Baikal Mechanical Engineers Published in ASHRAE Journal on Custom AHU Retrofits

Baikal Mechanical announced that two members of its engineering team, Viacheslav Chuhaiev and Mykhailo Makhlevych, contributed a technical article to the June 2026 issue of ASHRAE Journal, highlighting practical approaches to site-assembled custom air handling units for retrofit projects with tight access and constructability constraints.

The article, Site-Assembled Custom AHUs for Tight Retrofits, focuses on a common challenge in existing commercial and institutional buildings: direct in-kind air handling unit replacement is not always practical when access, equipment footprint, service clearances, code requirements, and constructability constraints are involved.

In many existing buildings, especially older commercial, institutional, healthcare, and industrial facilities, mechanical rooms were not designed for easy replacement of large HVAC equipment. A standard factory-assembled air handling unit may not fit through existing doors, corridors, elevators, stairwells, roof openings, or mechanical room access paths. In those situations, the replacement strategy must account for how the equipment will be delivered, assembled, serviced, and maintained after installation.

The article explains how site-assembled custom air handling units and EC fan arrays can support retrofit projects where standard replacement equipment may create major access, rigging, downtime, or installation challenges. Instead of forcing a large packaged unit into a constrained space, a site-assembled approach allows major AHU sections and components to be planned around the real conditions of the building.

For Baikal Mechanical, the topic reflects the company's daily work in custom HVAC equipment, modular AHU sections, fan arrays, EC fan technology, custom exhaust fans, and retrofit-ready engineering for real building conditions. The company designs and manufactures HVAC equipment for projects where access, serviceability, airflow reliability, and long-term maintainability need to be considered from the beginning of the design process.

Existing buildings often require more than standard equipment selection, said a Baikal Mechanical spokesperson. Access, serviceability, downtime, and long-term reliability all need to be considered early in the design process. This article reflects the type of practical engineering thinking our team brings to complex retrofit projects.

The ASHRAE Journal article also reinforces the importance of coordination between engineering, manufacturing, installation, and facility operations. A successful retrofit is not only about selecting the right airflow capacity or equipment size. It also depends on understanding how the equipment will be brought into the building, how the sections will be assembled, how the system will be serviced, and how disruption to building operations can be reduced.

Baikal Mechanical sees this type of technical contribution as part of its broader role in the HVAC retrofit market. By focusing on custom air handling units, modular construction, fan array systems, and field-ready equipment design, the company helps facility teams address HVAC replacement challenges in buildings where standard approaches may not be enough.

The June 2026 ASHRAE Journal issue is listed here: https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/ashrae-journal

2061 Hartel Ave, Levittown, PA 19057, United States

Baikal Mechanical designs and manufactures custom HVAC equipment for commercial, institutional, and industrial applications. The company focuses on retrofit-ready solutions, including custom air handling units, modular AHU sections, fan arrays, EC fan technology, custom exhaust fans, and related HVAC equipment designed for existing building conditions.
To learn more about Baikal Mechanical's custom HVAC retrofit equipment, visit https://baikalmechanical.com.

This release was published on openPR.