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FEMA 453 Design Guidance for Shelters and Safe Rooms

FEMA 453 Design Guidance for Shelters and Safe Rooms

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enclosure subjected to wind <strong>and</strong> buoyancy pressures. Windowtype<br />

air conditioners <strong>and</strong> unit ventilators cannot be used in the<br />

protective mode, because they introduce outdoor air, even when<br />

set to the recirculating mode. The dampers <strong>for</strong> outside air in<br />

such units seal poorly even when well maintained.<br />

The following are options <strong>for</strong> air conditioning <strong>and</strong> heating systems<br />

that can be safely operated in the protective mode:<br />

m Ductless mini split-type air-conditioner. This type of room air<br />

conditioner, an alternative to the st<strong>and</strong>ard unitary window air<br />

conditioner, circulates air across the indoor coils without ducts<br />

<strong>and</strong> does not introduce outdoor air in either the normal or<br />

protective mode. The only required penetration through the<br />

safe room boundary wall is <strong>for</strong> a conduit <strong>for</strong> refrigerant tubing,<br />

suction tubing, condensate drain, <strong>and</strong> power cable.<br />

m Electric heater or steam radiator. Similar to the ductless splittype<br />

air conditioner, the electric or steam heater does not<br />

introduce outdoor air <strong>and</strong> does not require ducts.<br />

m Fully enclosed air-h<strong>and</strong>ling unit. An air-h<strong>and</strong>ling unit can be<br />

operated in a safe room in the protective mode only if the unit<br />

<strong>and</strong> its ducts are fully within the safe room (i.e., the unit is<br />

in an interior mechanical closet <strong>and</strong> the return ducts are not<br />

above the ceiling, beneath the floor, or outside the walls). If<br />

the air-h<strong>and</strong>ling unit draws outdoor air through a duct, it must<br />

also have a damper system <strong>for</strong> reliably cutting off outside air in<br />

the protective mode. This may require a set of three dampers:<br />

two dampers in the outside air duct with a relief damper<br />

between them that opens (to protected space) when the other<br />

two close. The air-h<strong>and</strong>ling unit must serve the safe room<br />

exclusively.<br />

m Makeup air unit. This is a once-through type unit <strong>for</strong><br />

introducing fresh air; it is not applicable to an unventilated<br />

safe room. The makeup-air unit does not recirculate air<br />

through ducts; it supplies filtered air through duct coils <strong>for</strong><br />

cooling <strong>and</strong> heating.<br />

CBR ThReaT pRoTeCTion<br />

3-

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