Approximately six years ago, we visited the manufacturing plant of one of the largest boiler manufacturers in the country. The visit was related to a specific project that required high-efficiency condensing boilers for heating and steam boilers for humidification.

Have you ever wondered how chemical compounds or microbes actually get into the cells of your body and have a powerful influence on your health?

Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are energy intensive, and the HVAC system — the chilled water plant, the steam and hot water plant, and air distribution — typically consumes a full 65 percent of the energy used, according to research by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Heather Platt, P.E., a senior project manager for Dewberry, has been appointed to the Facility Guideline Institute’s Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC) for the 2019-2020 term.

Engineering departments in today’s health care environment are tasked with an ever-growing list of responsibilities, such as emergency readiness, PMs, reactive maintenance, ensuring regulatory compliance, managing infection control, maintaining life cycle budgets, managing utility spend, and the list goes on.

This article describes the remodeling of a hospital kitchen in which workers experienced high temperature and humidity levels as well as turbulent airflows most of the year.

From my perspective of working in the intersection of two very different professions, medicine and design of the built environment, I’m frequently surprised by the resistance of each group to embrace concepts from the “other side.

Designing a hospital or outpatient medical facility can be challenging with the need to adhere to multiple codes and guidelines, equipment coordination, and the possibility of problems beyond occupant comfort.

Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts, is saving energy after teaming up with Shannon Enterprises of W.N.Y. Inc. and Shannon Energy. Shannon installed reusable, custom-engineered thermal insulation throughout the hospital’s mechanical rooms and steam distribution system. 

Once again, research has revealed an entire new dimension of the role of indoor air quality in determining human health.