Section

HVAC Systems
GENERAL
Plant Heating System
The plant heating system:
Maintains the minimum design ambient air temperature for equipment protection
during normal plant operating conditions and during plant shutdown
Provides heating for personnel comfort in the offices and in other occupied areas
As an example, the plant heating system would provide heating for the following
areas in a fossil power plant:
Turbine and boiler areas
Auxiliary services area
Control room complex area
Administration, shops, and warehouse building
Flue gas desulfurization building
Water treatment building
Heating systems for the surge pond pump house, cooling tower pump house, coal
handling area, and other yard buildings are not part of this system.
The major components of the plant heating system include:
Heat exchanger
Heating water boiler
Hot water circulating pumps
Hot water expansion tank
Air separator
Chemical feeder
Fan coil units
Heating and Ventilating Systems
The heating and ventilating systems perform the following typical functions:
Provides adequate ventilation to dissipate heat rejection from operating
equipment
Maintains space design temperature ranges for various modes of plant
operation, including shutdown, in conjunction with the plant heating system
Furnishes filtered ventilation air to minimize airborne dust in the plant
Provides air movement from the turbine area towards the boiler area to minimize
backflow of coal dust
Removes contaminated air to eliminate health hazards, nuisances, or fire
dangers
Pressurizes areas to minimize outside air infiltration

The heating and ventilation requirements are based on the following:

Minimum amount of outside air necessary to provide building pressurization
Heat losses during low ambient outdoor air conditions
Heat gains from mechanical and electrical equipment
HVAC System Design
Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems provide the proper atmospheric
environment for the facility. The criteria for the facility environment may be based on
personnel occupancy or on mechanical or electrical equipment operation
requirements. The HVAC system maintains temperature, humidity, and dust levels
within established limits to satisfy health regulations and limits established by the
equipment design. The following codes are normally used for the design of HVAC
systems:
ASHRAE

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning

Engineers

SMACNA Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association

AMCA

Air Moving and Conditioning Association

In establishing the design criteria for the HVAC system, both outdoor and indoor
conditions are considered. Outdoor design conditions can be determined from the
ASHRAE Data Book, Weather Bureau data, or site meteorology data. Designs are
typically based on conditions that will not be exceeded by more than percent of the
time on either extremely hot summer days or extremely cold winter days.
Indoor design criteria will vary on the intended use of the facility. All office areas and
areas housing sensitive electrical and instrumentation equipment are typically airconditioned and maintained at an ambient temperature of F F with a
maximum relative humidity of
percent throughout the year. In the unoccupied
areas of the facility, the indoor design conditions are determined by the electrical and
mechanical equipment ambient requirements. Generally, these areas are typically
maintained at a maximum temperature of
F during the summer and a minimum
of F during the winter.
HVAC systems also serve to prevent the accumulation of explosive gases and to
regulate building pressures. For example, certain areas of the facility may contain
equipment and material that release combustible gases such as hydrogen or
methane. To prevent accumulation and concentration of these gases, the HVAC
system may be designed to provide large air-change in these areas. Battery rooms
and coal silos are typical examples of this type of condition.
In some cases, it is also desirable to control building air pressures when control of
air flow direction is necessary. In these cases, the HVAC system is used to provide
negative or positive pressure boundaries inside the building. An example of this
application is in the negative pressure boundary established to prevent the release of
coal fumes from a coal silo.

FIGURE

- AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM

Air-Conditioning Loads
To size the air-conditioning system, the system must accommodate not only external
heat and cooling but also internally generated heat and cooling loads. The following
are examples of the loadings typically considered in a HVAC system design:
Heat transfer from the outside
Heat load from equipment
Heat transfer from hot pipes and equipment
Lighting systems
Personnel
Infiltration
Outside air supplied to the air-conditioning system
The process of calculating the load on an HVAC system is interactive since several
factors contribute to the loadings. Generally, a factor of safety is included in the
preliminary calculations to minimize the impacts of subsequent changes.
A typical functional diagram for an air-conditioning system is shown in Figure

- .

A functional diagram for a split or air cooled condenser system is shown in Figure
- .

FIGURE

- FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM OF SPLIT SYSTEM (AIR COOLED

CONDENSER)

Typical HVAC Equipment

The following are some of the typical types of HVAC equipment:
Disposable Low/Medium Efficiency Filters
These filters are made of glass fibre material. Filters with high dust holding capacity
are made of pleated media formed as bags (usually
inches deep) to provide a
large surface. Another type is the automatically renewable media roll filter which
uses a motor to continuously move the large roll of filter media that is located in the
path of the air flow.

High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filters

These filters are designed to provide a particulate removal efficiency of .
percent for . micron particle size. It consists of a fiberglass media enclosed in a
particleboard frame.
Fans
Vaneaxial, propeller, centrifugal, and power roof ventilation fans are commonly used
in HVAC systems. Centrifugal fans are designed with forward curved, backward
curved, or radial fan blades. The forward curved blades have lower initial costs but

the backward curved designs have lower operating costs. Fan bearings are typically
rated for approximately
,
hours of operation. Fan sound levels are typically
limited to no more than
db at feet from the fan.

FIGURE

- SIMPLIFIED REFRIGERATION CYCLE

Air Handling Units (AHU)

AHUs consist of a fan and a cooling coil mounted inside a sheet-metal box. The fan
section located downstream of the cooling coil section is insulated on the inside with
thermal and sound insulation. Cooling coils are either direct expansion or chilled
water type. Cooling coils are made of copper-nickel tubes with aluminum fins.
Copper fins are used in highly corrosive atmosphere applications. For heating
systems, the coil is a hot water, steam, or electric heating coil. Coils are typically
designed for
psig. AHUs are also called fan coolers.

Chillers
Chillers generate chilled water for use in the cooling coils of air handling units. The
machine consists of a package consisting of a centrifugal refrigeration compressor, a
tube and shell heat exchanger called a compressor and another tube and shell heat
exchanger called an evaporator. A simplified refrigeration cycle is shown in Figure
- . There are two types of chillers:
Open type in which the motor, compressor, and their coupling are open to the
atmosphere.
Hermetic type in which the compressor and motor are hermetically sealed in a
steel shell.
Chillers are capable of capacity control down to
percent of its full capacity. Due
to concerns related to ozone depletion in the atmosphere, the refrigerant used in
chillers is being changed from freon to other materials.
Ducts
Sheet-metal ducts are used to distribute filtered, cooled, and heated air to
conditioned areas. Duct design and fabrication are typically done in accordance with
the SMACNA code. Ducts for air-conditioned areas are typically designed for an air
velocity less than
feet per minute. In some applications such as in power
plants, however, ducts may be designed for air velocities over
feet per minute.
Air flow measuring stations are used in duct systems at points where accurate air
flow measurement is required.