Carrier Context:
Unique Projects
During the winter months, when there are fewer visitors, moisture must be added to the air being pulled in from outside the chapel. The process is reversed as the electronic controls signal the chiller to stop operation and instead open valves that bring hot water from the Vatican's boilers to heating coils in the air handler. The heated air, which now can hold more moisture, passes through an air washer whose high-pressure water nozzles add the needed humidity.
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A low-velocity whisper of conditioned air stabilizes the frescoed ceiling, while a slightly higher-velocity zephyr "showers" the chapel's visitors. |
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Besides being heated and cooled or humidified and dehumidified, the outdoor air pulled into the air handler is pre-filtered to remove dust and other "larger" particulates. It then passes through a chemical filter to remove gaseous pollutants the air washer missed; and then through a final filter that removes particles like bacteria, pollen or fly ash that are as small as .1 micron or 1/10,000,000th of a meter. All are particles that will no longer get the chance to darken Michelangelo's work.
The air is then ducted up the chapel's outside wall and distributed to individual diffusers concealed carefully beneath the chapel's six south windows.
The diffusers were designed only after the chapel's interior air flow patterns were painstakingly modelled on computers in Carrier's Corporate Engineering laboratories in Syracuse, N.Y. The diffusers create two separate air flows within the chapel a very low velocity flow over the surface of the frescoes, and a gentle "shower" of conditioned air over the occupants at floor level, effectively isolating the chapel's upper realms from earthly contamination.
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