GENERAL

During periods of thermal imbalance between indoors and outdoors, a building's climate control system creates the opposite effect of the weather outside to keep its interior spaces continually comfortable. In addition to maintaining ideal temperatures such systems optimize humidity, freshen the air, remove airborne contaminants, and eliminate odors. The result is what HVAC engineers call IAQ: indoor air quality.

Modern climate control system design is complex due to a number of factors, as summarized below:

Interchanging componentry. Today's interior environments can be made comfortable with a number of different systems whose componentry can be combined in many ways.

Complex requirements. Many modern buildings have continually changing occupancies that impose constantly changing comfort demands on existing climate control systems.

Computerization. The computerized controls that operate many buildings today are often difficult to learn, not yet fully developed, and have high initial costs which often obscure their long-term economies.

Systems integration. Many climate control systems contain plumbing, wiring, and other componentry which may introduce integration problems with other mechanical systems.

Public utility options. As some electric utilities have found it more economical to promote energy efficiency than build more power plants, they may offer energy-saving perquisites that can reorder an architect's priorities for designing cost-effective buildings.

The Energy Policy Act of 1992. As a way of making our nation's future more secure and emphasizing the importance of energy conservation as an investment, the government has mandated more stringent energy efficiency standards for a number...