Background
Shlomo Rosenfeld & Associates is a mechanical consulting and engineering firm specializing in energy efficiency design and providing problem solving solutions, including expert testimony regarding HVAC systems to property owners and operators of large buildings.
The Problem
Evaluation of existing conditions for large HVAC systems and making appropriate recommendations for retro-commissioning actions required a through evaluation and analysis of air balance reports. These reports often includes hundreds of pages of data, separate information for supply, return, and exhaust systems, which could not be easily compared and analyzed using typical approaches with spreadsheets and separate tables that do not compare information.
Traditional Air Balancing Reports do not recombine the outlet measurements and summarize the air supply by space and indicate all supplies, returns, and exhaust data, nor do they easily identify those outlets and terminal boxes which fall outside the specified balance tolerances. As a result, it was difficult for the firm to evaluate the information and determine the appropriate course of action to correct HVAC balancing problems.
The Solution
Rosenfeld and Associates enters the individual air balance design and test results for each outlet and return into the TABulator - HVAC system analysis software . The software groups up and subtotals the data by terminal box, branch duct, and fan system.
Using the same data, it also groups all outlets, and inlets on a room by room basis showing the pressurization status (positive, negative, or neutral) of each room, which is critical information for hospitals and laboratories. The engineer can then ask the software to identify those outlets, terminal boxes or rooms that fall outside acceptable tolerances. With the TABulator, the firm is able to turn hundreds of pages of raw air balancing data into useful information, that enables them to determine the problems with the HVAC systems they are analyzing.
