Pharmaceutical HVAC design guidelines are exceptionally practical and are backed up by numerous standard operating procedures (SOPs) to support the continued compliance, e.g. (validation master plans).
With far less pharma room types and associated design criteria, the engineering is quite a bit simpler. The biggest difference between the two applications is how the facility is managed. Temperature, humidity, and air filtration are far more important to pharma spaces, whether the room is fully occupied or operating at limited occupancy. The construction of these rooms receives far more attention so as to make sure the rooms are tight, thus maintaining the design space humidity level. Construction of health care rooms is not as tight with the use of lay-in tile ceilings in many areas versus plaster ceilings, making it difficult for the HVAC operation staff to be able to sustain the engineer’s design intent document (DID) (e.g., temperature, humidity, space pressure, etc.).
There is far less diversity when selecting a central air system with a limited number of terminal unit types for a pharma application versus a hospital application, where the designer has far more options (e.g., chilled beams, fan coil units, etc.).
The more complex and/or diversified the HVAC systems, the more emphasis falls on the shoulders of the HVAC operation and maintenance staff, who need to be knowledgeable on the performance of a large variety of terminal equipment and device application options. The more diversified the number of HVAC systems within a building, the greater the challenge for facility staff who must continuously operate each system as efficiently as possible. Simplicity and the limited number of HVAC systems within a pharma building make the operation, maintenance, and energy conservation performance demanding but easy when compared to health care applications.