PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

Not entirely, but partially.
Profit will come before MPG.
It has to, otherwise nothing would get built.
MPG mandates just make the "problem" worse.

 

What the hell is this thing, @Lt. Dangle?

I knew this was some sort of HVAC component, but I just assumed it was for heating when I took the picture; I saw a few gas meters on the outside of the building, which would indicate that the asylum had public natural gas for the heat. Since the place was built when air-conditioning was in its infancy, it obviously didn't have it and it wasn't until years later that some of the buildings got window units. After looking closer at this thing, I think it's either part of an ancient central A/C system that I did not see the outdoor portion of, or a high-velocity blower/fan. A lot of the rooms had radiators, which would be indicative of a boiler. I saw nothing to indicate that this building had forced air heat, though I do see pipes leading into the back of this contraption...

 

@Lt. Dangle

There were a lot of these radiators in the building...

 

@Lt. Dangle

Any idea what this might be? It looks kind of like an air-conditioner, but I don't think that's what it is...

 

@Lt. Dangle

Another one of the ceiling-mounted blowers...

 

I am 99% sure that each building had a few boilers and was divided into zones...

 

Fan coil. Like a zone system for old commercial places. Pipes right behind it should be supply and return water lines to a chiller or a boiler.

 

Got me on this one. I've never had to service anything in that spot, but if I had to guess I would say some sort of air filtration or heater system. I don't think it's cooling as I see no condensate drain and it's in a hell of a spot lol.

 

So this old looney bin was air-conditioned?!?!

 

I don't see a condensate so I'm gonna guess no, but a fan coil can heat or cool. Depends only on the temp of the water going through it.

Like 98% certain it was just heated per the picture.

 

Circling back to this one, you can see pneumatic lines on the right side. Coming off the bottom of the top switch is the air line running to a compressor somewhere. The switch in the middle right is a service disconnect I would guess.

Fact it has pneumatics makes me think it is a heater and has a fan in there.

 

At my old work they brought the Japanese in to teach Kaizen (continuous or constant improvement). What an incredible massive load of BS that was, it may sound amazing to the outside world in thinking the final product is always improving. But behind the scenes the improvement is speeding up the production line to make stuff faster, using less manpower, and the use of less materials or features.

 

Sounds like it's a great or horrible thing. Depending upon how it's applied, that is

 

Possible HVAC components in the basement of the Mayflower building at Pennhurst Asylum...

 

@Lt. Dangle

I am not embarrassed to say that it did not occur to me that drinking fountains had compressors and used freon; I also want to remind everybody that it was pitch black in much of the basement, and all I saw at first was the coil. I thought at first that it was a furnace with the evaporator coil still attached, and that what ended up being the compressor was a blower motor; I had to take a leak, so I ran back upstairs and did my business after taking a few pics, then went back down for a closer look...