Winter is Coming: Designing HVAC Systems for Every Season
Nicole Imeson, P.L.(Eng.) and Jay Stobbe, P.Eng
Cold-climate regions experience much more extreme winter design conditions than other parts of the world, but rarely do those extreme winter conditions remain in effect year-round. In cold climate regions, the heating system designer must understand the varying heating demands that a building will experience as seasons change. In some geographical locations, changes in temperature can be very rapid and can occur in very short time periods and having a system that can respond to these changes is very paramount.
In addition to partial loads during seasonal changes, it is also common in some regions for relatively large temperature variations to occur from one side of a building to another. For example, although it may be freezing outside, the south side of a building may have high solar gains and require cooling while simultaneously the north side of a building may be shaded and require heating. The HVAC strategy must be flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs to occupants in different microclimates throughout a building.
This white paper will discuss how heating systems can be designed to accommodate peak and partial heating loads throughout the year, and how to accommodate these requirements when the outdoor environment can change rapidly. We will also discuss how designing heating systems that can accommodate a wide range of heating demands allows the designer to incorporate redundancy into the system to ensure building temperatures are maintained during extreme winter weather.