After 40 years and other engineering studies, a large university building still suffered from humidity problems. Our intrepid author dug into the data and the dark corners of the building in pursuit of the culprit — or culprits?
Sebesta Blomberg was commissioned to study a humidity problem for a 400,000–sq-ft library at a university in the Midwest a few years ago. The university shared with us the study another firm had completed for the chilled water system in the library as background information. They stated they had not implemented any of the recommendations in that study because they did not believe their findings were accurate.
The university had a small budget for the study, so our scope was limited to looking at three of the large AHUs serving half of the library (AHU-A, AHU-B, and AHU-C). At the time of the proposal, we knew the library was too humid in the summer and that the three large air handling units could not discharge less than 60°F supply air at that time of year. I knew the chilled water system was the most likely culprit, so we limited our scope to a review of the air handling units, their chilled water coils, and the pumps serving these units.