1.
0 AIRCONDITIONING AND VENTILATION
1.1 AIRCONDITIONING
DESIGN CONDITIONS FOR OFFICES, CONFERENCE & MEETING
ROOMS, KITCHEN, SERVER ROOM, WASHROOMS, RECEPTION ETC.
ENERGY EFFICIENT SYSTEM PROPOSALS
Design Objective
The design objective of the air conditioning and ventilation system shall be to
provide acceptable comfort conditions of air cleanliness, air motion, ambient
noise, temperature, and relative humidity in all zones of the building. It shall also
maintain prescribed temperature and humidity for various offices and other spaces
and shall ensure appropriate air pressure relationships between spaces and
between the indoor and the outdoor.
System Selection
The recommended system shall be robust, reliable, flexible and energy efficient. It
shall be easy to install, commission, operate and maintain. It shall not take up
usable floor space, not require excessive space in ceiling void, not be obtrusive,
be fully integrated into the Architectural finishes and shall be easily accessible for
service and maintenance with minimum interference with the use of the spaces.
Ultimately, the design of the system shall achieve an optimum balance between
owning and operating costs.
Controls
Effective control of an air conditioning system is essential in achieving
economical operation. This will require that as far as possible the interface for
adjusting major set-points such as space temperature should be out of the reach of
the building occupants to avoid unauthorized alterations that could upset the
efficient operation of the system. The type of controls shall only permit the
variation of the set-points by the occupants, within a very narrow range.
Indoor Air Quality
A measured amount of outdoor air is required to be introduced into the building
spaces to maintain indoor air quality and to achieve the air pressure balances
required.
By virtue of the geographical location of the chancery building, the outdoor air, if
it is heavily laden with moisture and/or particle contaminants most part of the
year and a significant portion of the system’s refrigeration capacity goes to
remove the moisture. This can result in the selection of large capacity indoor
evaporating units if the raw outdoor air is either discharged directly into the space
or through the fan coil units.
The introduction of raw air leads to a steep rise in room relative humidity (a
measure of the moisture content in the space) when the refrigeration plant cycles
off upon the room set-point temperature being reached. To circumvent this
potential problem, the proposed system shall process the outdoor air to filter out
the contaminants, remove the moisture and cool the air below the targeted space
temperature. This will take the burden of the outdoor air load off the fan coil
units resulting in a selection of smaller capacity units. Furthermore, the processed
cleaner, drier and cooler air would limit the fluctuation in the space relative
humidity and would offset part of the heat generated by internal sources such as
lights, equipment etc.
To maintain the desired air pressure balance, a quantity of air less than the
processed outdoor air quantity shall be exhausted from the conditioned spaces
through the washrooms and kitchen. This will lower the temperature in these
areas while providing the number of air changes required to keep them fresh and
hygienic.
Outdoor Air Tempering System
A number of inverter-controlled Outdoor Air Processing Units shall filter, cool
and dehumidify a controlled quantity of outdoor air and deliver it at a constant
temperature to the entire building through a network of insulated rigid ALP and
flexible ducts.
The tempered outdoor air shall either be discharged into the ceiling plenum where
it shall be mixed with the re-circulated air, or be delivered directly into the spaces,
or be connected directly to the fan coil units via ALP and flexible ducts.
Re-circulated air shall return to the concealed fan coil units either via slots or via
ceiling diffusers. The ceiling void may serve as a return air plenum and as a
mixing box for re-circulated and tempered outdoor air.
The project comprises of facilities including offices, conference room, meeting
rooms, Reheat kitchen & kitchenettes, eatery, server room, washrooms, reception
etc.
These various occupancies have demands that occur at different times and
therefore there is a need for flexibility in the air-conditioning system design while
at the same time ensuring economical operation of these various systems.
VRV system has been proposed for the occupancy areas of the building and shall
comprise of both inverter-controlled outdoor and indoor units, ALP ceiling
mounted ductworks, terminal devices (diffusers, grilles etc.), refrigerant and
condensate drainage piping arrangement. However, all the indoor units in each
zone shall be coupled to a VRV inverter-controlled outdoor unit thus ensuring that
each zone shall be independently controlled as well as enhancing more flexibility.
There is an electronic expansion valve within each of the indoor units which
continuously and automatically adjusts the refrigerant volume in response to load
variations of the occupied space. As a result, VRV systems have low running
costs (i.e about 30% energy savings) because it permits each zone to be controlled
individually where only rooms or areas that require air-conditioning will be
cooled whilst the system can be shut down completely in unoccupied rooms or
areas.
Each of the VRV inverter-controlled outdoor units has about three (3)
compressors so that in the event of any failure or breakdown for one of them, the
other two will support the system until the defect is remedied. The VRV split
arrangement therefore operates as a system with a back-up provision.
No plantroom is needed but a clear ceiling space of a minimum of 300mm below
beams shall be needed for the air-conditioning ductworks.
Specialized areas such as the server room shall have their own independent
systems of the closed control precision air-conditioning unit.
OFFICE AREAS
The air conditioning for the offices shall be based on the following design criteria.
Design Criteria
Room Temperature - 23+10C
Relative Humidity - 50 to 5%
Circulation Air Changes/hr - 5
Noise Level - NC 30 to 35
Filtering Efficiency - 50%
CONFERENCE ROOM
Design Criteria
Room Temperature - 220C
Relative Humidity - 50% + 10%
Noise Criteria - NC 35 – 40
Filter Efficiency - 35%
Circulation Air Changes/hr - 8 - 12
EATERY
Design Criteria
Room Temperature - 21 - 230C
Relative Humidity - 55 - 60%
Circulation Air Changes/hr - 15
Noise Level - NC 35 - 40
Filtering Efficiency - 50%
KITCHEN
Design Criteria
Room Temperature - 230C
Relative Humidity - 60%
Circulation Air Changes/hr - 25
Noise Level - NC 45
Filtering Efficiency - 50
1.2 VENTILATION
Ventilation Requirements:
(a) Per Person (fresh air): 8 Litres per seconds
(b) Eatery (Extract rate): 15 Air changes per hour
(c) Toilets: 10 Air changes per hour
(d) Kitchen 25 Air changes per hour
Noise Ratings:
(a) Offices, Meeting room
Conference etc. NR 30
(b) Eatery NR 40
(c) Kitchen NR 45
SYSTEM PROPOSALS
Extract fan units mounted either on the roof or in the ceiling void and ceiling-
mounted transfer fan units shall extract quantities of air from offices, washrooms,
and toilets through an arrangement of extract valves, ALP ducts and builder’s
shaft. The quantity of exhaust air shall be controlled to maintain positive pressure
in the building relative to the washrooms, toilets, changing rooms and the
outdoors.
A roof-mounted fan working in tandem with ceiling-mounted transfer fans shall
exhaust air from the kitchen and kitchenette rooms and maintain these areas at
negative pressure relative to the surrounding spaces to prevent the migration of
food odor into the entire building.
Contaminants from vehicle emissions and fuel and lubricant spillage in the
basement parking space shall be mechanically extracted and discharged at roof
level through architecturally pleasing terminals located within the parking lot.
The extract fans shall run intermittently in response to a pre-determined schedule
and to a CO2 sensor. They will perform a one-off duty as smoke extractors in the
event of fire.
The kitchen area shall have extract hood over warming equipment and shall be
connected to main ventilation system through the external grilles to the service
ducts.
Stair Pressurization system shall be proposed for the Fire escape stairs.
