Problems
In hot, humid climates, unconditioned ventilation air will deliver approximately one pound of water each day for each cfm of outdoor air per day, annual average. This is a great deal of moisture, and it can create serious indoor moisture and mold problems.
- Ventilation efficiency is determined by design and layout, and is dependent upon placement and proximity of diffusers and return air outlets. If they are located closely together, supply air may mix with stale air, decreasing efficiency of the HVAC system, and creating air quality problems.
- System imbalances occur when components of the HVAC system are improperly adjusted or installed, and can create pressure differences (too much circulating air creating a draft or too little circulating air creating stagnancy).
- Cross-contamination occurs when pressure differences arise, forcing potentially contaminated air from one zone to an uncontaminated zone. This often involves undesired odors or VOCs.
- Re-entry of exhaust air occurs when exhaust outlets and fresh air intakes are either too close, or prevailing winds change exhaust patterns, or by infiltration between intake and exhaust air flows.
- Entrainment of contaminated outside air through intake flows will result in indoor air contamination. There are a variety of contaminated air sources, ranging from industrial effluent to VOCs put off by nearby construction work.
Read more about this topic: Ventilation (architecture)
Famous quotes containing the word problems:
“We are all adult learners. Most of us have learned a good deal more out of school than in it. We have learned from our families, our work, our friends. We have learned from problems resolved and tasks achieved but also from mistakes confronted and illusions unmasked. . . . Some of what we have learned is trivial: some has changed our lives forever.”
—Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The problems of this world are only truly solved in two ways: by extinction or duplication.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)