Chilled Beams in North America - Fifteen Years Later

15 years have passed since I first applied chilled beams on a building project in the USA. I recently had the pleasure of returning to that building to meet the current facility managers and discuss how well the chilled beams had performed in their first decade and a half. I was delighted to learn that the chilled beam system is still ventilating, cooling, and heating (in some zones) as expected. Additionally, the system has been very easy to maintain, provides comfort without objectionable noise and saves the owner energy.

At about the same time, in 2009, ACEEE published "Emerging Energy-Saving HVAC Technologies and Practices for the Buildings Sector", describing the promise of chilled beam systems with dedicated outside air systems. The article accurately described several features of chilled beams that have stood the test of time for this first project of mine: efficient delivery of chiller energy via water, low sound levels, lower installation costs relative to all-air systems, and low maintenance requirements due to the efficient transfer of energy.

Fifteen years later, in a period of tremendous amounts of new information and new requirements about refrigerants, operational and embodied carbon and materials transparency, chilled beams stand out as a proven method of ventilating, cooling and heating.

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