A. O. Smith Acquires Applied Energy Recovery Systems Inc.
A. O. Smith Corp. announced it has acquired Applied Energy Recovery Systems Inc. (AERS), a leading manufacturer of commercial and residential heat-pump water heaters. ...
Correction
Roanoke, Va.-based Spectrum Design PC was the architectural and engineering firm of record for the repiping of the Bagley Building on the campus of the...
Codes & Standards - April 2009
ASHRAE The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recently announced the publication of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard...
Examining Causes of Pump Vibration
Many vibration problems are a result of interactions among a system's pump, motor, fluid, piping, and structure. This interactive relationship requires...
School Earns LEED Platinum Certification
Chartwell School, an award-winning private school located in Seaside, Calif., has become the first completely educational campus to be awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification....
Mental-Health Institute Replaces Copper Plumbing With CPVC Pipe
Serving as the main patient-care facility on the 17-building, state-run Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute (SWVMHI) campus in Marion, Va., the 102,000-sq-ft Bagley Building was experiencing premature chronic failures of its plumbing system. ...
Mystery Meters
As standard practice, our office conducts a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) for building design projects after a facility has been occupied for a year....
High-Efficiency Radiant Cooling
Radiant-cooling systems have progressed in the last few decades, garnering attention as a comfortable and energy- and material-efficient option.1 Compared...
Parallel Pumping in Industrial Applications
Many system-design ideas that have been proved in commercial buildings, such as parallel pumping, can be applied to industrial facilities. Parallel constant-...
Thermal-Energy Transfer for Commercial Buildings
One of the most rapidly accelerating trends in the commercial-buildings industry — driven by rising energy costs and the growing influence of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System — is the use of water-source-heat-pump (WSHP), or thermal-energy-transfer (TET), systems. ...
Piping-System Design Impacts Project Safety
The first fundamental canon of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Code of Ethics of Engineers states, Engineers shall hold paramount the safety,...
First, Find the Fuse
At about 11 p.m., I received a call from the maintenance manager of a 20-story apartment building. The pumping system had failed, and he could not find...
A Smelly Problem
The vice president of my company had a heating contractor remove his furnace and replace it with two units to provide two heating zones. Soon after the units were put into operation, an objectionable odor occurred whenever the units were used....
Noted Special-Needs School Chooses Two-Pipe System for New Campus
Nationally recognized for serving children and young adults with disabilities and developmental delays, Meeting Street School occupies a new campus on...
Pulsed Power Plays Significant Role in High-Rise's Water-Saving Efforts
The unique water-conservation strategy designed for Natomas Gateway Tower in Sacramento, Calif., is a marriage of simplicity and sustainability. Harbison-Mahoney-Higgins...
Better HVAC Through Circuit Balancing
As many building superintendents would attest, the first indication of an indoor climate problem usually is a complaint from a tenant that a living or...
NEW EQUIPMENT & RESOURCES
Control valves High-temperature characterized control valves meet the challenges of space-restrictive applications, such as unit ventilators and fan-coil...
Triple Whammy
My firm worked in conjunction with an architect on an engineering design for an area library. The project had a well with a large pressurized tank that provided water. Although we specified an American Society of Mechanical Engineers-coded tank, the plumbing contractor submitted cut sheets that featured a non-coded tank for approval. I rejected it, calling for a coded tank. ...
Triple Whammy
My firm worked in conjunction with an architect on an engineering design for an area library. The project had a well with a large pressurized tank that...
Pressure-Independent Valves Simplify Air Base's Transition to Variable Flow
At Eglin Air Force Base in Northwest Florida, a chilled-water plant known as Building 42 was laid out in a primary/secondary configuration, with the intent...
The Path to Plumbing Efficiency
To some engineers, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System seems complicated. However, LEED certification...
The Truth About Tankless
In two previous Engineering Green Buildings columns (January and April 2007), I examined myths about water-efficient toilets and sensor-activated faucets....
An Easy Fix
I received a call from a client who had been working with a contractor for several months to resolve a recurring problem with a recently installed air-handling...
Conserving Energy With a Pump System
At what point in a large building's life do facility managers decide to replace key mechanical systems? That depends on many factors, including the age...
Horizontal Split-Case Centrifugal Pumps
The horizontal split-case centrifugal (HSC) pump is more than 100 years old, yet still is the workhorse of the HVAC pump industry. If a lot of water has...
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