What are engineers making time to read? Here is the five-item punch list of the most popular news articles, features, and columns at ESmagazine.com.

What risks are being taken to not measure/monitor/control airflow directly and who is at risk?

Variable frequency drives (VFDs) save energy, increase the life of mechanical systems, and offer valuable control features in a wide range of building management applications.

Milpitas, Calif.-based Sierra Monitor Corporation has been named one of the Top Places to Work by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), publisher of the San Jose Mercury News.

Designed to meet ASHRAE 15 and other building code requirements for mechanical rooms, MSA has released the new Chillgard® 5000 Refrigerant Leak Monitor. With the ability to read down to the 1 ppm level, MSA’s Chillgard 5000 provides an early response to HVAC refrigerant gas leaks, which allows maintenance crews to respond more quickly and to avoid the consequences and costs of hazardous gas leaks. Refrigerant gas is considered a toxic gas and although refrigerants have low toxicity, at high concentrations they can displace oxygen. Serious injury or death can result from worker oxygen deficiency.

Fluke Corp. has expanded the capabilities of its Condition Monitoring system to include thermal monitoring with the addition of the new Fluke® 3550 FC Thermal Imaging Sensor. Fluke officials said maintenance managers can now collect a more comprehensive variety of key-indicator data — thermal imaging, voltage, current, temperature, and power — on critical equipment to build a real-time picture of an asset’s condition.

The Sensaphone® Airflow Sensor measures the rate of airflow and alerts data center managers when conditions fall outside the ideal range. The sensor monitors the presence or absence of cool moving air and provides relative airflow as a percentage from 0 to 100.