subject: Commercial Air Conditioning. [print this page] Commercial air conditioning comes in both centrally driven systems and local systems. Traditionally offices tended to have a central cooling and heating fan unit whereby the temperature controlled air is distributed throughout the building by a system of ceiling or floor ducts.
A series of ventilation grills and baffles are balanced to ensue an even air distribution throughout the building.
However, modern technology allows many inverter units to be run off a single compressor and this is an alternative method of providing air conditioning to commercial premises. Technological advances allow long refrigerant pipe runs of up to 170m and the small diameter pipes which are now used result in less volume of refrigerant gas.
The internal wall mounted unit is alternatively referred to as a wall inverter unit or high-wall inverter. The advent of inverter technology has transformed the efficiency of air conditioning. Its general application is in digitally controlling the capacity and fan speed of the system to match it precisely to the temperature to be maintained or achieved.
If inverter units are used in commercial buildings, these are often ceiling cassettes which come in a variety of specifications (1, 2 and 4 way cassettes). Perimeter areas and corridor areas often use air conditioning console units.
Wall mounted inverter units are common throughout commercial buildings and are now becoming increasingly used in hotels. The attraction of these units is the opportunity for residents to control inverter output temperatures locally and very accurately.
Most commercial air conditioning installations have state-of-the-art control equipment often centrally based but with local sensing. Computer based control units are now available that integrate functions such as temperature control, lighting, alarms and fire protection functions.
Ideally businesses should consider their cooling requirements during the colder months in order to avoid disappointment and uncomfortable working conditions, due to the volume of demand for air conditioning over the summer. Typically installation firms are quieter during the winter months and can complete projects in plenty of time before the hot weather begins.
