Have you ever wondered how high end homes hide all of their air conditioning needs considering that every room is on its own climate control system? Take a tour of a recent Palm Beach custom mansion to see behind the scenes. It's very impressive. This home has 5 LG Multi-V VRF compressor units outside, feeding cooling to 24 air handlers to this high end home in Palm Beach.
For this historic landmark, a newer air conditioning technology was selected to limit the amount of duct work that would be needed for a home of this size, while providing the owners with the ability to control the temperatures of each room individually. The system selected is known as a VRF Air Condition Systems (variable refrigerant flow).
Instead of running refrigerant lines from an exterior compressor, to a centrally located air handler located within the home, and then running air ducts to each room, a VRF system runs a single refrigerant line to number of smaller air handlers located in each room. Each room then has its own thermostat that controls that room and each is controlled independently from the other rooms (see diagram below). If a given room needs cool air, the thermostat tells the compressor to pump just the right amount of chilled refrigerant to a given air handler that made the request, while the others pass it on. As other rooms request additional chilled refrigerant, the exterior compressor simply increases the flow in the supply line and each air handler draws only what is need for that room, and no more.
A VRF system is far more flexible, cost less to run, you individual rooms compared to cooling the entire home or zone, and it minimizing bulky duct-work. It does require however, an installer that is technically more savvy. For these reasons, the VRF system is becoming more and more popular in larger homes and businesses.
Air Conditioning Systems for Historic Renovataions in Palm Beach
Berkun Air Conditioning in Palm Beach
Information on the original architect can be found at the following links:
People of Palm Beach County – John L. Volk
To read an interesting article published in the Palm Beach Daily News entitled: Unforgettable Palm Beach: Modernist buildings among town’s most endangered cultural resources.
Photo of John L. Volk
Courtesy Historical Society of
Palm Beach County