Most companies want to decrease their energy consumption, either for financial reasons, or to be active in reducing their carbon footprint, or both — but some of them aren’t sure where to begin. When the only measure of a facility’s energy usage is the bill customers receive at the end of the month, they may feel their facility is more like the proverbial black hole: power goes in, business happens inside, but it’s not clear exactly how much energy is used where and when.
A small team led by an award-winning Florida engineer decided to test conventional wisdom about pressure loss, both in a straight run and in comparing supply and exhaust scenarios. Early returns suggest the data may be flowing in an unexpected fashion.
Whether it’s the quiet riot of info overload or some felony act of inadvertent inefficiency, your perfectly nice facility is almost certainly the silent victim of performance malfeasance.
Here, we depart from our occasional focus on controlling smoke, yielding the floor to a life safety veteran weighing in about a new development for detecting it. Some historical context around detector types and testing methods paves the way for an explanation of why the new approach may become a welcome option for many applications … if it catches on.