Ventilation, Dehumidification and Cooling for high end spec housing in hot and humid climate ASHRAE

[MechanicalEngineer14]

Hi All,

I am a UK designer, and I am currently working on a high end spec luxury residence just East of Jacksonville Florida. The area is classified as ASHRAE climate zone 1 (Tropical Monsoon). I was wondering whether any professionals with experience working in this particular area could advise me of;
1) typical vent, dehum & cooling strategies that would be employed?
2) I would also really appreciate if anyone could link/send me any case studies they have of high spec resi properties in humid climates
3) Can anyone advise of any energy standards relating to local building standards or guidelines that need to followed?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Drazen]

i could imagine that professional from that particular area would tend to charge you for such specific information, that is best they can sell.

other than that, you can find enough useful advices in basic ashrae manuals like fundamentals, and, particularly, systems and applications.

if you cannot visit florida, you can try to sneak at completed systems on internet. some designers could be willing to tell you about their finished systems, if you can refer to specific ones. reaching owner's feedback is very valuable as well.

 

[willard3]

Don't try to bootstrap this, it will bite you in the butt.

I have done a lot of arbitration with professionals from a completely different climate designing badly in another climate.

Hire a local Engineer who is familiar with Florida.

 

[MechanicalEngineer14]

thank you all for responding - I appreciate your time. Am I speaking with any florida HVAC designers?

 

[chicopee]

I imagine that Florida State codes may have something to say about HVAC requirements. I would also plant lots of trees around the dwellings. I would also visit several area condominiums to get a feel as to what was done. I have been in Florida several times and designing HVAC's for living units is not significantly different than in my NE area except for the heat, moisture, nasty insects and alligators.

 

[317069]

- is it a homework?
- How did you get this job?

 

[SAK9]

You have not specified whether this is a single residence or a condominium.Whether it is high spec or low spec there is only one way to condition air in humid climate in a residential building, that is to cool and dehumidify.As chicopee suggested you need to get out there and develop an understanding as to what is a typical system in such a zone.Speak to facility managers and you will learn a lot about typical problems they face.For example I have seen condensation issues in the ceiling of non occupied units of condominium when the temperature in the unit right above is set very low.If you can pretreat the ventilation air,you can avoid lot of issues as dehumidification is not dependent on room load.So do your research and then design the system.A peer review by a local engineer will be useful as well.

 

[DBronson]

MechanicalEngineer14

There's a lot of info on this site, including a book on design in hot, humid climates.

Link

Regards,

DB

 

[MechanicalEngineer14]

Hey All,

Thanks again for all the responses

@ Chicopee - thank you, we are looking through the codes and now have a local contact who is helping us with requirements. And yes, we will be incorporating greenery for extra shading.

@ 317069 - no it is not homework - I work for a firm of British designers and this is one of our current projects

@ Sak9 - It is a single residence. completely agree and yes we do have a local contact now for peer review of our proposed design.

@DBronson - thank you so so much - this is incredibly helpful especially with all the case studies for the climate zone. And the book will be a useful addition to the office library. Thank you.