outside air is the
minimum outside air required for this system. It is 20% of the
supply air (1050/5250). It mixes with the 4200 cfm of return air
(80%, 4200/5250) to give mixed air (MA, 100%). Next, the 5250
cfm of mixed air then travels through the filters and into the coil
sections. If more outside air than the minimum is brought into the
system, perhaps for air-side economizer operation, any excess air
is exhausted through exhaust air dampers (EA) to maintain the
proper space pressurization. For example, if 2050 cfm is brought
into the system through the OA dampers and 4200 cfm comes
back through the return duct into the unit then 1000 cfm is ex-
hausted through the exhaust air dampers (EA). This maintains the
total supply cfm (5250) into the space and maintains the proper
space pressurization.
12 HVAC Fundamentals

The airflow diagram looks like this:

RA (return air)
EA (exhaust air)
MA (mixed air)
OA (outside air)
SA (supply air)

Heating
The heating load requirement is based on design indoor and
outdoor winter conditions. The design conditioned space heating
load for this air handling unit (AHU) is 198,450 Btu/hr. This is the
amount of heat lost in the winter (mainly by conduction) through
the walls, windows, doors, roofs, etc. An additional amount of
heat is required to heat the outside ventilation air based on design
conditions. This additional amount of heat is 45,360 Btuh (Btu/
hr). To maintain the temperature and humidity in the comfort
zone for the conditioned space the heating cycle is this: The sup-
ply air leaves the heating coil carrying 198,450 Btuh of heat. The
air goes through the supply air fan (SAF), down the insulated
supply duct, past the manual volume dampers (MVD) which
have been set for the correct amount of air for each diffuser, and
into the conditioned space. The supply air gives up all its 198,450
Btuh of heat to the conditioned space to replace the 198,450 Btuh
that is leaving the space through the walls, doors, windows, ceil-
ing, roof, etc. As the air gives up its heat it makes its way through
the room and into the return air (RA) inlets, then into the return
air duct and back to the air handling unit.
The return air goes through the return air fan (RAF), through
the return air automatic temperature control (ATC) dampers into
the mixed air chamber and mixes with the outside air (OA). The
mixed air flows through the filters, through the cooling coil
(which is off), and into the heating coil. The mixed air travels