During the last couple of years, there has been an addition to the conditioning system options available to mechanical design engineers in the U.S. I say this because active beams have joined VAV, fancoils, etc., as another way of conditioning a space. However, while they are a very effective solution to certain design applications, active beams are not the “golden bullet” they are often perceived to be.
This article focuses on the active beam applications that I would describe as most feasible. There are, of course, many other applications that can be conditioned by active beams, but these are the circumstances where I most often consider them.