ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 48

ENGINEERS NOTEBOOK
COLUMN

Kelley Cramm

Designing HVAC Systems
For School Gyms
BY KELLEY CRAMM, P.E., MEMBER ASHRAE

Gymnasiums located in kindergarten through 12th grade (K - 12) education buildings
present some unique challenges to the HVAC designer. They have high latent loads
resulting in low room sensible heat ratios (RSHR), which is the ratio of sensible load
to total load. They also require large amounts of ventilation air. For various reasons,
many school districts prefer packaged rooftop equipment, which does not usually
perform well with high latent loads. The dramatic difference in load when occupied
versus unoccupied also presents challenges.
The 2018 International Building Code (IBC) explicitly
requires storm shelters for K - 12 education buildings
with 50 or more occupants in parts of the United States
that are at risk for tornadoes and hurricanes.1 The 2018
IBC references the International Code Council/National
Storm Shelter Association (ICC/NSSA) Standard for the
Design and Construction of Storm Shelters, otherwise known
as ICC-500-2014 (https://tinyurl.com/ya7wqkbm.) This
addition resulted in many K - 12 schools building gymnasiums that double as storm shelters.
As jurisdictions continue to adopt the 2018 IBC, we will
likely continue to see a surge of new gymnasiums/storm
shelters being built in K - 12 facilities. This column outlines
the challenges to conditioning these spaces and presents
approaches to successfully using packaged rooftop equipment. This column does not discuss the speciﬁc requirements in ICC 500-2014. That will be another column.

Challenges
Loads

Today's gymnasiums typically have lower sensible

48

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AU G UST 2020

loads than those in previous decades. With the adoption
of energy codes, envelope performance has improved
signiﬁcantly, resulting in lower building envelope
loads. Gymnasiums also typically have minimal or no
glass. With the increased availability and reduced cost
of LED lighting, internal loads have also been reduced.
However, loads due to occupants have not changed.
Gyms are used for students to exercise, play sports and
participate in energetic activity. High school gyms may
host games, adding spectator load to the mix. This can
result in RSHRs as low as 0.55.

Ventilation

Ventilation rates can also be high for gymnasiums.
ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2016 requires 20 cfm (10 L/s)
of outside air per person, plus 0.18 cfm/ft2 (0.9 L/s·m2)
of ﬂoor area. The default occupancy from Table 6.2.2.1
is seven occupants per 1,000 ft2 (100 m2). For spectator areas, it requires 7.5 cfm (3.8 L/s) per person
Kelley Cramm, P.E., is an associate and mechanical technical leader at Henderson
Engineers in Lenexa, Kan.

https://www.tinyurl.com/ya7wqkbm https://www.ashrae.org/

ASHRAE Journal - August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - August 2020

Contents
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - Intro
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - Cover1
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - Cover2
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 1
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - Contents
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 3
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 4
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 5
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 6
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 7
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 8
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 9
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 10
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 11
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ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - 37
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ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - Cover3
ASHRAE Journal - August 2020 - Cover4
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