What is HVAC?
HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. It refers to systems responsible for heating, cooling, ventilating and conditioning the air in buildings, production environments and technical installations.
In industrial and data centre environments, HVAC is critical for managing temperature, humidity and air quality — with a direct impact on safety, comfort and operational reliability.
🧱 Where is HVAC used?
- Office buildings: climate control and comfort
- Production areas: constant temperature and air purity (e.g. food industry)
- Data centres: cooling of IT hardware (servers, switches)
- Cleanrooms: controlled airflows and filtration (pharma, microelectronics)
- Electrical rooms: cooling of switchgear cabinets, PLC rooms or SCADA servers
🔧 Components of an HVAC system
| Component | Function |
|---|---|
| Heating | Heat supply (boiler, heat pump, etc.) |
| Cooling | Reducing temperature (AC, chiller, etc.) |
| Ventilation | Bringing in and removing fresh air |
| Air handling | Filtration, humidification, dehumidification |
| Control technology | Automatic control via Setpoints, PLCs or BMS |
🏭 HVAC in an OT context
In OT (Operational Technology), HVAC may be part of the Purdue Model at Level 1 or 2:
- Driven via PLCs or a Building Management System (BMS)
- Sensors measure temperature, CO₂, pressure and humidity
- SCADA systems provide status and alerting
- Can form part of critical infrastructure (e.g. hospitals, data centres)
🔐 HVAC systems are increasingly connected to networks and therefore vulnerable to cyberattacks, particularly when using standard protocols such as Modbus or BACnet.
📌 In summary
HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning and regulates the indoor climate in technical and industrial environments. It is essential for comfort, safety, product quality and uptime — and must increasingly be secured as an OT component.