HVAC Systems

The collective group of services consisting of heating, ventilation and air conditionining is more commonly known by the acronym HVAC. This is the most common collection of systems a building services consulting engineer will come across in practice.

Heating systems can take many forms incorporating heat sources such as fossil fuelled boilers, biomass boilers, ground-, air- or water-source heat pumps or solar. These can be for comfort heating in the case of domestic or commercial applications or for process heating in the case of industrial, manufacturing or any close-controlled environment applications.

Ventilation systems can satisfy the needs of fresh air for building occupants in commercial, healthcare or education applications or to replace the air extracted from an industrial building by the process exhaust system. In addition, recirculation air systems can be used to provide heating or cooling to a space without the need for in-room devices.

Air Conditioning can itself take several forms. Traditionally, the phrase air conditioning has referred to the use of split refrigeration systems consisting of an internal evaporator, external condenser, interconnecting refrigeration pipework carrying a charge of refrigerant gas. These were used to provide cooling only by transfer of heat from the occupied space to outside. Today, these devices can usually transport heat in both directions delivering either heating or cooling to the occupied space and are referred to as heat pumps. However, the phrase air conditioning can also refer to the heating and cooling of a space using a recirculating ventilation system. This would be served by a central or local air handling unit which would incorporate a means of heating or cooling by way of water-based coils or indirect gas-fired heating. For applications where the humidity in the space is an important factor, the air handling unit can also provide a means of humidification or dehumidification for the winter and summer extremes.

HVAC systems are wide ranging and take many forms but are the lifeblood of any occupied building. As consulting engineers, Callidus Design have a proven track record of providing practical, energy efficient designs for all aspects of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems across all business sectors. Please let us know how we may be of service by contacting us here.