ASSESSING DISCREPANCIES IN CURRENT PRACTICES FOR SELECTING HEATING, VENTILATING AND AIRCONDITIONING SYSTEMS IN BUILDINGS

The selection process of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems is a crucial
process that irritates decision makers. In Egypt the selection process of such systems is mostly
biased by the perception of the owner, his intuition and the pre- set budget by the manager. The
non- objective decision making and the inappropriate selection of (HVAC) systems cause severe
problems that range from changes in the space requirements to adapt with the chosen system, the
provision of accessibility for maintenance and finally affecting their cost effectiveness. Both the
architect and the electromechanical team are the primary stakeholders concerned with the actual
selection process of the HVAC system. The divergence between their views is obvious in the
methods and priorities of their selection process. Thus managing good understanding between the
architect and the electromechanical team is crucial. This study intends to access the current
practices used in the selection process of HVAC systems in buildings, through showing
discrepancies among both perceptions; the architect's and the electromechanical. To achieve
the objective of the paper a questionnaire was conducted. The target groups included students,
graduates and experts in architecture and electromechanical disciplines. The results of this study
showed remarkably how differences between the selection processes conducted by the target groups
had a great impact on the efficiency of selected HVAC systems in buildings