How Functional are our Functional Works of Art

How functional are our Functional Works of Art? 

Beaux-Arts Classic Products is proud to announce that we are now performance testing our decorative HVAC grilles including static pressure and CFMs and that our decorative grilles are very functional works of art.  All the large HVAC vent and grille makers, compile Engineering Data on their products so that HVAC designers can create efficient forced air heating and air conditioning systems.  The performance data includes valuable information on the volume of air that can pass through a vent, which is called CFM or the cubic feet of air per minute.  Also important is the air speed velocity, which is calculated in feet per minute.  CFM and FPM provide air speed and volume information from the air handler as it passes through the ducts and out the vent or grille.  While Throw value measures the distance the air travels across the room after leaving the grille.  Most important for HVAC is Static Pressure information, also known as the airflow resistance while the air travels inside the ducts and through the vent cover.  Static Pressure, abbreviated as PT, is measured in i.w.c., inches of water column or Pascals, after Blaise Pascal the French mathematician who developed the science of fluids, pressure and vacuums.  As air travels through the duct system, it slows down due to friction with the duct, causing a pressure drop.  If the duct has a 90 degree elbow turn, the air speed drops dramatically along with the static pressure.  Static Pressure loss can create problems, such as hot and cold spots and even system failure due to the AC coil freezing, usually on the hottest days of summer.  If the static pressure in your HVAC system declines too much, you will receive a clue when your vents start to make a high pitched irritating sound.  This Noise Criterion, abbreviated as  NC, is also included in the engineering data provided by performance testing.  You may not care about all this technical data on your vents and grilles, but the company that designed your HVAC system does.

Can a decorative grille actually perform better than a louvered grille?

Most decorative grille manufacturers don’t provide any engineering data through performance testing.  In the past Beaux-Arts has not been able to provide performance data on our decorative grilles and lost sales as a result.  HVAC professionals have just assumed that decorative grilles are inferior to the stamped metal louvered grilles, because of the lack of engineering data.  However, we can now refute that misconception with facts.

On numerous occasions our grilles have been used to replace high-pitched noisy louvered grilles, and since noisy grilles are an indication of static pressure problems, one can conclude that Beaux-Arts decorative grilles have smaller losses of static pressure.  In another situation, an HVAC engineer needed a 30″ x 6″ grille with the air volume, cubic feet per minute, CFM of a larger 30″ x 8″ grille, but did not have the room to install the larger grille.  When he installed our Arts and Crafts style 30″ x 6″ he measured the CFM and called to tell us that our grille produced the CFM of a 30″ x 8″ grille which is 33% larger.  Also a wedding venue in Brooklyn, New York ordered 8 large return grilles for their main ballroom.  They called to tell us that our grilles not only looked fabulous, but their HVAC system is running less to produce the same amount of Air Conditioning, which is an indication that our grilles moved more air or CFMs, cubic feet per minute than the louvered grilles they replaced.  They also told us that our grilles looked fabulous, and they put their old louvered grilles in the trash.

Our grilles were tested by the Building Performance Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia.

Performance Testing of our decorative HVAC Grilles for Static Pressure and CFMs

See Test Results here.

The decorative grilles tested for air flow:

Arts and Crafts 8″ x 10″ $89  Shown in Rubbed Bronze

Louis XIV 8″ x 10″  $94.  Shown in Pewter