In our previous article, “Debunking Myths of Active Chilled Beams: What You Thought You Knew – But Were Wrong, Part 1,” engineers from SmithGroup and Dadanco, along with senior sales engineers from Varitec, teamed up to dispel the intuitive concern many owners and engineers have regarding condensation formation on active chilled beams (ACBs) when space dew points are higher than the supply water temperatures serving ACBs. These tests proved it takes several hours for condensation to form on the ACB coil and fins to a point where it becomes a concern. This leaves ample time for a well-designed control system to react to prevent water droplets from forming and falling from a chilled beam coil. Although this question was answered, there are still open concerns about using ACBs appropriately for certain applications and whether or not they will effectively perform for various types of zones, specifically for zones with large sensible and latent load swings.
The previous article posed other questions and concerns engineers and owners have regarding the use of chilled beams, including, “What happens when you introduce a large sensible and latent load to a space, such as a conference room or waiting room, all at once?”