Building engineering
Heating, cooling, ventilation
HVAC calculation, installation and commissioning for residential and commercial sites.
In a closed room the air goes stale by degrees. People give off carbon dioxide, finishes and furniture give off odours, kitchens and wet rooms give off vapour. Heating and cooling work on the temperature of that air, while ventilation replaces the air itself, and it is this invisible part that decides how a room breathes by the end of the day and whether condensation appears on the glass. In Tbilisi the same system is loaded by summer heat and by winter cold alike, so both modes have to be calculated together, or a system that works in one season turns out to be weak in the other.
Heat in a building does not come from the radiator alone. In summer south-facing glazing takes it from the sun, server rooms, kitchens and lighting give off their own, every person adds to the load, and in winter the same building envelope lets heat out. A thermal load calculation is the arithmetic of that balance, worked out separately for each space, rather than floor area multiplied by a standard coefficient. When capacity is taken from a table instead of from the real load, it shows in operation: an oversized unit switches on and off in short cycles, dehumidifies poorly and wears out faster; in a narrow duct the air speeds up and the network becomes noisy; and one room whose own load nobody counted stays colder than the rest. Duct sizes and routes are drawn from that calculation and have to suit the architectural ceilings, the shafts and the electrical design, and once installation is finished the system still needs to be set up and started: airflow is measured and balanced in every branch.
A system that works properly is one nobody notices: the temperature is even from room to room, the air is still fresh at the end of the day, and what comes from the ceiling is a faint rustle rather than a drone. That state does not hold by itself; it is held by the figures set at start-up, the airflow adjusted in each branch and the balanced network. Filters, the heat exchanger and the drainage foul up within the first season, and a fouled system spends more energy for the same result and runs louder; bringing it back to its original figures is what periodic maintenance is for. Most of the ductwork is hidden in ceilings and walls, so correcting a calculation that was wrong costs far more once the finishes are in than getting the same figure right at the design stage.
What it covers
- Thermal load calculation
- Ventilation system design and installation
- Selection of heating and cooling equipment
- Commissioning and handover
- Scheduled maintenance
Where it applies
- Offices and business centres
- Hotels and restaurants
- Shopping centres and retail units
- Clinics and medical rooms
- Residential complexes and private houses
- Production and warehouse spaces
Standards and regulations
Several documents govern a ventilation and air-conditioning calculation at once, each over its own part. EN 12831 describes the method for calculating the design heat load, that is, the capacity the heating has to be drawn for. Indoor climate parameters and the air volumes that follow from the use of a space are set by the EN 16798 series or by ASHRAE 62.1, and a design adopts one of them as its basis. EN 12599 covers the handover stage: what has to be measured in a ventilation and air-conditioning system and by which method, so that its operation is confirmed by a figure rather than by an impression. Fire safety is a separate layer: a duct crossing a fire-rated structure calls for a fire damper, and what ventilation does on an alarm signal is decided together with the fire alarm; that part belongs to the fire-safety regulations in force in Georgia.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ventilation and air conditioning?
An air conditioner cools and recirculates the air that is already in the room; ventilation brings fresh air in from outside and pushes the used air out. It is the exchange of air that removes carbon dioxide, odours and excess humidity. With modern sealed glazing one cannot stand in for the other: a split unit will cool the room, and the air will stay exactly as stale as it was.
Why is ventilation noisy, and can that be corrected?
The main cause of noise is air speed: when a narrow duct carries the volume required, or the grille is too small, the rustle of the air grows into a whistle. Vibration adds to it if the unit rests rigidly on the structure, as does the noise of the unit itself if it stands next to a space that is sensitive to noise. Part of this is corrected at the commissioning stage, by redistributing the flow, by a silencer, by flexible connections. If the duct section was too small from the start, that is a question of design rather than of adjustment.
How much does an HVAC system cost?
Two sites of the same area come out at different figures, and there are two reasons for it: what plant is installed, and how heat and air are distributed through the building. Individual split units, a multi-zone system, a chiller with fan coils, or a fully ducted scheme with heat recovery — that choice moves the figure more than anything else, because a different volume of installation work comes with each of them. The second reason is the distribution: how many independent zones there are, how long and how awkward the routes are, whether a duct fits into the ceiling or the ceiling level has to come down. So the figure appears after the calculation and not before it: load and layout first, price second.
Can ventilation be installed in a building that is already finished?
It can, but the routing sets the limits. A ceiling already in place, the space left in the shafts and the depth of the beams decide where a duct can run; where a fully ducted scheme does not fit, multi-zone equipment with short local runs takes its place. In a building that is in use, work of this kind is divided into areas, and that shows in the schedule more than in the choice of equipment.
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