We are working in a shopping mall where each retail store is exposed to the outdoors. A chilled water central system is providing chilled water pipes to each retail store in order to the tenant connect fan&coils and provide its store with air conditioning.
The HVAC designer has not provided dedicated outside air intakes with the argument that fresh air will be entering the space by the open front doors of the retail stores.
We recommend that doors closed should be specified in the tenant guidelines and the HVAC designer provide dedicated outside air intakes for each retail store by means of a grille, duct and a little fan to introduce the sized amount of outside air to each retail store.
Are we giving the best approach with our advise?
Thanks in advance.
Dylan Connelly
Mechanical EngineerIntegral Group
LEEDuser Expert
472 thumbs up
February 12, 2014 - 10:29 am
Yes - you're on the right track. The front doors alone would likely not be enough for natural ventilation.
If the HVAC designer doesn't want to provide a dedicated outside air system then they need to provide natural ventilation calcs.