Overby-Sheppard Elementary in Richmond, Virginia, needed more than an HVAC upgrade, but with tight budgets and minimal state funding, it didn’t seem likely. The 40-year-old building needed a full overhaul to provide students with a healthier, distraction-free environment.
When a building is found to be consuming excess energy, the next step is usually an energy audit followed by retro-commissioning of the HVAC system. If available, an infrared scan of the building exterior might follow.
The design and magnitude of a new residential indoor pool built onto a 21,000-square-foot, 100-year-old home named “Daybreak” in Montclair, New Jersey, confronted mechanical engineers with psychrometric and sustainability challenges on par with huge commercial indoor waterparks.
ATLANTA — ASHRAE is poised for a busy year in 2019. At its 2019 Winter Conference in Atlanta, the 56,000-member engineering association introduced a lengthy agenda that included renovation of a new net-zero world headquarters, the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Pakistan HVACR Society (PHVACR), a pledge to prepare building professionals for the challenges and opportunities of designing efficient and grid-responsive buildings within the changing energy sector, and more.
The HVAC industry continues to evolve, but what does the future of the built environment look like? Engineered Systems’ editors turned to the winners of the AHR Expo’s Innovation Awards to get their take on where HVAC trends and technology is heading.
Each year, the AHR Expo honors manufacturers that are looking forward and breaking new technological ground. Those manufacturers are presented with Innovation Awards covering 10 categories, including building automation, ventilation, heating, cooling, IAQ, and more.
Once upon a time, humans lived outdoors in harmony with vast and diverse populations of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, largely unaware of the presence of these microbes.
Constructing a building takes an army. Designers, engineers, general contractors, flooring installers, HVAC contractors, plumbers, roofers, mappers, and surveyors are just a few of the blue-collar experts necessary to optimize a commercial building.