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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a fan coil unit?
A terminal unit serving the room it sits in.
It contains a fan, a finned coil and a filter.
Water arrives from central plant elsewhere.
It passes room air across the coil.
It gives that room independent control.
Where does the thermal work actually happen?
In central plant, not in the unit.
A boiler, chiller or heat pump serves many units.
There is no refrigeration inside the casing.
There is no combustion either.
The unit only moves air across a water coil.
Why is there almost no ductwork?
Air is drawn from the space and returned to it.
The path is very short by design.
That keeps the unit quiet enough for occupied rooms.
It also keeps it small enough to fit a ceiling void.
A ducted unit would need far more space.
What does the condensate arrangement need?
A drain route with a genuine fall on it.
A cooling coil produces water whenever it runs.
Where gravity cannot provide a fall, a pump is fitted.
The tray and the route both need to be reachable.
Neglected condensate is the commonest cause of damage.
Why do access panels belong in the specification?
Because every unit has a filter someone must reach.
The unit also has a valve, a tray and a motor.
All of them need periodic attention.
A unit sealed behind plasterboard cannot be serviced.
Access is decided at design or not at all.
What does the control valve on each unit do?
It turns room control into something the plant sees.
The coil is fed from a circuit shared with other units.
Throttling flow at the unit varies its output.
The central plant responds to the aggregate demand.
Without it the room has no independent control.
What separates a two-pipe unit from a four-pipe unit?
How many water circuits reach the unit.
A two-pipe unit gets whatever the building circulates.
It heats or cools, but not both at will.
A four-pipe unit has separate heating and cooling coils.
It can do either at any moment.