Whether the existing air handler is enough

Anyone who has done ventilation on a conversion knows the owner's first question: whether the existing unit is enough. The answer takes a room-by-room count against the new use, and they want it in schematic design.

One case on our Try page: an office building turned middle school. Yesper wrote the ventilation narrative and ran the outdoor air numbers: the school needs 2.6 times today's outdoor air, so the floors the existing unit can't carry get a new one. Design Standards and Ed Specs disagree on airflow control; that's flagged for the owner.

The unit decision is made in schematic design with every room counted, and the conflict is the owner's call now rather than rework in design development. Same for its neighbours on the Try page: an outline spec against its template, geothermal sizing from district energy data, a coordination review.

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