Commissioning is far from being “business as usual” in the design and construction world. I was reminded of this fact recently when a building owner expressed the expectation that the commissioning professional would be responsible for subcontractor coordination, workflow planning, and installation start-up scheduling.
This month’s B2B will focus on the renovation of the office space (not part of B2B test) and replacement of the building’s existing baseboard radiation to new overhead radiant heat panels to be installed in the ceiling around the perimeter of the single-story 40,000-sq-ft building.
Recently, a much younger engineer than I asked if we could meet and discuss an energy retrofit project she was working on but was not familiar with the application.
This design environment keeps moving, but the performance and cost pressures remain. Weigh air-side and water-side economizers carefully: not just one or the other, but the options within each approach.
Modern data centers are evaluated not just on reliability but also on the efficiency of the cooling plant that supports them, so the cost to cool data center space is a key issue that must be addressed during design and system selection.
Last month, this column acknowledged the fact that some projects do not have written Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) documents for the commissioning professional to reference.
HVAC systems provide comfort and quality air for patients, staff, and visitors in hospitals. Comfort is generally determined by temperature, humidity, and air speed.
While the latest surgical technologies lead the push for more OR suite square footage, they also contribute to ever-tighter ceiling space. Add updated requirements for IAQ and electricity, and any renovation team needs to sharpen its strategy in advance of this delicate operation.