HVAC DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) is a major sub discipline of mechanical
engineering. The goal of HVAC design is to balance indoor environmental comfort with
other factors such as installation cost, ease of maintenance, and energy efficiency.
2. air changes per hour - The hourly ventilation rate divided by the volume of a space. For
perfectly mixed air or laminar flow spaces, this is equal to the number of times per hour
that the volume the space is exchanged by mechanical and natural ventilation. Also
called air change rate or air exchange rate. Abbreviated ACH or ac/hr.
3. air conditioner - An appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and
extract heat from an area. Usually this term is reserved for smaller self-contained units
such as a residential system.
4. air handler
air handling unit - A central unit consisting of a blower, heating and cooling elements,
filter racks or chamber, dampers, humidifier, and other central equipment in direct
contact with the airflow. This does not include the ductwork through the building.
(AH or AHU)
5. British thermal unit (BTU)- Any of several units of energy (heat) in the HVAC industry,
each slightly more than 1 kJ. One BTU is the energy required to raise one pound of
water one degree Fahrenheit, but the many different types of BTU are based on
different interpretations of this “definition”. In the United States the power of HVAC
systems (the rate of cooling and dehumidifying or heating) is sometimes expressed in
BTU/hour instead of watts. Abbreviated BTU or Btu.
6. centrifugal fan - a mechanical device for moving air or other gases.
7. Chiller - A device that removes heat from a liquid via a vapor-compression or
absorption refrigeration cycle. This cooled liquid flows through pipes in a building and
passes through coils in air handlers, fan-coil units, or other systems, cooling and
usually dehumidifying the air in the building. Chillers are of two types; air-cooled or
water-cooled. Air-cooled chillers are usually outside and consist of condenser coils
cooled by fan-driven air. Water-cooled chillers are usually inside a building, and heat
from these chillers is carried by recirculating water to a heat sink such as an outdoor
cooling tower.
8. Coil - Equipment that performs heat transfer to air when mounted inside an air handling
unit or ductwork. It is heated or cooled by electrical means or by circulating liquid or
steam within it.
9. Condenser - A component in the basic refrigeration cycle that ejects or removes heat
from the system. The condenser is the hot side of an air conditioner or heat pump.
Condensers are heat exchangers, and can transfer heat to air or to an intermediate
fluid (such as water or an aqueous solution of ethylene glycol) to carry heat to a distant
sink, such as ground (earth sink), a body of water, or air (as with cooling towers).
10. constant air volume- A system designed to provide a constant air flow. This term
is applied to HVAC systems that have variable supply-air temperature but constant air
flow rates. Most residential forced-air systems are small CAV systems with on/off
control. (CAV)
11. controller- A device that controls the operation of part or all of a system. It may
simply turn a device on and off, or it may more subtly modulate the set point of
components. Most controllers are automatic but have user input such as temperature
set points, e.g. a thermostat. Controls may be analog or digital.
12. Damper - A plate or gate placed in a duct to control air flow by increasing friction
in the duct.
13. Dehumidifier - the equipment that extracts and removes humidity from the air. It
works by cooling air to the point where water turns to liquid from vapor form and then
the liquid is removed.
14. Diffuser - placed over ductwork, and it separates air with vanes going in differing
directions. It evenly distributes air flow in the desired directions.
15. dry bulb temperature- the temperature of air measured by a thermometer which
is freely exposed to the air while it is shielded from radiation and moisture. It is usually
thought of as air temperature, and it is the true thermodynamic temperature. It is a
measurement of heat intensity independently of humidity and a dry bulb thermometer is
used to measure it.
16. dry bulb thermometer - a device that measures air temperature independently of
humidity. It is freely exposed to the air it is measuring and is protected from the
radiation and moisture.
17. Duct - Specialized housing for the air flow.
18. Economizer - outside air, under suitable climate conditions, to reduce required
mechanical cooling. When the outside air’s enthalpy is less than the required supply air
during a call for cooling, an economizer allows a building’s mechanical ventilation
system to use up to the maximum amount of outside air.
19. Enthalpy - For a given sample of air, a measure of the total heat content (the sum
of the heat energy of the dry air and heat energy of the water vapor within it). It is
typically used to determine the amount of fresh outside air that can be added to
recirculated air for the lowest cooling cost.
20. Evaporator- A component in the basic refrigeration cycle that absorbs or adds
heat to the system. Evaporators can be used to absorb heat from air or from a liquid.
The evaporator is the cold side of an air conditioner or heat pump.
21. fan coil unit (FCU) - A small terminal unit that is often composed of only a blower
and a heating and/or cooling coil, as is often used in hotels, condominiums, or
apartments.
22. Flow - A transfer of fluid volume per unit time.
23. fresh air intake (FAI) - An opening through which outside air is drawn into the
building. This may be to replace air in the building that has been exhausted by the
ventilation system, or to provide fresh air for combustion of fuel.
24. Furnace - A component of an HVAC system that adds heat to air or an
intermediate fluid by burning fuel (natural gas, oil, propane, butane, or other flammable
substances) in a heat exchanger.
25. gas furnace heat exchanger - A gas furnace heat exchanger is responsible for
the transfer of heat from inside the furnace into the air outside the furnace. The duct
system then transfers this exchanged air to different rooms in the building or space.
26. Grille - A facing across a duct opening, often rectangular in shape, containing
multiple parallel slots through which air may be delivered or withdrawn from a ventilated
space. The grille directs the air flow in a particular direction and prevents the passage
of large items.
27. heating coil - A heating coil is the part of the system that conducts heat. It allows
electricity to act as fire.
28. heat exchanger - is the part of the system that transfers heat from the hot parts of
the machine or a system to the cold parts of the machine or system.
29. Heat gain-
30. Heat loss -
31. Heat transfer - happens when heat moves from one area to another. It is an
important and vital step in the process of cooling a space.

32. industrial refrigerator - is a refrigeration equipment designed for low-temperature

processing of food products by creating and maintaining inside the object a specified
operating cooling mode, including temperature, humidity, speed for the cooling
environment, and sometimes may include pressure and gas composition.
33. Passive cooling
34. minimum outside air- The lowest amount of fresh air flow that can be allowed into
a recirculating system. This limit is set to ensure that the interior air remains safe and
comfortable to breathe.
35. outside air damper - An automatic louver or damper that controls the fresh air
flow into an air handler and modulates to the most energy efficient setting.
36. outside air temperature - A measure of the air temperature outside a building.
The temperature and humidity of air inside and outside the building are used in
enthalpy calculations to determine when outside air can be used for free heating or
cooling. (OAT)
37. packaged terminal air conditioner
An air conditioner and heater combined into a single, electrically powered unit, typically
installed through a wall and often found in hotels. (PTAC)
38. PAG Polyalkylene glycol - a synthetic oil used in A/C systems to lubricate the
compressor. Most all newer model cars use PAG as the lubricant in the A/C system.
39. packaged unit - An air-handling unit, defined as either "recirculating" or "once-
through" design, made specifically for outdoor installation. They most often include,
internally, their own heating and cooling devices. Very common in some regions,
particularly in single-story commercial buildings. Also called a rooftop unit (RTU).
40. rooftop unit (RTU)- A packaged unit that controls both heating and air
conditioning. An air handler typically refers to a unit that provides a fan to support either
heating or cooling.
41. radiant ceiling panels- Usually metal panels suspended under the ceiling,
insulated from the building structure. The primary cooling/heating agent temperature is
close to the room's temperature.
42. radiant floor - A type of radiant heating system where the building floor contains
channels or tubes through which hot fluids such as air or water are circulated. The
whole floor is evenly heated. Thus, the room is heated from the bottom up. Radiant
floor heating eliminates the draft and dust problems associated with forced air heating
systems.
43. Radiation- The transfer of heat directly from one surface to another (without
heating the intermediate air acting as a transfer mechanism).
44. SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) rating of a unit is the cooling output
during a typical cooling-season divided by the total electric energy input during the
same period. The higher the unit's SEER rating the more energy efficient it is.
45. smoke damper- A damper or adjustable louver designed to augment the
ventilation of a space during a fire.
46. split system- the combination of an outdoor unit and an indoor unit. This is the
most common type of system
47. thermal zone- An individual space or group of neighboring indoor spaces that the
HVAC designer expects will have similar thermal loads. Building codes may require
zoning to save energy in commercial buildings. Zones are defined in the building to
reduce the number of HVAC subsystems, and thus initial cost. For example, for
perimeter offices, rather than one zone for each office, all offices facing west can be
combined into one zone. Small residences typically have only one conditioned thermal
zone, plus unconditioned spaces such as garages, attics, and crawlspaces, and
basements.
48. Thermostat- a system that monitors and regulates a heating or cooling system. It
can be used to set the desired temperature at which it keeps the environment either
heated or cooled.
49. Under floor air distribution - A method for providing ventilation and space
conditioning by using the air plenum below a raised floor to distribute conditioned air
through diffusers directly to the occupied zone. (UFAD)
50. Variable air volume (VAV) - An HVAC system that has a stable supply-air
temperature, and varies the air flow rate to meet the temperature requirements.
Compared to constant air volume systems, these systems conserve energy through
lower fan speeds during times of lower temperature control demand. Most new
commercial buildings have VAV systems. VAVs may be bypass type or pressure
dependent. Pressure dependent type VAVs save energy while both types help in
maintaining temperature of the zone that it feeds