A Knowledge of Fan Coil Unit

2020/06/10

A fan coil unit (FCU), also known as a Terminal Unit, is a simple device consisting of a heating and/or cooling heat exchanger or 'coil' and fan. It is part of an HVAC system found in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. A fan coil unit is a diverse device sometimes using ductwork, and is used to control the temperature in the space where it is installed, or serve multiple spaces. It is controlled either by a manual on/off switch or by a thermostat, which controls the throughput of water to the heat exchanger using a control valve and/or the fan speed.

 

Fan coil unit various unit configurations are available, including horizontal (ceiling mounted) or vertical (floor mounted), ceiling cassette, exposed, concealed within the room or area that it serves:

(1)An exposed fan coil unit may be wall-mounted, freestanding or ceiling mounted, and will typically include an appropriate enclosure to protect and conceal the fan coil unit itself, with return air grille and supply air diffuser set into that enclosure to distribute the air.

(2)A concealed fan coil unit will typically be installed within an accessible ceiling void or services zone. The return air grille and supply air diffuser, typically set flush into the ceiling, will be ducted to and from the fan coil unit and thus allows a great degree of flexibility for locating the grilles to suit the ceiling layout and/or the partition layout within a space. It is quite common for the return air not to be ducted and to use the ceiling void as a return air plenum.

The coil receives hot or cold water from a central plant, and removes heat from or adds heat to the air through heat transfer. Traditionally fan coil units can contain their own internal thermostat, or can be wired to operate with a remote thermostat. However, and as is common in most modern buildings with a Building Energy Management System (BEMS), the control of the fan coil unit will be by a local digital controller or outstation (along with associated room temperature sensor and control valve actuators) linked to the BEMS via a communication network, and therefore adjustable and controllable from a central point, such as a supervisors head end computer. Fan coil units circulate hot or cold water through a coil in order to condition a space. The unit gets its hot or cold water from a central plant, or mechanical room containing equipment for removing heat from the central building's closed-loop. The equipment used can consist of machines used to remove heat such as a chiller or a cooling tower and equipment for adding heat to the building's water such as a boiler or a commercial water heater.

 

Fan coil units are divided into two types: Two-pipe fan coil units or four-pipe fan coil units. Two-pipe fan coil units have one (1) supply and one (1) return pipe. The supply pipe supplies either cold or hot water to the unit depending on the time of year. Four-pipe fan coil units have two (2) supply pipes and two (2) return pipes. This allows either hot or cold water to enter the unit at any given time. Since it is often necessary to heat and cool different areas of a building at the same time, due to differences in internal heat loss or heat gains, the four-pipe fan coil unit is most commonly used.

 

Eurostars fan coil unit series mainly include as following:

Ceiling concealed fan coil unit

High ESP ducted fan coil unit

Universal concealed fan coil unit

Floor standing exposed fan coil unit

Ultra thin exposed fan coil unit

Ceiling exposed fan coil unit

Ceiling cassette fan coil unit

Ceiling exposed & floor standing fan coil unit

Wall mounted fan coil unit