Fitness Centre - Design - Please Comment !!!

[Vicsidhu]

I am designing a Fitness Center / Health Club and need some feedback. Veterans , Please review the design and comment.

This center will be in the basement and have a 4 feet east and south exterior wall exposure to outside. The walls are not insulated – just 8” thick brick with paneling.

Locker Room Area: (South Exposure of 52 ft)
Area: 1690 sq ft. Height: 10 ft : Volume: 16900 cu. ft.
Occupancy: 30 People

Heat Loss calculations (without considering ACH) give me 1200 cfm (cooling) & 750 cfm (heating)

Adding 6 ACH: 1600 cfm (Heating and Cooling)

Now the recommended air change for lockers is 10 ACH, which gives me 2800 cfm (7 tons)

I decided to use 6 ACH and put in HHVAC unit of 3.5 toms with 1600 cfm

With 600 cfm exhaust from showers and washrooms, I get adequate outdoor air (20 cfm per person)

Aerobics Studio: (East Exposure of 36 ft)
Area: 1150 sq ft Height: 10 ft Volume: 115o0 cu ft
Occupancy: 30 people – intermittent occupancy

Heat Loss calculations (without considering ACH) give me ca. 1000 cfm (cooling) and 150 cfm (heating)

Adding 6 air changes: 1094 cfm (Heating & Cooling)

I decided to use 6ACH and put in HVAC unit of 2.5 tons and 1000 cfm

The unit shall be balanced at minimum of 600 cfm during occupied mode and economizer mode (100% return) during un-occupied mode.

In addition to this I think an exhaust fan with temperature sensor on/off set at 76F would give adequate comfort. (I am an Aerobics Instructor as part-time – and know that all the studios I have taught tend to get a lot hotter after around 30 minutes of working out)

Other Areas:
I am OK with the other areas as this will be an open space and I am just distributing adequate air around.

Thanks for taking your precious time for reading this post.

 

[ChasBean1]

Locker room: Looks good. I'm not at the office and didn't look up the criteria. I'm expecting little exterior glazing for a locker room.. In general there's very little heat load in these places and I usually find them too cold. Are there typically 30 people expected in there, or is this a design condition? 1 cfm/ft2 might be high for this application. Consider diversity and typical conditions. Ventilate mainly by exhaust/draw-through, little mechanical cooling should be needed.

Aerobics studio: That sounds good to me! Glazing would play a part here. Is there much glass on the outside wall?

Note that I looked this over just based on gut feel, not by CLTDs and regions and heat/cool calcs! -CB

 

[Vicsidhu]

I was away and did not get a chance to reply. All this is basement and there is hardly any glazing. So solar heat gains are minimum.

Thankx for ur feedback.

 

[Koske]

Be aware that in Aerobic studio you have much higher heat realise from ocuppants usually Sensible heat = 790 Btu/hr per occuapant and Latent Heat = 1090 Btu/hr per occupant. I would also recomend providing the ceiling fans in order to increase comfort of occupants and to avoid stratification of the air inside aerobic studio. Also you need to select unit that is able to remove big latent load.

 

[russmech]

Your ACH's are low; should be more like the 10 you considered. Locker rooms and aerobics rooms get quite smelly w/o considerable air movement. Also, consider CO2 monitoring for added OA control (in addition to economizer control). I like the CO2 monitoring for intermittent occupancies like yours. Some packaged A/C units now have this as an option.