I need to figure out an HVAC solution for a small studio I'm building in the middle of a warehouse (on the 3rd of 6 stories)
For a project that big, you should probably start your own thread, rather than tag onto the end of this one.
See the following drawing for the current design (note 12' ceilings):
I'm not sure I understand your nomenclature: When you say "Edit Room", are you referring to the control room, or to something else? When you say "Recording booth", are you talking about something like an isolation booth, or vocal booth, or did you have something else in mind? And when you talk about "Main Studio", are you referring to the tracking room / live room, or is it something else?
Assuming your "edit room" is actually the control room, then having it both 12' long and 12' high is a bad idea. Do some research on room ratios, modal spread, Bonello charts, and suchlike. You should fix that before you think about adding any HVAC.
I have a friend who will install, but our budget for HVAC materials is currently very low ($2000...I know
Ummmm.... it's not only low, it is totally unrealistic. You have three rooms in there, totaling 700 square feet of floor area, and well over 8000 cubic feet of volume. You will need either three different mini-split systems, probably with capacities of something like 9,000 BTU/hr, 12,000 BTU/Hr and 36,000 BTU/Hr, and that's without even considering the ventilation! Each of those will cost a couple of grand, and antoher several hundred for installation....
Your only other option would be a single AHU with multi-zone capability, or with a multi-zone system controller and electrically operated VAVs... but that would likely increase your cost even more.
We might have more to spend in 6-12 months, so perhaps there's a way to do this in phases?
Assuming that you don't need to use the other two rooms at present, you could start with just one of them now, but even then I doubt that 2k is going to cover it. For example, if all you need to do is to mix stuff that has been tracked elsewhere, then just put a single mini-split in the control room, and build the set of four silencer boxes that you will need for that, then add the ducts and fan. But that's going to be over 2k, I would expect.
I generally know about my options, but most of them are outside our current budget.
Then take the hint! If all of the options that you can find are beyond your budget, then it's pretty obvious that the problem is your budget!
Multiply by five, and you are probably in the ball-park.
But before you buy anything, you first need to do the math. You need to know how much air you will need to move in each room (flow volume and flow rate), and how fast you can move it (flow velocity), in order to figure out the sizes of your ducts. Based on that, you can figure out the sizes of your silencer boxes. Based on that, you can figure out the static pressure. Based on that you can figure out what fan you need to move the correct amount of air at the correct speed when facing that static pressure. Then you also need to figure out the latent heat load and the sensible heat load for each room under all circumstances, from zero occupancy to full occupancy, from no gear turned on through to all gear turned up to 11, and for the coldest day in mid-winter though to the hottest day in mid summer. Based on all of that, you can correctly dimension the actual mini-split for each room (or the central AHU, if you go that route).
You cannot decide on the equipment, ducts, silencers or fans until you have all of that worked out in detail. If you did then you'd be guessing, and guessing is never a good way to design a studio.
- Stuart -
). We might have more to spend in 6-12 months, so perhaps there's a way to do this in phases?