More than ever, existing buildings are the key to future efficiency gains. And yet, better equipment isn’t everything. The knowledge and behaviors of both occupants and operations staff play critical roles, perhaps greater than you realize. An integrated team approach, smart training, and the Hawthorne Effect are but three factors contributing to your next retrofit’s ultimate fate.
Cold weather and football just seem to go together, but frozen fields have a tendency to draw complaints, especially from NFL players who know that a frozen field is akin to a slab of concrete.
One of the challenges we have with commercial buildings is the fine line between providing a safe and healthy indoor environment and maximizing energy efficiency.
On all projects, the need to provide reliability, accuracy, and safety need to be carefully considered as part of the overall design, but when we start looking at critical environments, these requirements become paramount in the design process.
In pharma warehousing, two degrees can be the difference between life and death. Tailor the HVAC to the specifics of the space with the help of CFD, and pave the way to a smooth “last mile” to the user in this critical distribution chain.
“Mission Critical.” The term conjures up images of data centers populated with rows and rows of black boxes churning away, generating heat, and consuming power at an alarming rate.
Much of the energy usage in a commercial building can be attributed to systems that are operating under the assumption that the building is “occupied.”
Gems Sensors & Controls has introduced a new line of compact low-water cutoff devices to provide critical protection for boilers and steam generators. The new LWC-700/720/800 Series offer a variety of configurations and functions for application in most water feed vessels. They feature redundant switches within the liquid level sensors, and electronic controllers to deactivate systems before a water supply problem can damage or create a critical situation in boiler or steam generation equipment. They meet CSD1 requirements and are UL Recognized per UL-353 for “Limit Control.”
At one time, it might have been acceptable to view controls as a “necessary evil” with little attention given to the details of design including sequences and commissioning