Outside the Danish Embassy

Four New Air Handling Units Enhance Indoor Air for Embassy

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Sign of the royal Danish Embassy

Originally built in 1960 and remodeled in 2003, the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, D.C., offers a modernist style that reflects Danish architectural design then and now. Inside, its large and open layout, replete with glass, wood, and marble, is stately and welcoming yet modest and clean. 

Like any 60-year-old building, upgrades became necessary over time, even as the embassy’s design remained timeless and cherished. That was the case in 2022, as the Danish Embassy underwent a comprehensive overhaul of its ventilation system.

The project included removal of four existing air handling units (along with connecting heating and cooling pipes, valves, and other components) within the embassy’s chancellery and residence. The engineer specified four of Systemair’s Geniox air handlers as replacements, installed inside the building’s mechanical room, along with fans in remaining air handling units, ventilation ducts, duct fittings, cleaning accesses, balancing dampers, regulating dampers, shut-off dampers, and sound attenuators.


Close up of the Geniox logo on a Geniox unit

Versatile and fully customizable, Geniox air handlers offer a modular design based on standardized sections that fit seamlessly together for numerous configuration opportunities.

Due to the security needs of the building, the Geniox systems were installed with a runaround coil. An alternative to a wheel or core, a runaround coil has one coil inside, with another coil piped away, with energy transfer taking place entirely in the piping between coils, rather than within the air exchanger as in a traditional setup. Though this approach is not typically used because it is less energy efficient, a runaround coil eliminates the chance of cross-contamination, so it’s ideal for projects such as pharmacies, healthcare, and buildings generating or near noxious odors. 

With the upgrades to the ventilation system, the Danish Embassy is helping to ensure healthy indoor air for staff, residents, and visitors alike, preserving the building’s history while bringing its operations into the modern era.