Next month,Engineered Systemsmagazine will be introducing its first “Back To Basics-HVACR Designer Tips” webinar, which will also include the “Application Scorecard” process.
In this interactive webcast, we will show you what goes on behind the scenes to create these three educational tools. Our goal is to take you through the entire process of building a system flow diagram and associated sequence-by-sequence ATC/FPT document using our Cx-3 software program.
This webinar will be based on the current three-month “Back To Basics” test series focusing on main distribution frame (MDF) rooms. From this HVAC design, we then edit the concept into a multiple-choice test that will fit within the two-page publication.
We will also show you how we draw upon our electronic library of checklists and edit those down to fit on a monthly one-page column. Future “Back To Basics/HVACR Designer Tips” webinars (a total of four per year) will follow, providing the viewer with more behind-the-scenes ATC/FPT document and associated checklists, and allowing for Q&A as well.
The Value of an Internet Education
The webinar will also focus on several other topics I have discussed in previous “Tomorrow’s Engineer” columns and previous feature articles (“Design And Construction Administration For The 21st Century,” August 2007, page 50).Most importantly, this venture is potentially the beginning of a 21st-century Internet education program series that will emphasize and reinforce much-needed changes and improvements to how we design, construct, commission, and operate and maintain buildings based on this our responsible design program. Here are some of the program’s elements.
- System flow diagram. We will show you how easy a system flow diagram can be created, how powerful a first step in designing a system flow diagram is, and how it can be used for multiple uses including schematic phase system document and operation training diagram to mention just two benefits of a system flow diagram.
- Combining the ATC with the FPT. We will show you how to create an electronic ATC sequence of operation document in sync with the creation of the FPT narrative used to commission the system. This culture change from writing a 20th-century sequence of operation narrative and then duplicating the effort in more detail to produce a FPT narrative shows how we can eliminate building owner’s question, “Didn’t I already pay the designer to write the sequence?”
- Application scorecard. We will show you why Chapter 1, “System Analysis & Selection” in the 2004 ASHRAE Handbook - Systems and Equipment should be the cornerstone to your system design, as it takes into account owner’s project requirements (OPR) and basis of design (BoD), a LEED® requirement.
- “Sustainable & Attainable” blog. In creating the “Application Scorecard,” we will highlight where we post some of our energy and environmentally responsible documents based on our LEED and responsible design experience.
- “HVACR Designer Tips” checklists. We will show you how the Tips are built from our electronic document library of observation checklists that combine time management and in-house quality control benefits while producing better document for construction administration.
- “HVACR Designer Tips” project closeout. We will show you how a master project closeout checklist is creating a niche business we call “document management” through the use of a project website.
- Helpful hints. We will share with you snippets of our experience in design phase, construction phase, and project closeout phase directed to designers, TAB and commissioning professionals, design-builders, and facility managers.
- Flow diagram to training diagram. We will show you how our ATC/FPT software (AKA responsible 21st-century document) approach produces the electronic sequence-by-sequence system flow diagrams with associated component “reactions” drawings that can be printed, laminated, and placed in a spiral binder for system training and then hung on the unit for quick operation reference
Much of what I discuss inEngineered Systemsis focused on “the process” of being an engineer, a builder, a technician, or a manager. I believe this new series of webinars, along with other future topics and links to the magazine’s blog and podcasts, will provide readers and viewers (who log on to www.esmagazine.com) with an electronic library of topics that will provide continuous improvements for how we do business.
Through wireless technology and the electronic devices that bring each of us much of our information today, this webinar and future ones will be a means for the magazine, Amanada McKew, myself, and other contributing authors to provide you with information that goes beyond the limits of our one-page columns, two-page ”Back To Basics” tests, and occasional feature articles.
This first webinar, associated with MDF rooms, is also a great lead in to introduce BNP Media’s new mission critical magazine because these special communication rooms are quite often mini-mission critical spaces requiring the same attention as the much larger data control centers. ES
