 An air handler, or air handling unit (often abbreviated to AHU), is a device used to condition and circulate air as part

rt of a heating, ventilating,
and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. An air handler is usually a large metal box containing a blower, heating or cooling elements, filter racks
or chambers, sound attenuators, and dampers. Air handlers usually connect to ductwork that distributes the conditioned air through the
building and returns it to the AHU. Sometimes AHUs discharge (supply) and admit (return) air directly to and from the space served without
ductwork.

Small air handlers, for local use, are called terminal units, and may only include an air filter, coil, and blower; these simple terminal units are
called blower coils or fan coil units. A larger air handler that conditions 100% outside air, and no recirculated air, is known as a makeup air
unit (MAU). An air handler designed for outdoor use, typically on roofs, is known as a packaged unit (PU) or rooftop unit (RTU).

Air handler components:

Blower/fan

Air handlers typically employ a large squirrel cage blower driven by an AC induction electric motor to move the air. The blower may operate at
a single speed, offer a variety of set speeds, or be driven by a Variable Frequency Drive to allow a wide range of air flow rates. Flow rate may
also be controlled by inlet vanes or outlet dampers on the fan. Some residential air handlers (central 'furnaces' or 'air conditioners') use a
brushless DC electric motor that has variable speed capabilities.

Multiple blowers may be present in large commercial air handling units, typically placed at the end of the AHU and the beginning of the supply
ductwork (therefore also called "supply fans"). They are often augmented by fans in the return air duct ("return fans") pushing the air into the
AHU.

Heating and/or cooling elements

Air handlers may need to provide heating, cooling, or both to change the supply air temperature depending on the location and the application.

Smaller air handlers may contain a fuel-burning heater or a refrigeration evaporator, placed directly in the air stream. Electric resistance and
heat pumps can be used as well. Evaporative cooling is possible in dry climates.

Large commercial air handling units contain coils that circulate hot water or steam for heating, and chilled water for cooling. Coils are typically
manufactured from copper for the tubes, with copper or aluminium fins to aid heat transfer. Cooling coils will also employ eliminator plates to
remove and drain condensate. The hot water or steam is provided by a central boiler, and the chilled water is provided by a central chiller.
Downstream temperature sensors are typically used to monitor and control 'off coil' temperatures, in conjunction with an appropriate motorised
control valve prior to the coil.

Filters

Air filtration is almost always present in order to provide clean dust-free air to the building occupants. It may be via simple low-MERV pleated
media, HEPA, electrostatic, or a combination of techniques. Gas-phase and ultraviolet air treatments may be employed as well.

It is typically placed first in the AHU in order to keep all its components clean. Depending upon the grade of filtration required, typically filters
will be arranged in two (or more) banks with a coarse-grade panel filter provided in front of a fine-grade bag filter, or other 'final' filtration
medium. The panel filter is cheaper to replace and maintain, and thus protects the more expensive bag filters.

The life of a filter may be assessed by monitoring the pressure drop through the filter medium at design air volume flow rate. This may be done
by means of a visual display, using a pressure gauge, or by a pressure switch linked to an alarm point on the building control system. Failure
to replace a filter may eventually lead to its collapse, as the forces exerted upon it by the fan overcome its inherent strength, resulting in
collapse and thus contamination of the air handler and downstream ductwork.

Humidifier

Humidification is often necessary in colder climates where continuous heating will make the air drier, resulting in uncomfortable air quality and
increased static electricity. Various types of humidification may be used:

• Evaporative: dry air blown over a reservoir will evaporate some of the water. The rate of evaporation can be increased by
spraying the water onto baffles in the air stream.
• Vaporizer: steam or vapour from a boiler is blown directly into the air stream.
• Spray mist: water is diffused either by a nozzle or other mechanical means into fine droplets and carried by the air.
• Ultrasonic: A tray of fresh water in the airstream is excited by an ultrasonic device forming a fog or water mist.
• Wetted medium: A fine fibrous medium in the airstream is kept moist with fresh water from a header pipe with a series of
small outlets. As the air passes through the medium it entrains the water in fine droplets. This type of humidifier can quickly clog if
the primary air filtration is not maintained in good order.
 Mixing chamber

In order to maintain indoor air quality, air handlers commonly have provisions to allow the introduction of outside air into, and the exhausting of
air from the building. In temperate climates, mixing the right amount of cooler outside air with warmer return air can be used to approach the
desired supply air temperature. A mixing chamber is therefore used which has dampers controlling the ratio between the return, outside, and
exhaust air.

Heat recovery device

A heat recovery device heat exchanger of many types, may be fitted to the air handler between supply and extract airstreams for energy
savings and increasing capacity. These types more commonly include for:

• Cross Plate Heat exchanger: A sandwich of plastic or metal plates with interlaced air paths. Heat is transferred between
airstreams from one side of the plate to the other. The plates are typically spaced at 4 to 6mm apart. Can also be used to recover
coolth. Heat recovery efficiency up to 70%.
• Thermal Wheel: A slowly rotating matrix of finely corrugated metal, operating in both opposing airstreams, heat is
absorbed as air passes through the matrix in the exhaust airstream, during one half rotation, and released during the second half
rotation into the supply airstream in a continuous process. Can also be used to recover and coolth. Heat recovery efficiency up to
85%. Wheels are also available with a hydroscopic coating to provide latent heat transfer and also the drying or humidification of
airstreams
• Run around coil: Two air to liquid heat exchanger coils, in opposing airstreams, piped together with a circulating pump and
using water or a brine as the heat transfer medium. This device, although not very efficient, allows heat recovery between remote
and sometimes multiple supply and exhaust airstreams. Heat recovery efficiency up to 50%.
• Heat Pipe: Operating in both opposing air paths, using a confined refrigerant as a heat transfer medium. The 'pipe' is
multiple sealed pipes mounted in a coil configuration with fins to increase heat transfer. Heat is absorbed on one side of the pipe, by
evaporation of the refrigerant, and released at the other side, by condensation of the refrigerant. Condensed refrigerant flows by
gravity to the first side of the pipe to repeat the process. Heat recovery efficiency up to 65%.

Controls

Controls are necessary to regulate every aspect of an air handler, such as: flow rate of air, supply air temperature, mixed air temperature,
humidity, air quality. They may be as simple as an off/on thermostat or as complex as a building automation system using BACnet or
LonWorks, for example.

Common control components include temperature sensors, humidity sensors, sail switches, actuators, motors, and controllers.

Vibration isolators

The blowers in an air handler can create substantial vibration and the large area of the duct system would transmit this noise and vibration to
the occupants of the building. To avoid this, vibration isolators (flexible sections) are normally inserted into the duct immediately before and
after the air handler and often also between the fan compartment and the rest of the AHU. The rubberized canvas-like material of these
sections allow the air handler to vibrate without transmitting much vibration to the attached ducts. The fan compartment can be further isolated
by placing it on a spring suspension, which will mitigate the transfer of vibration through the floor.

 Ducts are used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) to deliver and remove air. These needed airflows include, for example,
supply air, return air, and exhaust air.[1] Ducts also deliver, most commonly as part of the supply air, ventilation air. As such, air ducts are one
method of ensuring acceptable indoor air quality as well as thermal comfort.

A duct system is often called ductwork. Planning ('laying out'), sizing, optimizing, detailing, and finding the pressure losses through a duct
system is called duct design.[2]

 A diffuser is the mechanical device that is designed to control the characteristics of a fluid at the entrance to a thermodynamic open system.
Diffusers are used to slow the fluid's velocity and to enhance its mixing into the surrounding fluid. In contrast, a nozzle is often intended to
increase the discharge velocity and to direct the flow in one particular direction.

Frictional effects may sometimes be important, but usually they are neglected. However, the external work transfer is always assumed to be
zero. It is also assumed that changes in thermal energy are significantly greater than changes in potential energy and therefore the latter can
usually be neglected for the purpose of analysis.

 A damper is a valve or plate that stops or regulates the flow of air inside a duct, chimney, VAV box, air handler, or other air handling
equipment. A damper may be used to cut off central air conditioning (heating or cooling) to an unused room, or to regulate it for room-by-room
temperature and climate control. Its operation can be manual or automatic. Manual dampers are turned by a handle on the outside of a duct.
Automatic dampers are used to regulate airflow constantly and are operated by electric or pneumatic motors, in turn controlled by a thermostat
or building automation system.

In a chimney flue, a damper closes off the flue to keep the weather (and birds and other animals) out and warm or cool air in. This is usually
done in the summer, but also sometimes in the winter between uses. In some cases, the damper may also be partly closed to help control the
 rate of combustion. The damper may be accessible only by reaching up into the fireplace by hand or with a woodpoker, or sometimes by a
lever or knob that sticks down or out. On a woodburning stove or similar device, it is usually a handle on the vent duct as in an air conditioning
system. Forgetting to open a damper before beginning a fire can cause serious smoke damage to the interior of a home, if not a house fire.

 A fire pump is a part of a fire sprinkler system's water supply and can be powered by electric, diesel or steam. The pump intake is either
connected to the public underground water supply piping, or a static water source (e.g., tank, reservoir, lake). The pump provides water flow at
a higher pressure to the sprinkler system risers and hose standpipes. A fire pump is tested and listed for its use specifically for fire service by a
third-party testing and listing agency, such as UL or FM Global. The main code that governs fire pump installations in North America is the
National Fire Protection Association's NFPA 20 Standard for the Installation of Stationary Fire Pumps for Fire Protection.

Fire pumps may be powered either by an electric motor or a diesel engine, or, very occasionally a steam turbine. If the local building code
requires power independent of the local electric power grid, a pump using an electric motor may utilize, when connected via a listed transfer
switch, the installation of an emergency generator.

The fire pump starts when the pressure in the fire sprinkler system drops below a threshold. The sprinkler system pressure drops significantly
when one or more fire sprinklers are exposed to heat above their design temperature, and opens, releasing water. Alternately, other fire hoses
reels or other firefighting connections are opened, causing a pressure drop in the fire fighting main.

Fire pumps are needed when the local municipal water system cannot provide sufficient pressure to meet the hydraulic design requirements of
the fire sprinkler system. This usually occurs if the building is very tall, such as in high-rise buildings, or in systems that require a relatively high
terminal pressure at the fire sprinkler in order to provide a large volume of water, such as in storage warehouses. Fire pumps are also needed
if fire protection water supply is provided from a ground level water storage tank.

Types of pumps used for fire service include: horizontal split case, vertical split case, vertical inline, vertical turbine, and end suction.

A jockey pump is a small pump connected to a fire sprinkler system and is intended to maintain pressure in a fire protection piping system to
an artificially high level so that the operation of a single fire sprinkler will cause a pressure drop which will be sensed by the fire pump
automatic controller, causing the fire pump to start. The jockey pump is essentially a portion of the fire pump's control system.

 A diesel engine (also known as a compression ignition engine and sometimes capitalized as Diesel engine) is an internal combustion engine
that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of
compression. This is in contrast to spark ignition engines such as a petrol engine (known as a gasoline engine in North America) or gas
engine (using a gaseous fuel, not gasoline), which uses a spark plug to ignite an air-fuel mixture. Both diesel engines and spark ignition
engines are modelled by the Otto cycle. The diesel cycle (a thermodynamic model slightly different from the Otto cycle) is not to be confused
with the diesel engine, both of which were developed by Rudolph Diesel and named after him.

The diesel engine has the highest thermal efficiency of any regular internal or external combustion engine due to its very high compression
ratio. Low-speed diesel engines (as used in ships and other applications where overall engine weight is relatively unimportant) often have a
thermal efficiency which exceeds 50 percent.[1][2][3][4]

Diesel engines are manufactured in two stroke and four stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for
stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, large trucks and electric
generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines
in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50 percent of all new car sales in Europe are diesel.[5]

The world's largest diesel engine is currently a Wärtsilä marine diesel of about 80 MW output.[6]

 A petrol engine (known as a gasoline engine in North America) is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on
petrol (gasoline) and similar volatile fuels.

It differs from a diesel engine in the method of mixing the fuel and air, and in the fact that it uses spark plugs to initiate the combustion
process. In a diesel engine, only air is compressed (and therefore heated), and the fuel is injected into the now very hot air at the end of the
compression stroke, and self-ignites. In a petrol engine, the fuel and air are usually pre-mixed before compression (although some modern
petrol engines now use cylinder-direct petrol injection).

The pre-mixing was formerly done in a carburetor, but now (except in the smallest engines) it is done by electronically controlled fuel injection.
Petrol engines run at higher speeds than Diesels partially due to their lighter pistons, conrods & crankshaft (as a result of lower compression
ratios) & due to petrol burning faster than diesel. However the lower compression ratios of a petrol engine gives a lower efficiency than a
diesel engine.

 A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid via a vapor-compression or absorption refrigeration cycle. A vapor-compression water
chiller comprises the four major components of the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle (compressor, evaporator, condenser, and some form
of metering device). These machines can implement a variety of refrigerants. Absorption chillers use municipal water as the refrigerant and
benign silica gel as the desiccant. Absorption chillers utilize water as the refrigerant and rely on the strong affinity between the water and a
lithium bromide solution to achieve a refrigeration effect. Most often, pure water is chilled, but this water may also contain a percentage of
glycol and/or corrosion inhibitors; other fluids such as thin oils can be chilled as well.
In air conditioning systems, chilled water is typically distributed to heat exchangers, or coils, in air handling units, or other type of terminal
devices which cool the air in its respective space(s), and then the chilled water is re-circulated back to the chiller to be cooled again. These
 cooling coils transfer sensible heat and latent heat from the air to the chilled water, thus cooling and usually dehumidifying the air stream. A
typical chiller for air conditioning applications is rated between 15 to 1500 tons (180,000 to 18,000,000 BTU/h or 53 to 5,300 kW) in cooling
capacity. Chilled water temperatures can range from 35 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.5 to 7 degrees Celsius, depending upon application
requirements.

 A return air grille is a connection to ductwork that allows air to return to a heating and cooling system. Return air openings are typically
covered with grillwork that serves a number of different functions. A variety of companies make coverings for these openings that people can
use to replace existing covers or can install with a brand new system. These products are available through catalogs, hardware stores, and
contractors, as well as manufacturers of ducting systems. In a heating and cooling system, the central furnace or air conditioner pushes air out
through a system of ducts into the rooms of a structure for temperature control. It also pulls air in through return ductwork. The air sucked into
the system is heated or cooled as needed and redistributed. Essentially, the system acts as a pump, circulating room air through a heating or
cooling chamber to create a stable and consistent temperature in the structure.

The return air grille covers a register that allows air to flow into the heating and cooling system. Most grills are adjustable, allowing people to
shut a room off so the furnace cannot pull air out of it. The amount of air allowed through the return air grille can also be moderated, as for
example if people want more cold air pulled out of downstairs rooms in the winter and less of the hot air upstairs pulled through the heater.
Return air grilles also cover the ductwork so people do not have to look at it, and prevent large objects from entering the ducts, where in
addition to being lost, they could also damage the heating and cooling system. A return air grille is often fitted with a filter to trap smaller
particulate materials before they have a chance to get into the ductwork. This limits the amount of cleaning needed and also keeps the system
running smoothly, reducing the risk of clogs caused by dust, pet hair, and other materials.

 A fan coil unit (FCU) is a simple device consisting of a heating or cooling coil and fan. It is part of an HVAC system found in residential,
commercial, and industrial buildings. Typically a fan coil unit is not connected to ductwork, and is used to control the temperature in the space
where it is installed, or serve multiple spaces. It is controlled either by a manual on/off switch or by thermostat.

Due to their simplicity, fan coil units are more economic to install than ducted or central heating systems with air handling units. However,
they can be noisy because the fan is within the same space. Unit configurations are numerous including horizontal (ceiling mounted) or
vertical (floor mounted).
Fan coil units circulate hot or cold water through a coil in order to condition a space. The unit gets its hot or cold water from a central plant, or
mechanical room containing equipment for removing heat from the central building's closed-loop. The equipment used can consist of
machines used to remove heat such as a chiller or a cooling tower and equipment for adding heat to the building's water such as a boiler or a
commercial water heater.
Fan coil units are divided into two types: Two (2) pipe fan coil units or Four (4) pipe fan coil units. Two pipe fan coil units have one (1) supply
and one (1) return pipe. The supply pipe supplies either cold or hot water to the unit depending on the time of year. Four (4) pipe fan coil units
have two (2) supply pipes and two (2) return pipes. This allows either hot or cold water to enter the unit at any given time. Since it is often
necessary to heat and cool different areas of a building at the same time, due to differences in internal heat loss or heat gains, the four (4)
pipe fan coil unit is most commonly used.
Fan coil units may be connected to piping networks using various topology designs, such as "direct return", "reverse return", or "series
decoupled". See ASHRAE Handbook "2008 Systems & Equipment", Chapter 12.
Depending upon the selected operating conditions, it is very likely that the cooling coil will be designed to dehumidify the entering air stream,
and as a by product of this process, it will at times produce a condensate which will need to be carried to drain. The fan coil unit will contain a
purpose designed drip tray with drain connection for this purpose. The simplest means to drain the condensate from multiple fan coil units will
be by a network of pipework laid to falls to a suitable point. Alternatively a condensate pump may be employed where space for such gravity
pipework is limited.
Speed control of the fan motors within a fan coil unit is effectively used to control the heating and cooling output desired from the unit. This is
normally achieved by manually adjusting the taps on an AC transformer supplying the power to the fan motor. Typically this is adjusted at the
commissioning stage of the building construction process and is therefore set for life. However alternative means of external speed control by
electronic means through the BEMS can be provided if so required. Fan motors are typically AC type motors but more recently DC motors
have been made available by some manufacturers and can potentially offer significant energy savings.

http://www.msue.msu.edu/objects/content_revision/download.cfm/revision_id.499690/workspace_id.-4/01500601.html/

 parts-per notation is used, especially in science and engineering, to denote relative proportions in measured quantities; particularly in low-
value (high-ratio) proportions at the parts-per-million (ppm) 10–6, parts-per-billion (ppb) 10–9, and parts-per-trillion (ppt) 10–12 level. Since parts-
per notations are quantity-per-quantity measures, they are known as dimensionless quantities; that is, they are pure numbers with no
associated units of measurement. In regular prose, parts-per notations generally take the literal “parts per” meaning of a comparative ratio.
However, in mathematical expressions, parts-per notations function as coefficients with values less than 1.
One part per million (ppm) denotes one part per 1,000,000 parts, one part in 106, and a value of 1 × 10–6. This is equivalent to one drop of
water diluted into 50 liters (roughly the fuel tank capacity of a compact car), or about thirty seconds out of a year.