How many energy-efficient or certified buildings are not living up to the label? Very, very many, if this Ohio commissioning/auditing firm’s experience is close to typical. They report on common weaknesses in efficiency strategies and on real-life patterns of upgrades gone wrong across an array of equipment types. While flaws in well-intentioned processes remain, a more careful investment of human energy can still yield the desired reduction in building energy.
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.
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 building industry now has greater flexibility in the design of high-performance buildings through a change impacting application of the green building standard from ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) included in the International Green Construction Code (IgCC).
Design and construction of a “shack” to demonstrate renewable and HVAC technologies, including solar thermal heating, photovoltaic power generation, high efficiency and green insulation options and wood pellet stoves, is being developed by undergraduate students in an ASHRAE Undergraduate Senior Project Grant.
On April 17, 2012, a team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) performed a shake table test on a full-size building with a Baltimore Aircoil Company (BAC) PT2 Cooling Tower.