DESIGNING AND SIZING DUCTS IN THE BUILDING USING

RULE OF THUMB
K.D.Kamaruzzaman

1. INTRODUCTION that need to supply. Most common duct material

for common room is using sheet metal.
Ducting design is one of most important element
when designing an air-conditioning system. This 2. DUCTING AND DUCTLESS
skill is really hard to excel as lots of things need
In this course, Air Handling Unit (AHU) and
to be considered first. There are many techniques
Fan Coil Unit (FCU) system are going to be
used by engineers or specialist to design ducts in
an example as these two systems are required
the building. A well-designed ductwork system
to used ducted. These two systems are
should deliver maximum interior comfort at the
different compared with split-unit or cassette
lowest operating cost while also preserving
type that commonly used in this era. Albeit
indoor air quality. Ducts that are not well
split-unit is ductless but the way to calculate
designed will result in discomfort, high energy
the airflow is same. The only different is save
costs, bad air quality, and increased noise level.
time in sizing the ducts. This system no need
It is important to know that larger ducts require a to design ducts.
larger initial investment, but result in lower fan
energy costs over the life of the system. This
course will discuss only the basic way to design
the ducting system.

Figure above shows the example of ductless

split-unit that widely used in housing and
buildings.

3. DESIGNING THE AIRFLOW

AND COOLING CAPACITY

Note that this method is only the basic way to

Figure above shows the example of ducting in the calculate the duct size and some specialist are
building which already widely used in the using the software or detail calculation which
industry. Note that ducts also have varies of required to consider many things such as the
material and it is depending on the space or room wall position and material, windows material,
 and more. In other words, this course will be For example:
using Rule of Thumbs.
Office room with 14 sq.m. and its cooling
3.1 Calculation of cooling capacity factor is 75 Btu/ft2 (from table of cooling load
check figures). What is the cooling load for
It is crucial to comprehend first or to know
the room?
the cooling capacity unit. In this course will
be using Btu/hr as it is broadly used in the Solution:
industry. Other than that, cooling factor (CF)
Convert the sq.m to sq.ft (ft2) first by
also needs to identify first. Since this method
multiplying with 10.76 (can use converter).
is using Rule of Thumb, the CF can be
Therefore:
obtained from ASHRAE. Some engineers are
referring to supplier as they already have the A = 150.70 sq.ft

guidelines which CF is suitable for different CC = 150.70 sq.ft x 75 Btu/sq.ft

type of areas. Different areas or space
= 11,302.5 Btu/hr
required different CF. The equation below is
to calculate the cooling capacity using Rule = 12,000 Btu/hr
of Thumbs.
3.2 Calculation of air flow capacity

CC = A x CF When the selection of air-conditioning during

where: design process, normally engineers will
CC = Cooling Capacity (Btu/hr) calculate the cooling capacity and the airflow

A = Room area (ft2) first but there’s a slightly different between

AHU and FCU although the calculation is the
CF = Cooling Factor (Btu/ft2)
same.

For instance, AHU is known can be

customize depends on the amount of cooling
capacity and the airflow. The supplier
normally will give the specification of AHU
based on the given data.

FCU has a different approach. Normally, one

need to calculate the cooling capacity but the
Figure above shows the table of design and
airflow is taken from the catalogue based on
cooling load check figures from suppliers.
the selected model and cooling capacity.
The table can be obtained from the website or
Note that FCU is different between AHU in
suppliers.
terms of customization. AHU can customize 400 cfm 400 cfm
depends on the given cooling capacity and
airflow but FCU comes with set from
supplier.
200 200
To further the explanation, figure below 400 cfm
cfm cfm
shows the model of FCU and the selection of
cooling capacity and airflow from supplier’s
The illustration above shows the example of
catalogue.
the airflow for FCU type.

Let’s go back to the AHU type. The design of

AHU is depending on the calculated airflow.
There are two input need to be considered
before calculate the airflow. The first part is
to identify the air changes per hour required
for the space. The air changes are obtained
from the guideline by ASHRAE. Figure
From the figure above, the selected cooling below shows the example of table for air
capacity will be 12,000 Btu/hr (based from changes per hour.
calculation above) and the airflow for this
model has 3 choices of level which are high,
medium, and low. Generally, engineers will
choose the high level to ensure the space is
comfortable. Higher the airflow, higher the
air changes per hour. However, the higher the
airflow also will cost more and it depends on
the client and budget.

For FCU type, the number of supply air

diffuser will affect the airflow each of it. For
Next, the second input is one must know the
instance, if the room uses only one diffuser,
volume of space in Imperial unit, (ft3).
then the diffuser is 400 CFM. On the other
hand, if the number of diffuser is double, then The formula to calculate the airflow is as

the airflow is 200 CFM/each. below:

AF = V x ACH
60
 ideal AHU for the room based on the data
Where: above.
AF = Airflow (CFM, ft3/min)
4. SIZING OF DUCT
V = Volume of the space (ft3)
ACH = Air changes per hour Now, gather all the obtained data to find the ideal
duct size. There are few of ways to obtain the duct
size. Some specialists are using their software to
For example:
get the accurate size. The other method is by
The size of the OT Room is 52 sq.m with 25 using Ductulator. This practice is commonly used
ACH. The height of the room is 10 ft. among the engineers as it is fast and easy while
Therefore: the duct size also can be obtained.

If 52 sq.m is equal to 559.52 sq.ft, then

V = 559.52 x 10

= 5,595.2 ft3

Airflow = (5,595.2 x 25)/60

= 2,331.33 CFM

= 2,500 CFM

Assuming that the cooling factor for OT

Room is 120 Btu/ft3, then the cooling
capacity for OT Room is:
Figure above shows the example of ductulator to
CC = 559.52 x 120
find the duct size. There are 4 important items in
= 67,142.4 Btu/hr the ductulator. There are:

= 70,000 Btu/hr 1. Air Quantity, CFM

2. Friction Loss
Therefore, the AHU specification for OT 3. Duct Diameter and Rectangular Duct
Dimensions, inches
Room is:
4. Velocity, FPM
Cooling capacity = 70,000 Btu/hr
The initial instruction to use ductulator is to find
Air flow capacity = 2,500 CFM
the air quantity. For the friction loss part, use 1.0
These data will be notified to the supplier or wg.in for supply air and 0.8 wg.in for exhaust air.
specialist. Then, they will propose the most The bottom part indicates the dimensions of duct
for rectangular shape. On the left and small part 6. REFERENCE
indicates the diameter of duct using round shape.
 http://www.airistar.com/src/Airistar_tech.pdf
Select the duct size which parallel with the arrow.
For example: 1000 cfm with 1.0 wg.in losses  https://www.contractingbusiness.com/service
shows 12” x 12” for rectangular duct and 5” for /article/20868246/use-the-air-changes-
round duct. The square the duct for the calculation-to-determine-room-cfm
rectangular shape, the better the ducting.
 http://www.bcxa.org/wp-
Otherwise, use 4:1 (W:H) aspect ratio of duct size
content/uploads/2014/06/Cx-Hospitals-
if the 1:1 ratio is possible to obtain. Figure below
Villani-DB.pdf
illustrates the example of the ideal selection for
duct size.

4
1 1

1
Front View/ Face View

5. CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, there are several ways to get the

suitable duct size. In this course only present the
basic way or Rule of Thumb. But the
notwithstanding, it is widely and commonly use
as the result is acceptable in the industry.
Moreover, it is also the fastest way to get the ideal
duct size. Last but not least, both cooling capacity
and the airflow capacity are playing big roles in
designing the air-conditioning system. An
excellent engineer should be able to get the most
efficient design with the lowest cost if possible.