What Products are most suited for Cooling Hospitals?

Chilled Beams are a tried and tested technology predominantly used in 'owner occupied' buildings or buildings where the person paying the energy and/or maintenance bills are influential in the HVAC equipment selection / solution. One such sector is 'Healthcare'.

FTF Group® have a great deal of awareness of 'Healthcare' applications, stemming back some 80 years when Frenger Troughton Young pioneered the supply and installation of Frenger heating ceilings to most, if not all, hospitals in the UK.

Read More

What is Radiant Heating?

Radiant Heating is a form of heat transfer. Radiant Heating Panels emit most of their heat via longwave infrared radiation as opposed to convection or conduction. The longwave radiation that is emitted from the Radiant Heating Panels travels through the air (without directly heating the air) to its surroundings of lower temperature (such as walls, floors, desks, and occupants) thus raising the temperature of these surroundings. A secondary effect of the longwave radiation being emitted from the Radiant Heating Panels is that the air is heated by being in contact with the warmer surfaces.

Read More

How does a Radiant Heating system work?

A Radiant Heating System emits heat similar to that of the sunshine. If you were to stand outside on a hot summers day then you would feel warm and comfortable as the Radiant Heat from the sunshine is traveling through the air and warming your body temperature. However, if a cloud were to prevent the sunshine from reaching you then you would immediately feel colder, even though the air temperature hasn't changed, this is because the cloud is preventing the Radiant Heat from reaching your body.

Read More

Is Radiant Heat expensive to run?

As illustrated in 'How does a Radiant Heating system work?', it demonstrates that Radiant Heat is fairly instantaneous and as such is an ideal solution for heating large open spaces such as Sports Halls and other environments where you want to heat the occupants quickly without having the heat all the air first. Because Radiant Heating systems don't have to heat the air first, it means that it drastically reduces energy usage and therefore can save you money.

Read More

What are Active Chilled Beams?

Active Chilled Beams are a water-driven cooling (and heating if required as a 4-pipe unit) unit which is also powered by forced ventilation, also known as a terminal unit.

The circulation of chilled water through the aluminum finned block coil makes the aluminum fins cold (note: Chilled Beams operate above dew point, hence typically 57°F chilled water flow, thus no condensation tray or condensation pumps and/or drains required, unlike other HVAC equipment) and similarly low-temperature hot water (typically limited to 122°F flow to avoid room stratification) for heating is circulated via separate copper waterways sharing the same aluminum finned block.

Read More

What are Passive Chilled Beams?

Traditional Passive Chilled Beams are water driven cooling units that usually rely on the natural 'Convection' process for heat transfer. The circulation of chilled water through the aluminum finned block coil makes the aluminum fins cold (note: Chilled Beams operate above dew point, hence typically 57°F chilled water flow, thus no condensation tray or condensation pumps and/or drains are required, unlike other HVAC equipment) and when the air in the room becomes in contact with the cold aluminum fins, the density of the air increases (cold air is heavier than warm air) and as such this heavier denser air falls to the floor directly below the fin coil block, thus displacing warmer room air which easily rises as lighter (less dense) up to sides and rear of the cold fin coil block, thus repeating the process of the surrounding air becoming denser as a continuous cycle whilst ever chilled water is circulated through the fin coil block.

Read More

What are traditional Chilled Ceilings?

Traditional Chilled Ceilings are metal ceiling tiles that have aluminum extruded heat exchange pipe seats bonded to the rear of the tile, into which a serpentine copper coil is inserted/secured and insulted so that all cooling is via the front of the tile facing into the room space which requires cooling. The Chilled Ceiling Tiles can reasonably be of any size and shape and usually flush mounted onto a linear or tartan beam grid.

Read More

What is Radiant Absorption Cooling?

Cooling by radiant absorption is where the surfaces of the cooling unit have the ability to emit and absorb radiation. The ability to omit and/or absorb radiation is measured as an epsilon value, whereby 1.0 is the highest possible and 0.001 the lowest. Typically, unpainted aluminum has an epsilon value of 0.2 and matt white powder-coated metal 0.95 and matt black powder-coated metal 0.97. The surface area and surface temperature are also critically important.

Read More

What are Radiant Passive Chilled Beams?

Radiant Passive Chilled Beams are a 'hybrid' between a traditional Passive Chilled Beam and a Radiant Cooling Chilled Ceiling. Chilled water is circulated through the Radiant Passive Chilled Beam such as FTF Group's 'X-Wing®' unit which consists of a single serpentine sinusoid coil (X-Wing® has no joints in the copper coil to eliminate any risk of leaks) with 4 gilled aluminum fins mechanically joined to each waterway. The fins are equally spaced and run longitudinally to each waterway, thus forming an 'X' cross-sectional profile with a waterway in the center, hence the name 'X-Wing®'.

Read More

Is there a condensation risk with Chilled Beams?

Chilled Beams should always be designed to operate using a chilled water (CHW) supply temperate of at least 2°F above dew point of the indoor room condition (i.e. operate with a dry coil) such to remove the risk of any condensation. For example, if you take a typical summer room design of 75°F at 50% RH indoor space condition then the dew point would be approximately 55°F so, in this case, the minimum CHW supply would need to be 57°F (over 2°F safety margin). In fact, a condensate drain pan facility (as typically associated with an old 1980's type induction unit) would only introduce significant extra cost to the project due to the additional condensate piping, and the requirement to regularly biocide dose condensate drain pans to prevent harmful bacteria (Legionella) and mold growth, all of which shouldn't be required with Chilled Beams that are designed correctly to operate with a dry coil.

Read More

What is the average lifespan of a Chilled Beam?

Our standard Chilled Beam products contain no moving parts, fans, motors, etc. Therefore, this helps to reduce product maintenance to normally periodic visual inspections every 4-5* years for a typical commercial office application which can be significantly less than other HVAC units.

Read More

How much maintenance do Chilled Beams require?

Our standard Chilled Beam products contain no moving parts, fans, motors, etc. Therefore, this helps to reduce product maintenance to normally periodic visual inspections every 4-5* years for a typical commercial office application which can be significantly less than other HVAC units.

*The visual inspection period will be dependent on the type of project application (i.e. any health care applications may require more frequent visual inspections/ cleaning requirements).

Read More

What are Multi-Service Chilled Beams?

Multi-Service Chilled Beams (MSCB's) provide all the cooling and heating benefits with the excellent levels of thermal comfort that you get with standard Chilled Beam's, but can also feature; lighting, PIR sensors, smoke detectors, sprinklers or any other building service required, in a single pre-fabricated unit.

Utilising either 'Radiant' Passive or Active Chilled Beam Technology, MSCB's are designed to the bespoke requirements and aesthetics of any building.

Read More