The unit ventilator describes a "packaged" piece of equipment like those typically located against the outside wall of a classroom "with" the ability to bring in outside air.
The fan coil unit describes a "packaged" piece of equipment like those typically located in hallways or suspended from ceilings in warehouses, etc. "without" the ability to bring in outside air.
Leroy SimmsMon 3 Nov 2014
I believe the key difference between a fan coil and a unit ventilator is the method of temperature control. A unit ventilator typically uses a face/bypass damper; while a fan coil uses valve control or fan cycling. In some cases fan coils do have outdoor air; however they typically do not have the ability to utilize 100% outdoor air. I second the idea of having tags to designate these prevalent ahu sub-categories.
Denis OConnorThu 6 Nov 2014
@Leroy I typically see the following types of package equipment in the trend logs:
Unit Heater
Cabinet Unit Heater
Propeller Unit Heater
Unit Ventilator
Fan Coil Unit
There are probably additional items with similar names. I think we have tags to address the methods of temperature control but not the ability to differentiate between a unit in the hallway that is not bringing in outside air and the unit in the classroom that is bringing in outside air.
That lead me to the thought that if a smaller package piece of equipment has the ability to bring in outside air, we "tag" it as a unitVentilator.
This does not address the unit that brings in 100% Make Up Air all of the time. I wonder if the "makeup" tag could be used in a way to indicate the "100 % Make Up Air Handler". We currently use "makeup" with boilers and cooling towers.
I am interested in hearing how others are handling this so we can standardize.
Denis OConnor Tue 28 Oct 2014
I propose the following ahu tags
unitVentilator
fanCoilUnit
The unit ventilator describes a "packaged" piece of equipment like those typically located against the outside wall of a classroom "with" the ability to bring in outside air.
The fan coil unit describes a "packaged" piece of equipment like those typically located in hallways or suspended from ceilings in warehouses, etc. "without" the ability to bring in outside air.
Leroy Simms Mon 3 Nov 2014
I believe the key difference between a fan coil and a unit ventilator is the method of temperature control. A unit ventilator typically uses a face/bypass damper; while a fan coil uses valve control or fan cycling. In some cases fan coils do have outdoor air; however they typically do not have the ability to utilize 100% outdoor air. I second the idea of having tags to designate these prevalent ahu sub-categories.
Denis OConnor Thu 6 Nov 2014
@Leroy I typically see the following types of package equipment in the trend logs:
Unit Heater
Cabinet Unit Heater
Propeller Unit Heater
Unit Ventilator
Fan Coil Unit
There are probably additional items with similar names. I think we have tags to address the methods of temperature control but not the ability to differentiate between a unit in the hallway that is not bringing in outside air and the unit in the classroom that is bringing in outside air.
That lead me to the thought that if a smaller package piece of equipment has the ability to bring in outside air, we "tag" it as a unitVentilator.
This does not address the unit that brings in 100% Make Up Air all of the time. I wonder if the "makeup" tag could be used in a way to indicate the "100 % Make Up Air Handler". We currently use "makeup" with boilers and cooling towers.
I am interested in hearing how others are handling this so we can standardize.