Achieving deep energy savings is especially challenging when you’re faced with an existing structure with poor orientation, historic preservation requirements, and little space for renewables. The Byron Rogers Federal Office Building’s retrofit is scheduled to be completed in 2013; the post-renovation building is projected to consume less than half the energy it did before.
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.
After reviewing basic design options, the next steps for potential geothermal designers are to challenge the common concerns and myths, study how different choices have different cost impacts, and be aware of the ways a good design can yield bad performance if the installation isn’t done well. Add the habit of turning a retrofit’s circumstances to your advantage, and this underground approach can rise above client expectations in short order.
Leakage caused by modern cleaning techniques, evolving codes, increased airflow requirements ... kitchen ventilation design has become more complicated than the old sizing and design challenges. Of course, they’re still around, too. Grease is the word, so review these tips to keep it from popping up in the wrong places.
How often do you get paid to save money through improved system performance? Utilities have their own reasons for seeing you lower your bills, so don’t get started on that next retrofit until you’re sure your organization isn’t leaving money on the table.
In which the author lays out the path from earlier data center design to a more recently discovered airflow challenge. Read on for his insights on how to keep positive differential pressure from being a negative for your facility’s energy budget.
Data center HVAC has come a long way since ’80s-era strategies and even since turn-of-the-century room parameters. Consider that evolution, and how options like economizers and evaporative cooling may be more appealing in light of wider environmental envelopes.
The students have changed, and the way spaces get used is changing as well. How do we need think about educational environments to foster better thinking inside them?
The author's firm recently explored three options for use in buildings that are “user-friendly” when dealing with the highly variable load demands of multi-tenant occupancies, often requiring simultaneous space heating and cooling requirements. Read on to see what they found out about performance and life-cycle cost for their client.
Just what the doctor ordered: specifics on pre-filters, after-filters, AHU tips, and more to meet
critical IAQ goals and prevent that ventilation system from operating in a “fog.”