may i know what is the different between Cooling Tower and Air Handling Unit(AHU) ?
shall we design and fabricate a cooling tower/AHU with suitable dimensions for home use?
how about commercial building? use AHU rite?
where is Cooling Tower been introduced? and AHU.. ?

thank you...

as part of the large area airconditioning component, the cooling tower is where heat is exchanged. it's usually located outside, in an area where acoustics wouldnt be a problem (like rooftops or behind a building). u will notice huge fans operating inside the cooling towers, and sometimes u can even see water cascading down cooling the air for the primary intakes.

AHU on the other hand is the horizontal distribution mechanical room for a floor. this is where cooled air from the plant room (usually located in the basement) is distributed for a particular floor. so in a highrise building, it will have at least one AHU for each floor.

both are not feasible for normal houses or small buildings as it's too expensive. i would recommend just using a split unit.

Azarimy,
I am also curious about the question ask by TS. You have not answered it. All you did was describe AHU and Cooling Tower. I appreciate more explaination on the AHU. Like is air distrubute for a particular place and not everyewhere.

think of cooling tower as the normal AC compressor you see outside your house. and AHU as the AC unit you put in your room, but supersized for whole floor/building

Thanks lin00b,
I get the cooling tower part. I still have problem with the AHU. If it is like the AC unit inside the house, can I say the it get the cooling power from the cooling tower? What I do not undersatnd also is the location of the "Bilik AHU". They dont not seem to be located in any strategic location to cool down the place like your AC unit.

by ducting to various rooms.

Are you saying the AHU is the duct for the cooling tower? While at the AHU it get ducted to other rooms?

AHU stands for air handling unit. basically it's a pump room that distributes cooled air from the plant room to each floor. plant room is not efficient enough to send cool air to every part of the building. so it will be sent to AHUs as main distribution points for each floor.

there will be ducting coming out of the AHU running through the ceiling (or under the floor), normally covered in silver/aluminium foils. u can see this if u open up the false ceiling in office buildings or even retail shops in shopping complexes that bares their ceilings.

so the AHU doesnt do anything to cool the building. it's just a distributor. in winter, it can be used to handle warm air as well.

thank you.. i used to work as HVAC engineer before but never get involved with AHU.. only its concept....

well, i hardly got involved with AHUs directly either. as an architect we have to know how each and every thing works, including how to place AHUs and how to get the best effects .

yes,
oh, by the way, no offence here....

i am doing trading in building materials, i face lots of contractors taking drawing of architect specifying things that are not available...

for example, steel pipe class xxx with thickness of 2.0mm at xxx size(Dia) but the spec say MUST 4.0mm which is totally not available in market

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Added on June 20, 2010, 4:47 pmback to the topic.. this is what i know la... sorry if wrong

1) cooling tower. like normal AC just that is uses water to transfer heat due to water`s ability of heat conductivity

2) AHU. like what the architect says... like booster pump for air in large ducting..... eg. for cooling tower, to pump the air/treat air in very large duct..AHU is the common name laa

This post has been edited by Awakened_Angel: Jun 20 2010, 04:47 PM

means i cant use "cooling tower" to have a low temp air output to my interior?
cooling tower is juz environment friendly device which used to avoid heat dissipation to the surrounding ?

you need to partner the cooling tower with an AHU/FCU (fan coil unit)

there is nothing "environmentally friendly" about cooling tower, other than saving due to bulk. now dissipative chillers combined with some waste heat collection, thats when you start to get slightly environmentally friendly...

P/S cooling tower is mostly used for very very large area.... eg... KL Convention centre, midvalley, OneUtama, PWTC etc.....

else u have high static blower

http://www.york.com.my/main.asp?tpage=prod...ro&productid=11

you can PM me ur mail n i can send u a catalogue of AHU

or you have mini chillers

http://www.york.com.my/main.asp?tpage=prod...ro&productid=16

or latest, VRF(vacriable refrigerant flow)

http://www.york.com.my/main.asp?tpage=prod...ro&productid=13

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Added on June 21, 2010, 9:49 amtrue... TS, try go to testo for example... look up.. waht do you see? a very large duct.. say 2-3m(dia)

AHU is needed to boost the air

This post has been edited by Awakened_Angel: Jun 21 2010, 09:49 AM

we know that energy cannot be created or destroyed. it can only be changed from one form to another. air conditioning is about moving the heat from one space to another.

imagine a 4x100m relay, and heat is the baton. the air blew from the AHU takes the heat from the room (and our body). the air then passes the heat to the refrigerant in the AHU. the refrigerant passes the heat to the water in the heat exchanger. the water in the end passes (or more precisely, dump) the heat to the surrounding outside the building in the cooling tower. the process repeats.

see my attachment for illustration.

the point to remember is that:
the more heat we are removing from the room, the more heat we are adding to the face of earth.

so, please, never over-cool the room to the point that u need to wear thick sweater. and turn off ur aircond when it's not needed because u're adding heat to the environment.

next time, when u think it's freaking hot outside, blame the human beings for dumping the extra heat from the room.


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