More in IAQ & Ventilation

How a performance contract with Honeywell delivers energy-efficiency upgrades and more operating dollars though a guaranteed, self-funded savings program, allowing the The Ottawa Hospital to reduce energy costs and address deferred-maintenance issues without increasing its budget....More

On Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. ET, HPAC Engineering will present "Monitoring VOCs for Improved IAQ and Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings," a free Webinar sponsored by Honeywell....More

Building owners and managers over the past decade have become increasingly knowledgeable about the importance of good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in their buildings. Programs such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Green Globes, and the Building Owners and Managers Association International’s 360 Performance program have served to raise the level of awareness of all aspects of building performance. Fortunately, HVAC design engineers and facility managers correspondingly have also raised their games and become valuable partners to owners and managers who are striving to provide the best IEQ possible in their buildings....More

Benchmarking, either internally between facilities or externally against industry standards, can help organizations achieve significant efficiency gains. This article will discuss new applications enabling easier system integration and more efficient data management, visualization, and analytics, driving significant cost savings and making possible new approaches to benchmarking....More

A properly designed UFAD system takes advantage of thermal stratification. The key is to have a diffuser that rapidly mixes air before it penetrates the stratification layer at the upper end of the occupied zone. The pressurized plenum (the area between the slab and the raised floor) essentially is a large duct maintained at a constant pressure differential—typically, 0.05 to 0.10 in. w.g.—to the room above. This pressure is maintained through the supply of conditioned air from a number of supply-duct terminations...More

This article will clarify the relationship between CO2 level and ventilation rate and offer suggestions for improving traditional single-setpoint CO2 DCV through the addition of a direct outdoor-airflow-measuring device....More

Selecting a fan can be fairly complex. This article outlines the basic process for matching a fan to a system: Define the application. Select the basic...More

A biocontainment patient-care unit (BPCU) is a facility designed and operated to maximize patient care with appropriate infection-control practices and procedures. A BPCU is secure, is physically separated from other patient-care areas, and has special air-handling systems.1...More

We rely on information and calculation methods we assume have a firm foundation in reality only to sometimes find they do not. That is what happened in 2005, when, asked by an attorney to investigate the failure of an HVAC system to provide the owner’s expected comfort conditions, I reviewed design drawings and calculations and built a mockup of a flexible-duct system....More