HVAC Ring Concept for Total Flexibility
Peter Dockx, Van Looy Group
Not many activities are changing as rapidly as laboratory activities.
New equipment, new areas of research, etc., make flexibility and the ability to change setups determining factors in the success of the laboratory building and its population. Flexibility in the HVAC systems is often the bottleneck in adapting the laboratory to the latest changes.
An HVAC ring design, instead of an antenna design, gives an enormous improvement in the flexibility of a laboratory. Lower diversity numbers can be taken. Demand-based ventilation systems can be implemented much better in the total laboratory setup.
The greatest benefit, however, is in the maintainability of the HVAC system. Maintenance workers will always have a clear overview of the installation and don't have to handle all kinds of different supply and exhaust systems. This holds true both in the beginning of the lifetime of a building and after 15 or 20 years.
Peter Dockx is a managing consultant at Van Looy Group in Antwerp, Belgium. Designing laboratories is Van Looy Group's, and Mr. Dockx's, daily business. Mr. Dockx is an electro-mechanical engineer with a professional background of more than 20 years designing HVAC systems for laboratories, vivaria, high-containment areas, pharmaceutical plants, and more. Mr. Dockx is an active member of the European Association for Sustainable Laboratories and chairs the organization's Laboratory Energy Workgroup.