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Concept Explainer · HVAC

CAV vs. VAV — Why Most Modern Buildings Vary Airflow, Not Temperature

Two ways to give a zone less cooling when it needs less: turn the air down, or turn the air back up after you already cooled it.

Every air handling system has to solve the same problem: a zone's heating and cooling load changes throughout the day, but the system has to keep delivering the right amount of conditioning anyway. There are only two knobs available to do that — how much air you deliver, and how conditioned (what temperature) that air is. A Constant Air Volume (CAV) system fixes the first knob and works the second one. A Variable Air Volume (VAV) system does the opposite. That single design decision is one of the biggest energy-efficiency forks in commercial HVAC design.