Office HVAC requirements
Office HVAC requirements
(OP)
Hi,
I'm trying to find the appropriate standard that specifies requirements for office HVAC capacities. Our contractor tried to tell me that our system is "compliant per ANSI 2000" and that strikes me as suspect, since I don't think I've ever seen an ANSI standard in that format. Plus, shouldn't it be an ASHRAE standard? I'd prefer getting the standard, but I'd welcome any answers along the lines of "you need x capacity for y area/space" too. thanks :)
I'm trying to find the appropriate standard that specifies requirements for office HVAC capacities. Our contractor tried to tell me that our system is "compliant per ANSI 2000" and that strikes me as suspect, since I don't think I've ever seen an ANSI standard in that format. Plus, shouldn't it be an ASHRAE standard? I'd prefer getting the standard, but I'd welcome any answers along the lines of "you need x capacity for y area/space" too. thanks :)
cheers,
rad
"According to my calculations the problem doesn't exist."





RE: Office HVAC requirements
Does the system not work well?
What are the symptoms?
Jabba
RE: Office HVAC requirements
cheers,
rad
"According to my calculations the problem doesn't exist."
RE: Office HVAC requirements
RE: Office HVAC requirements
But there are certainly standards concerned with the components of how the system capacity is derived; in terms of calculation method, allowances for ventilation, room temperatures... the list goes on.
Your contractor should be able to define these individual standards if you care to ask. He may have been talking about a standard for project management for all you really know.
RE: Office HVAC requirements
@CinciMace - I wasn't saying, "There must be a standard that says 'all HVAC systems in offices must have a capacity of <specific number>'" - but i am fairly sure that there is a standard that either specifies minimum capacities for a system air conditioning an office space given area/volume, humidity requirements, temperature ranges, etc OR specifies a method of calculation to derive those numbers.... and if there isn't, there should be :)
cheers,
rad
"According to my calculations the problem doesn't exist."
RE: Office HVAC requirements
there is no standard that specifies minimum capacities for a system. the industry standard for calculating the required capacity of equipment is outlined in the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals. If your town or state has adopted the International Mechanical Code then the designer is required to perform these calculations by Section 312. Most energy codes require the calculations to be peformed as well.
RE: Office HVAC requirements
I believe that I've seen it quoted by number of air changes per hour. This number also changes by how the area is classified. You should be able to find a table with the relevant values fairly easily. I believe that for general office spaces, ASHRAE requires 4-10 air changes per hour.
RE: Office HVAC requirements
RE: Office HVAC requirements
@engineer6512: the issue was that we expanded our office and our contractor was saying that the existing system was not sufficient to condition the new spaces, citing some random standard (turns out that he was just trying to get the job of replacing the ac system). I just got curious what the correct standard would have been (you actually answered my question: he should have cited ASHRAE 62.1 and related, rather than ANSI 2000). I don't actually care if the current system is sufficient, since it's slated to be upgraded soon anyway.
anyway, thanks again
cheers,
rad
"According to my calculations the problem doesn't exist."