Have you thought about integrating your air conditioning with your roof? We have. Let us expand your roofing business.
FEATURES
“
Failing to incorporate the HVAC into the initial design can cause many problems – and not just for contractors.”
weight of the air conditioner and extra header beams had to be installed,” he recalls.
Roofing structures also play a very important role in determining heat loads in a building and are incorporated into the HVAC design.“ Poorly insulated roof structures mean higher heat loads and increased energy costs,” says Cramer.
Flat concrete roofs are great for the positioning of equipment, but they are also large heat sinks, which continue to transfer heat into the room below for hours after peak temperatures are reached, explains Cramer.“ A good energy saver is to fit pitched roofs over a flat concrete roof. Another suggestion is not to enclose it to allow natural ventilation.”
As most HVAC plants aren’ t very pretty in terms of aesthetics, another common design practise is when you try to hide air conditioners by enclosing them behind walls and roofs. This can wreak havoc with heat dissipation causing long term damage to the equipment.
Cramer maintains that a competent design engineer has several options available to find practical solutions.“ The more challenging the problem, the costlier it will be. There are many times where very little thought has gone into HVAC requirement at design stage and expectations are high,” he says.“ In these cases, you need to be able to put aesthetics behind should the requirement desperately need an HVAC solution, and provide a solution. This is noticeable when you see condensing units splashed all over the façades of buildings that are unsightly and noisy, especially at your neighbour’ s house,” he says.
Another issue is that clients often specify worst-case temperature scenarios to designers.“ These temperatures may only occur for a few hours and for a few days a year,” Parry states. If, however there is no detrimental effect on the equipment in the room, if the inside temperature rises a few degrees during the worst-case scenarios, this can pile on thousands of rands onto the capital costs.
The entire construction process needs to be well thought out and executed to achieve the best condition for the building. The best way to do this is to work collaboratively with the entire team involved and plan accordingly.
Things to be considered by the roofing contractor before roof completion:
• Water proofing under and around the HVAC outdoors.
• Ventilation around the outdoor unit.
• Piping penetration into the building.
• Strength of slab / weight barring where the outdoors will stand.
• Aesthetics of the whole building.
Source: Fourways Airconditioning
Have you thought about integrating your air conditioning with your roof? We have. Let us expand your roofing business.
Outdoor Construction Indoor Construction
Roof top unit
Roof curb
Transition Piece
Airconditioned Air Grille
Roof support
Top of Transition Piece
Integrated Roofing & Airconditioning
Contact us:
For more info, contact Steve Kimber on + 27( 0) 11 100 1630 | + 27( 0) 82 881 0201 or steve @ pictech. co. za.