HPAC Engineering's Most Popular Articles
HPAC Engineering's Top 10 articles for the past three months.
While there has been some criticism of the LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) credentialing process, it remains a valuable professional designation and one that is likely to grow more valuable in the future. That's because the LEED governing body, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), has done a good job marketing itself and the LEED process. Interest in green design continues to grow, as does the demand for LEED AP participation in sustainable projects....
With a nominal efficiency of 0.2 kw per ton, evaporative cooling towers are among the most energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies for rejecting waste heat from air conditioning and other heat-exchange processes to the atmosphere. In the process, however, they use significant volumes of water. This article will discuss practical water-conservation opportunities for cooling towers....
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) operates 10 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating Systems. Eight of those...
This article will examine the ins and outs of grease removal in kitchen exhaust systems. Grease control in commercial kitchen exhaust has seen some significant changes in recent years. The changes are a primarily a result of research, code revisions, and improvements in grease filtration and extraction technology....
Natural air movement in an industrial plant is like the movement of a small boy. It is never completely still, does not seem to have any definite pattern,...
A boiler can consume several times its initial cost in fuel in a year. That, coupled with escalating utility rates and an increasing focus on energy and the environment, has engineers and contractors turning to an ever-expanding array of super- efficient condensing hot-water boilers....
Once simple, variable-air-volume- (VAV-) box selection has become an iterative process complicated by energy- and ventilation-code requirements. What's...
A district steam system consists of at least one steam boiler, a fuel system, a feedwater system, a flue-emissions-control system, a boiler-control system, a condensate-return system, and a steam-distribution system. This article will discuss steam-distribution-system design outside of a boiler plant, focusing on data collection, preliminary engineering, and detailed engineering. A university replacing building- dedicated steam boilers with a campuswide district steam system will be used as an example....
This article will examine the epidemiology and aerobiological pathways of airborne nosocomial infections and review air- and surface-disinfection technologies, including ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI). First, however,a brief synopsis of applicable guidelines,codes, and standards will provide background on current methods of nosocomial infection control....
It was a brisk February morning and Johnny Tundra, the engineer from Big Timber, was on the road to Angela, Mont. The wind was kicking up a bit across the prairie, sweeping the snow across the highway in blankets of undulating white. The sun was bright enough to blind, and inside Johnny's International Harvester Scout station wagon it was easy to forget the outside temperature, failing to make it above zero....
