HPAC Engineering

Sustainability, green energy, and LEED certification are the topics of the day for building owners and managers. With so many conservation opportunities, how does one determine which projects to pursue on a limited budget?...

Is ice-based thermal-energy storage (TES) really green? Although the success of ice-based TES in reducing energy costs has been substantiated, there are differing opinions within the HVAC community regarding whether TES is a green technology....

Each year, the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) surveys its 11,000 members to determine market trends and forces impacting the profession. With the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, AEE surveyed its members to determine the impact stimulus funding would have on the creation of green jobs. ...

Although 2010 should prove to be a "mixed bag" for the overall economy, it will be a great year for the geothermal industry, WaterFurnace President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Huntington told more than 400 HVAC contractors and distributors during the company's Annual Sales Meeting in Phoenix....

2009 saw the rollout of a major evolution in the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-building rating systems. The five rating systems cover new construction and major renovations, core and shell projects, K-12 schools, commercial interiors, and existing buildings. The oldest of these, LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC), was released as a pilot program in 1998 and more fully developed as Version 2.0 in 2000. LEED Version 3 includes all five of these rating systems....

The following exchange, concerning the January 2010 article “The Greenhouse-Gas Impact of Various Chiller Technologies” by Gerald J. Williams, PE, LEED AP, took place on HPAC.com via the Disqus comment system....

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Professional Credentials program is the industry's agreed-upon way of identifying professionals...