Modular, small, customizable air handlers combine high quality and performance with low maintenance and costThe Modular Air Handling Unit is designed with a series of high quality standard features typically found on higher quality, larger commercial air handling units. For instance, the Modular Air Handling Unit comes with a fan and a cabinet that can produce high profile static pressures in the low profile format of a traditional fan coil unit. The Modular Air Handling Unit has been designed for applications that demand the high quality components of an air handling unit along with a fan and cabinet that can produce high static pressures in the low profile format of a traditional fan coil unit. Modular design - can be split between any section Low profile design suitable for ceiling or floor mounting Indoor and outdoor units Internally isolated direct drive plug fan for quiet operation and zero belt maintenance 500 to 5,500 CFM @ up to 6.00″ TSP 2” and 4” double wall construction, perforated or solid lined

26 standard cabinet sizes Inlet / Mixing modules – all duct locations available Panel and box filters up to MERV 14 HW, CW, DX and steam coils available up to 10 rows deep Stainless steel double sloped drain pans Gas or electric heat options ETL listed and labeled in accordance with UL1995 Modular Air Handling Unit Product Catalog Modular Air Handling Unit Operations & Maintenance Manual Low-leak cabinet construction - less than 1% CFM cabinet leakage at a positive pressure of 6″WG TSP. Complements UMPs larger Custom-Air range #304 SS double sloped drain pans ETL listed and labeled in accordance with UL1995 Factory-made and field-assembled for environments where access to the mechanical room is limited Fan arrays made better with a zero harmonic frequency design and inertia base fan structure. Allows stable operation down to 10% of design while preventing fan surge. Motors designed specifically for a fan array application resulting in improved full and part load.

Click here to find out more about avoiding fan surge A Leader in Custom Air Handling Solutionsair handling unit sizing software ClimateCraft® manufactures custom air handling units (AHUs) for Commercial, Education, Government, Healthcare, High Tech Manufacturing and Life Sciences environments. combination heat ac wall unitOur engineering expertise generates innovative custom solutions which include AHUs that fit into spaces with limited accessibility, fan array towers that feature redundancy and minimize air flow disruptions, stand-alone towers, replacement fans, and air flow measurement and fan monitoring equipment.why an ac unit freezes ClimateCraft understands your specialized, custom air handling needs. We partner with you for a custom application that also fits your business needs around:

Indoor air quality (IAQ) Trends in Custom AHUs…Reducing Building Operation Costs Until recently, the HVAC industry had been slow to change. Modifications to codes, emphasis on reducing energy consumption, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Green Building initiatives targeting net zero facilities have challenged the industry to look for better ways to condition the spaces HVAC systems serve. Reducing building system maintenance costs as well as sustaining optimal performance over the life of airside equipment is where the HVAC industry’s focus lies today. When it comes to capital budgets, design flexibility, system integrity, ease of maintenance and longevity, nothing beats a custom air handling unit (AHU). Over the years, tremendous effort has been devoted to improving chiller efficiencies, as well as to achieving unitary equipment mandates for lowering energy usage. At the same time, airside products have been widely ignored, so today there is tremendous opportunity for building owners to benefit from recent advances in that area.

Making AHUs more efficient depends on reducing static pressure. Although manufacturing larger AHUs may solve the problem theoretically, that option is impractical due to space constraints of equipment rooms and square footage utilization values in commercial buildings. Instead, using customized AHUs comprised of fans and fan arrays that feature the most advanced technology, along with optimized components and configurations, allow buildings in Commercial, Education, Government, Healthcare, High Tech Manufacturing and Life Sciences environments to minimize energy and HVAC maintenance costs. By focusing on total cost of ownership rather than on system cost, and by factoring high energy efficiency and minimal system upkeep into airside equipment maintenance budgets over the long term, building owners will realize the benefits of investing in custom AHUs rather than in standard options that may be less expensive in the short term. According to the 2011 Efficiency Indicator Survey administered by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and others, cutting annual energy consumption costs by $200,000-$300,000 can have the same benefit to cash flow as generating $10 million or $15 million in revenue.

So, allocating resources to programs and equipment that reduce energy costs is a wise use of capital which provides a relatively quick return-on-investment. Thankfully, such dramatic savings are available to forward-thinking building owners in all market sectors. Note: ClimateCraft's fan array products allow for fans to be turned off for safety, repair, and maintenance purposes. ClimateCraft's fan array products are not designed to turn individual fans on and off for the purpose of improving fan array efficiency, and ClimateCraft does not endorse turning individual fans on and off for the purpose of improving fan array efficiency. Any statement to the contrary is not supported by ClimateCraft.Choosing the Right Fan in the Air Handling Unit for Renovated High Tech Headquarters A major national high tech firm moved its Chicago headquarters to the Fulton Street area as part of a neighborhood revitalization effort. The building, which was formerly a meat freezer locker, was gutted and completely renovated.

When selecting the rooftop air handling unit, engineers were looking for a design that minimized noise, because the rooftop area contains an outside garden and employee snack bar. The original design for the air handling unit included a fan wall for both supply and return. For the past 10-15 years, the fan wall concept has been the favored approach for high rise building ventilation. The idea is that the ventilation unit can still operate if one fan happens to go down. Also, the fan unit length is shorter, reducing the overall length of the air handling unit. The smaller footprint can save on the total air handling unit cost. BTU Company, Inc, a professional manufacturer’s representative firm in the HVAC and refrigeration industries, and BBM Engineering, worked with the project engineering design firm WMA Consulting Engineers, Ltd. to instead consider the use of JM Evase Vaneaxial fans by Howden American Fan Company. The sales rep explained that vaneaxial fans perform better and can save on energy costs.

He performed a calculation showing that the static pressure on the fan wall is higher than a vaneaxial fan, due to losses on the outlet of the fan. This increased the overall total motor horsepower of the fan wall compared to the vaneaxial fans. Table 1 shows the comparison between the vaneaxial design and the original fan wall design. The vaneaxial design resulted in 371.91 horsepower in operating load savings. Table 1 – Comparison of Fan wall vs Vaneaxial 150,000 cubic feet per minute (CFM) total Total building load for 3 AH units BHP Saving (operating load) Fan wall – 305.97 operating HP load 3 (fans) high x 7 (fans) wide 7,143 CFM @ 6.718” external static pressure (ESP)* (*extra static plenum loss) 14.57 BHP/fan - 15 HP motors Vaneaxial fans – 182 BHP operating HP load 75,000 CFM @ 6.0” total pressure Unique Evase Design Reduces Turbulence and Noise The team also designed the inlet and outlet of the vaneaxial fan in the air handling unit to be more efficient and quieter using an evase casing, a piece of the fan casing that increases in size as the air moves through the fan.

This option makes the fan more compact. The design, shown in Figure 1, provides a static regain and reduces the overall brake horsepower (BHP). It reduces turbulence through the fan on the downstream and lowers noise. Fans designed with an evase can save energy over the installed life of the system by recovering the kinetic energy contained in the high velocity air stream’s mass. These fans recover energy by converting the velocity pressure in the system into static pressure using a built-in discharge cone, which allows the diffusion of the high velocity airstream to slow to a lower rate. This causes an effective conversion of velocity pressure into static pressure. When applied to the installation, the resulting reduced static pressure allows the fan system to perform more efficiently at reduced static pressures, with resulting lower energy consumption. Since you don’t have to specify a discharge cone for the system, the fan’s overall footprint is reduced. Air velocity is low enough for outlet damper and shutters to operate without fear that these relatively sensitive components will be destroyed by high velocity flutter.

The evase fan design incorporated integral stationary anti-rotation guide vanes to enhance the regain effect by slowing the rotation imparted to the airstream by the fan impeller and recovering rotational energy losses, while reducing fan noise generation. A separately formed impeller casing was used to ensure uniform minimal tip clearance for full pressure development. The design for this custom air handling unit also includes an inlet trap with a special bullet (pod) inside to direct the air. With vaneaxial fans there is a hub and blades are attached to the hub, the bullet is designed to be the same size as the hub, so there are no concerns about vortices around the hub. A specially made sound trap with turning vanes designed by BBM Engineering helps reduce the sound as it goes down into the rest of the building. Figure 2 shows the custom air handling unit designed for the Chicago project. The top photo shows the evase design, with the duct increasing in size as the air moves through the air handling unit.

The fans start out at the inlet at 50 inches inside diameter (ID) and then expand to 55 inches ID at the outlet around the motor. The bottom photo illustrates the cart onto which the fan is mounted to make it maintenance-friendly. The cart is fitted with rollers and neoprene flex connectors on each side. To change an impeller or motor, maintenance personnel simply unbolt the connectors and roll out the cart with the fan to service it. The air handling unit was broken up into four pieces so it could be shipped easily and minimize shipping costs. Figure 3 shows the installation of the different pieces onto the roof. In the top photo, the crew is lowering the filter bank; the vaneaxial fans, shown in green, have already been placed. The bottom photo shows the crew completing the assembly. Over the long haul, using JM Evase Vaneaxial fans has enabled this tech company to reduce its operating energy costs. And with the air handling’s noise-reducing design their employees can listen to the sounds of silence as they enjoy the view and a snack on the roof.