With Hurricane Sandy fresh in our minds, let’s examine the anatomy of a recent outage’s immediate HVAC consequences as a guide toward protecting equipment in the future.
October 29 was a Monday. It was also the day that Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New York City. Around 7 p.m., Con Edison shut power off in Lower Manhattan, and it would be sometime Saturday before lights would begin to flicker back on.
Providing high-quality education for our nation’s children in grades K-12 has never been more important than it is today. The world is changing fast, and we need to provide an educational system that prepares them for this fast paced world in which we live.
While active beams are making great strides toward becoming a standard part of the designer’s toolbox, knowing when to deploy them is a critical judgment. The author focuses his considerable experience with them into a good look at related thermal comfort considerations. Operation and controls, two- and four-pipe systems, and condensation control strategies round out a worthwhile look at how active beams can work for you.
High-performance solutions result in savings, LEED® certifications, and better health care Spectrum Health is the largest not-for-profit health care system in West Michigan with nine hospitals, more than 180 service sites, and 1,983 licensed beds system-wide.
Managing solar loads and incorporating radiant ceilings were just part of the plan for this five-level mixed-use building. Chilled beams and chiller plant decisions joined ventilation strategy to serve both occupants and LEED ambitions.
Take a large hospital, subtract unexamined rules of thumb, add meaningful incremental improvements like VFD’s and a controls upgrade, and what do you get? Smarter engineering via improved performance for both the pumps and the chillers. But it all starts with one little question.
Today, commercial property owners and facility managers are constantly looking for ways to reduce their utility bills. An often over-looked opportunity arises when it is time to replace old, inefficient compressors in HVAC systems.
Sometimes, what seems like a need for more cooling capacity could be the need to take a hard look and fine-tune the existing chiller plant. With a hospital expansion coming up, the team on this UMass Memorial Health Care project avoided adding up to 120 tons of capacity with tactics that included attacking inefficiencies in piping, valves, cooling towers, and controls.
New York City is certainly renowned for the quantity and variety of tall buildings towering over the Manhattan skyline. Many of these structures are at a point where age has taken its toll on mechanical systems and now require replacement. Even if they are still operational, today’s new A/C systems are more energy efficient, making it cost effective for changeout.
Rockefeller Center is one of the most recognized commercial properties in the world. Defining midtown Manhattan, Rockefeller Center encompasses the six square blocks between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas from 48th to 51st Streets. The landmark property consists of approximately 8 million rentable sq ft in ten buildings with unique, internationally recognized architectural features.