Integrated HVAC solutions add value throughout the life of your commercial building

Designing an efficient HVAC system

Did you know that HVAC systems accounts for 40% of the total energy use in commercial buildings?¹ As end-users and governments demand more efficiency, HVAC systems need to be continuously optimised to limit costs, reduce consumption, and lower emissions. So, how can this be done?

A straightforward design process for HVAC systems is crucial in ensuring that the system functions well once it’s up and running. However, we’ve found that the designers responsible for making detailed schematics, drawings, and specifications are often pressed for time. This can, unfortunately, result in faulty tender material and designs that don’t live up to the requirements.

One of the factors that we’ve identified as essential to solving during the design phase is the limited space for the technical installations. Often, they’re installed in undersized technical plant rooms, which increases costs for service and maintenance and makes it challenging to perform service. On the other hand, if too much space is used for technical equipment, this reduces the billable space for tenants. It’s a matter of finding the right balance.

Designers can match investors’ high expectations for building performance and functions and meet the technical specifications using prefabricated integrated HVAC solutions like our Grundfos Modular HVAC systems.

The technical advantages of our integrated HVAC system can reduce the HVAC system footprint simply because Grundfos modular systems are pre-assembled, pre-tested, and pre-commissioned right from the factory, which also reduces time selecting, sizing, and installing separate components. And lastly, they reduce complexity since Grundfos is the one-stop full-service provider and point of contact.

Installing and commissioning an HVAC system

By becoming more energy-efficient in HVAC, commercial buildings can reduce OPEX, increase property asset value and enhance occupant comfort.

Installing, commissioning, and integrating components into a building management system (BMS) is complicated. It can be a challenge to size, install, and balance the valves, trying to optimise the indoor climate of the building.

But Grundfos Distributed Pumping makes this challenge a lot easier to overcome. It’s an approach that allows you to replace control and balancing valves with smaller, intelligent coil pumps distributed through the system at every consumer loop. All these pumps then adapt to the actual system demand.

In addition, a distributed pumping system lets you reduce the primary pump performance by up to 50% since the coil pumps take care of meeting the cooling demand.

Installation of a distributed pumping solution saves time and money in commissioning, makes balancing and control valves redundant, reduces the requirements for primary pump performance, and creates a self-balancing system that results in a better indoor climate for users of the building.

You can read much more about the benefits of Grundfos Distributed Pumping here.

Increase building performance with an optimised HVAC solution

Did you know that nearly all commercial buildings fail to deliver the desired carbon emissions performance, and only 2% of new commercial buildings perform according to the design estimate?

With an increasing focus on energy efficiency and regulatory compliance, HVAC systems must be optimised to keep costs, resource consumption, and emissions at a minimum.

Building efficiency and performance is a key measure for almost any building. Building services will surely need to be adjusted and optimised after the building is taken into use. This isn’t always easy with traditional installations. But with a fully integrated Grundfos distributed pumping solution, not only do you get load adaptive pump performance, but it’s easily integrated into your BMS, so your pumps and controllers may be monitored, operated, and optimised remotely.

Grundfos pumps, controllers, and drives enable efficient and reliable operation of hydronic heating and cooling systems with intelligent and connected products.

The right solution for commercial buildings

Grundfos has a long history of supplying high-quality pump solutions that guarantee performance and reliability in several HVAC systems for commercial buildings across commercial heating and commercial air conditioning applications.

Adding value to HVAC systems in commercial buildings is not an easy task. Take this 20-minute ECADEMY course and see how hydronic systems reduce energy consumption, how integrated systems improve performance, and how Grundfos Distributed Pumping optimises the entire system. Enjoy free access to the course here.

How can we design the commercial buildings of the future? How do we accommodate increasing needs without draining our energy and other resources? Dive into our High Performance Buildings podcast and discover how to address challenges such as urbanization by optimising HVAC systems in commercial buildings. Check out the podcast here.

^{[1] Guide to Best Practice Maintenance and Operation of HVAC Systems for Energy Efficiency (January 2012), Council of Australian Governments (COAG), Pages 36-37  
https://www.airah.org.au/Content_Files/UsefulDocuments/DCCEE_HVAC_HESS_GuideToBestPractice2012.PDF}