Bakery Evolution
For a private client in Miami, their growing café was looking for ways to meet the demands of their growing customer base. For this project, we added a commercial hood and integrated a suspended split system into their existing space. The hood adds the ability to serve more made-to-order creations and feed the crowds. The split system accomplished two things, it added more cooling capacity to the space and implemented a new zone so early morning workers could cool off from the raging ovens without triggering on the whole café.
The addition of a hood creates its own challenges. Air in the proximity of the hood moves to replace any hot air that is exhausted. This replacement air, which must ultimately originate as outside air, is referred to as makeup air. In this case, we used outside air from the new split system to assist in making up for the lost air through the new hood. Florida Building Code – Mechanical section 506 is a great resource for identifying the limitations of a hood design.
Duct Design
To complement the new split system, we used galvanized round spiral ductwork in the sales floor. This gives a more modern look to the space and is an efficient way to transport cooling to where it needs to go. Old, insulation wrapped duct was removed and replaced with carefully installed, sealed ductwork that’s virtually free of leaks and balanced to make sure customers get relief from the Miami heat.
The new air devices include a filtered return (Titus 350 FLF) which we love to include in our design as they give you the ability to regularly see and change the filters.
I’m sure that I wasn’t able to cover all the specifics about the project in this article, so if you have any questions feel free to reach out. If you’re looking to dive deep into understanding these systems and other variations, I’d suggest you visit ASHRAE. They have a huge range of information and courses for all types of professionals.
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