Active Chilled Beam Cooling Reduces Energy Usage 20% in North
Carolina Lab An active chilled beam cooling system played a key
role in delivering an expected 20% reduction in cooling and
ventilation energy consumption at the new Genomic Science
Building at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina. The system was developed by Affiliated
Engineers, Inc. (AEI) in collaboration with the project
architect, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP (SOM). Engineers at
Affiliated Engineers, Inc. (AEI) used Flomerics' FloVENT
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to optimize the
cooling system and maximize the energy savings. The Genomic
Science Building is a $125 million research laboratory that will
provide approximately 210,000 square feet of modern classrooms,
laboratories and offices including nine wet labs, four
bioinformatics labs, a 250 seat lecture hall, a 450 seat lecture
hall, an 80 seat classroom, and four 30 seat seminar rooms. The
projected construction start date is February 2