In severe conditions, the doors may even stay partially open due to the strong airflow. One of the most common problems occurs when entry doors to a space are opened and air rushes through these doors. Because air will take the path of least resistance to find its way back to the central return air duct and then to the air handling unit, if these openings are undersized, air may flow elsewhere. While architects generally want return air openings to be as small as possible from an aesthetic point of view, engineers strongly recommend generously sizing them in order to encourage the air to properly flow through. Better to oversize, not undersize, return air transfer openings. Boiled down into five guiding principles, the following can be successfully applied to evaluate and often overcome the exposed ceiling challenge. Since air will always take the path of least resistance, removing all or part of the dropped ceiling and reducing the plenum area can create unique pressure and return airflow patterns, which can vary on a daily, weekly, and seasonal basis, and are usually at their worst when the air handling system is economizer mode (taking in larger quantities of outside air).įortunately, with some sound engineering directive, it is often possible to preserve the exposed ceiling while promoting desirable return airflow patterns. Plenum ceilings use the area between the dropped ceiling and the floor slab above as a return air path, but when these dropped ceilings are removed, the plenum area is reduced and can restrict the flow of return air. While exposed ceilings in office interiors lend a spacious, open feel, this trendy architectural feature has created a new challenge: finding a viable return air path.
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