Constant Air Volume HVAC System

Defining the System

A Constant Air Volume (CAV) starts with air from a central source, which is then
conditioned. Duct work with supply and return fans are used to circulate this air to all the
occupied rooms in a building. There is a master thermostat that regulates temperature
throughout the building by controlling the heating and cooling applied. There are three
different variations of the CAV system, the furnace, constant air volume reheat system
and the multizone system.

A furnace is normally used in a smaller building, where it eliminates the boiler and
combines the heating unit with the fan blowing the air through the system. A constant air
volume reheat system is similar to a normal CAV system except that as it is traveling
through the ducts to be delivered to each of the rooms, it travels through a reheat coil
controlled from a localized thermostat to provide more individualized temperature control.
The multizone system works off the same central fan but has a separately heated system
of supply ducts linked to various thermostats the control each zone.

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Notice the multiple duct tracks in the multizone system coming from the same fan room.

Typical Uses

Most CAV systems are installed in larger buildings with large open rooms like auditoriums,
lecture halls, theaters and lobbies. Places where pressure control is important such as
hospitals, pharmaceutical plants and electrical manufacturing plants can utilize a CAV
system as well. Other buildings with fairly large spaces but with many smaller spaces like
libraries, stores, shopping centers, laboratories and places of worship can try and utilize
the multizone system.

Limitations of the System

The CAV system is designed to maintain a high degree of control of air quality. Large

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rooms need to maintain a constant temperature throughout and this system is effective at
doing that for a relatively cheap cost initial cost and easy maintenance.

It has its limitations in its lack of ability to have individualized air-conditioning control.
Multizone systems work towards helping that situation, where there are several
thermostats for several zones and air is sent from the centralized unit. The problem with
this is that for each area that you want individualized control, you need to set-up another
conditioning zone which further complicates a very simplified system. The more zones
you have, the more ductwork is needed, and most buildings never provide enough space
for ductwork. This system also works best in larger room settings with small windows, so
it eliminates dorms, apartment complexes and other buildings with smaller rooms or large
windows.

Typical Materials

The typical materials involved in a CAV system are much like other systems. A boiler with
a chimney and a chilled water plant with a cooling tower help produce the hot and cold
water used by the system to regulate temperature. This water is brought to a fan room
by piping where the thermostat will tell the fan room what needs to be done to the air.
The fan room has an intake and an exhaust to bring in fresh air and exhaust the stale air.
A fan pushes the air through the supply ductwork (both vertical and horizontal) which is
then diffused into the room through a supply diffuser. Air is collected through return grills
and down the return ductwork to be exhausted out of the building. There is a packaged
system available for smaller buildings to simplify the components other than the ducts
and diffusers.

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Designing the System

For the sake of design purpose we'll use a 100,000 SF theater that is to be built. From the
charts below The required cooling capacity for this system would be approximately 530
tons. The total space for a boiler room and chilled water plant would take approximately
3800 SF, while the cooling tower would require 700 SF. The expected cooling air volume
would be almost 210,000 CFM. This would require 130 SF of main supply or return ducts
and another 210 SF of branch supply or return ducts. The fan room would require 6000
SF with 500 SF of fresh air louvers to supply the fan room. To exhaust the air, 410 SF of
exhaust air louvers would be required.

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