Cost Estimation for Building Systems: Conveying & HVAC

Learn how conveying systems move occupants and goods within buildings, and how uniform building classification, master format, and unit format relate to identifying these systems.

Explore the fundamentals of conveyance systems, defining elevators as devices that move passengers or goods vertically, and note code requirements for buildings over four stories, including passenger, freight, and hospital elevators.

Elevator characteristics and technology, including usage classification, capacity and speed, and hydraulic versus traction systems for passenger, hospital, hotel, and office applications.

Learn how to select elevator types for a building using design parameters and a rule-of-thumb for elevators per square footage. Review freight versus passenger elevators, grouping, and fire safety considerations.

Explore how to estimate elevator costs by breaking down base costs, adjustments, and options. Compare capacity, speed, travel, finishes, and maintenance to build accurate budgets.

Escalator fundamentals describe moving stairway systems used to move many people in areas with pedestrian traffic, like malls and subways, with width 32–48 inches and incline 30–35 degrees.

Identify escalator selection criteria based on building needs and pedestrian traffic, including width, speed, and passenger luggage considerations for malls, airports, and transit stations.

Learn to estimate escalator costs by adjusting historical cost indices for inflation, applying interpolation for height, and budgeting for finishes and balustrades.

Explore moving walks as a power-driven, continuous horizontal conveyance that moves people and luggage between locations, often in airports, at speeds near walking pace with varying widths and slight inclines.

Assess the cost of moving walks using a hypothetical incline ramp scenario, illustrating how costs may nearly double in such systems and the number of people involved.

Explains wheelchair lifts and platform lifts for accessibility, aligned with ADA and building codes, and notes lift costs from about $10k to $23k with bid comparisons.

Explain dumbwaiters and other conveying systems used to move food, trash, and baggage across building levels and facilities such as hotels and airports.

practice exercise in cost estimation for building systems, focusing on elevator count, type, and cost for an office building with four above-ground stories, one underground level, and a server room.

Present a possible solution for elevator cost estimation, detailing base costs, capacity adjustments, travel distance, number of stops, and optionality for a building project.

Explore how building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems ensure acceptable indoor air quality for occupants, guided by ASHRAE standards and local building codes.

Understand indoor air quality fundamentals and the role of ventilation. Aim for an 80 percent occupant comfort target by balancing thermal, acoustic, visual comfort, and managing carbon dioxide.

Explore indoor air quality and ventilation corrections, and learn how hvac controls contaminants like benzene, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and radon.

Examine outdoor air quality and two ventilation types—natural and mechanical—showing how filtration, supply and exfiltration manage contaminants like CO2, VOCs, and radon under EPA standards.

Explore natural ventilation, where air flows without mechanical equipment, with codes mandating at least four percent of floor area be openable, and openings accessible to occupants, a two-by-two foot opening.

Learn how mechanical ventilation maintains minimum ventilation rates to meet codes, keeps exhaust negatively pressurized, isolates fresh air intake from contaminants, uses carbon dioxide sensors, and employs MIRV filters.

The lecture explains how building codes set minimum ventilation rates for spaces like offices, using per-person and per-area calculations to choose prescriptive or combined methods.

Explore thermal comfort fundamentals in buildings, focusing on ventilation, heating and cooling, and how metabolic rate, clothing insulation, air temperature, air speed, humidity, and six factors shape occupants' comfort.

Explore ASHRAE 55 thermal comfort, including neutral sensations, predicted percent dissatisfied, and how humidity, clothing, and psychrometric charts define the comfortable temperature band.

Understand HVAC equipment and ventilation—from outdoor air intake through air handling units and filters to the refrigeration cycle (compressor, condenser, expansion device, evaporator) and heating or cooling for comfort.

Explore centralized vs decentralized hvac systems, including all-air and air-water configurations, single-zone concepts, and components like air handling units, hot water, and chillers.

Explain how a building's air system uses an air handling unit, fresh air, filters, and ducts to condition air, with rooftop and make-up units and variable air volume boxes.

Define centralized air systems that deliver heated and cooled air through ducts, with boilers, chillers, pumps, and cooling towers, plus zoning and fresh-air mixing.

Learn how all water systems in buildings operate, including chillers, water piping, evaporators, cooling tower, and thermostats to provide cooling and heating with hot and cold water loops.

Learn about the air-water system, a hybrid that combines air and water networks, coordinating air processing with water distribution and understanding when this setup is standard or required.

Apply practical rule-of-thumb estimates for ventilation and heating/cooling, using per-person, per-room, and per-square-foot guidelines to size air handling units and cooling needs.

Review HVAC work breakdown elements and costing by covering exhaust for restrooms, kitchens, and laundries, parking garage specifics, carbon monoxide detection, control systems, and variable frequency drives for accuracy.

Review the hvac scope, covering exhaust for restrooms, kitchens, and laundry, independent parking garage systems, carbon monoxide detectors, heavy equipment with variable frequency drives, and louvers and flashing for costing.

Learn to make quick, preliminary cost estimates for building systems by identifying main components and assigning percentage ranges to piping, quality and complexity when detailed drawings are unavailable.

Explore hvac cost tables to estimate labor, material, and total costs per square foot for office buildings. Learn how rooftop units, cooling towers, and piping influence the overall cost.

Practice a detailed cost estimation by counting hvac components on drawings, including diffusers, boxes, and ducts such as flex ducts, to determine unit quantities and costs.

Count volume numbers, ducts, and insulation assumptions to estimate hvac building system costs, applying waste, unit costs, and contingency percentages as shown.

Analyze an office building problem to identify the three main objectives of EVC, determine internal heating and cooling requirements, and propose combined ventilation heating cooling system capacities with cost considerations.

Explore cost estimation for ventilation and hvac in a building project, calculating minimum ventilation rates, cooling tons, rooftop units, ductwork, and zoning costs to remove contaminants and maintain comfort.