Sekilas Under Floor Air Distribution UFAD

Underfloor air distribution (UFAD) is an air distribution strategy for providing ventilation and space conditioning in buildings as part of the design of an HVAC system. UFAD systems use an underfloor supply plenum located between the structural concrete slab and a raised floor system to supply conditioned air through floor diffusers directly into the occupied zone of the building. Thermal stratification is one of the featured characteristic of UFAD system, which allows higher thermostat setpoints compared to the traditional overhead systems (OH). UFAD cooling load profile is different from a traditional OH system due to the impact of raised floor, particularly UFAD may has higher peak cooling load than OH systems. UFAD has several potential advantages over traditional overhead systems, including layout flexibility, improved thermal comfort, improved ventilation efficiency, improved energy efficiency in suitable climates and reduced life cycle costs. UFAD is often used in office buildings, particularly highly-reconfigurable and open plan offices where raised floors are desirable for cable management. UFAD is appropriate for a number of different building types including commercials, schools, churches, airports, museums, libraries etc.^[1] Notable buildings using UFAD system in North America include The New York Times Building, Bank of America Tower and San Francisco Federal Building. Careful considerations needs to be paid in the construction phase of UFAD systems to ensure a well-sealed plenum to avoid air leakage in UFAD supply plenum.

DuctSox as fabric duct or sox duct manufacturer in USA has developed a special line called UFSox (Under Floor Sox) for specific application in UFAD system. Underfloor air distribution is frequently used in office buildings, particularly highly-reconfigurable and open plan offices where raised floors are desirable for cable management. UFAD is also common in command centers, IT data centers and Server rooms that have large cooling loads from electronic equipment and requirements for routing power and data cables. The ASHRAE Underfloor Air Distribution Design Guide suggests that any building considering a raised floor for cable distribution should consider UFAD.^[5]