Intake, Supply, Return & Exhaust
With the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning) rough-ins substantially complete at the Oakley Home 2.0 project, now seems like as good a time as any to talk through the 'Circle of Life' associated with heating, cooling and ventilating for the typical home with a forced air system. The Cycle is as follows with a breakdown of each stage below: Intake, Supply, Return & Exhaust.
Intake: The first stage in the HVAC 'Circle of Life' is intake of outdoor air to feed the furnace. This requires an intake pipe, which is circled below.
Supply: The second stage in the HVAC 'Circle of Life' is the supply of forced air from the furnace through the runs of ductwork and out the floor and ceiling registers into the various rooms throughout the home.
Return: Once conditioned air has been supplied to a room, it needs to be circulated throughout the space, which means similar to the way arteries have veins to circulate blood back to the heart, supply ducts and registers need to have return grilles and ducts back to the furnace to circulate air. High wall air returns throughout the Oakley Home 2.0 is how this circulation is achieved.
Exhaust: The final phase in the HVAC 'Circle of Life' is exhausting air once it has returned to the furnace, or is of a certain quality that needs to be exhausted directly to the outdoors due to humidity, temperature or odor. Thus the need for dryer vents, bathroom, kitchen hood and furnace exhausts, several of which are pictured below.
It is important to remember that each of these stages is happening at the same time and ongoing, thus the circular nature of HVAC 'Circle of Life'.
