Ducts in HVAC System
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning serves to provide thermal comfort and good quality of air in enclosed places like houses, businesses centers, storage units and vehicles while ventilation serves to replace used air with fresh air containing replenished oxygen, controlled temperatures, and remove odor, heat, dust and carbon (iv) oxide. A good HVAC system should have proper ducts that ensure a steady uninterrupted ventilation to allow for free delivery and removal of air. Ductwork in HVAC system therefore calls for planning, sizing, optimizing, laying out and finding pressure losses. These ducts are made by either galvanized steel, fabric, aluminum or fiberglass depending on preference.
1. Galvanized steel: This is the most common material used in ductwork because it has a coat of zinc that prevents the steel from corrosion and also nullifies the need and cost of painting. Being metal, a reliable means of insulation is important so the steel is lined with fiberglass or wrapped with the same. In case the required ductwork is round, a continuous spiral duct is made suiting the required length mostly 4" to 24" with 6"-12". But in the case where the duct required is rectangular, it requires joining of four sections of fabrication.
2. Fiberglass: This involves the use of board panels that provide an inbuilt thermal insulation and has the capacity to absorb sound that way when the HVAC system is operation, no noise is heard. This panel is assembled by putting a specific kind of knife on it and trimming in groove like fashion at a 45 angle thus providing a hinge. The panel is therefore made to fold along the groove making a 90A fold. The duct is the sealed by staples that clinch outwardly and a metal backed tape.
3. Aluminum: This ductwork is quick to install because it requires tracing of the duct line onto an insulated panel. The two parts are afterwards cut at a 45A angle then bent to required joints and finally glued together. The seams are then covered with aluminum tape.
For a HVAC system to serve well it requires occasional cleaning so as to maintain a fresh supply of air. Cleaning is necessary because of the fact that certain organisms like mold like to grow on hard surfaces like aluminum. lf the insulation system harbors mold, it is almost impossible to clean it and may require replacement.
Another thing to be on the lookout for is the infestation of vermin into the HVAC ducts. Rodents may occasionally die within the ducts and this will result into bad odors being conducted into the building instead of cool fresh air and this would disturb the comfort of the people in the building. lf this happens it may require that an operator finds a way of reaching the rodent inside the conduit. lnsects may also make their homes there like the wasp insect and this may overtime clog the duct. The size of the duct system, its accessibility and the level of contamination will determine the extent of cleaning to be done. It is important that the operator be qualified for the job to avoid damage of the HVAC duct system.
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