Conducting an HVAC Audit: The How
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency, HVAC Regulations and Standards | No Comments
In a previous post (”Conducting an HVAC Audit: The What and the Why“) we looked at what an HVAC audit is and why it’s so important. Here we look at the basic steps involved in conducting such an audit.
But first it’s important to understand that there are two ways to go about this. One is to conduct the audit yourself if you’re a building owner, facility manager, maintenance manager, or some other person with direct responsibility for a property’s HVAC performance. The other is to hire a third party to do it. › Continue reading
Written by: Matt CardinOccupancy Sensors for Lighting + HVAC = Extra Savings (just ask the University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Monday, December 29th, 2008 | HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency | No Comments
It’s turning out that occupancy sensors, those little devices that offices have used for a long time to turn the lights on and off depending on whether someone’s in the room, achieve a significantly new level of energy savings when they’re used to control a building’s HVAC system as well. Just ask the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The December 11 issue of Scarlet, UNL’s faculty and staff newspaper, reports that the university’s School of Natural Resources “has volunteered to become UNL’s first building with individual occupancy sensors controlling the lights and HVAC systems. The sensors — which are being installed in individual offices, meeting rooms, restrooms and vending areas — use infrared technology to detect heat, turning lights off and placing thermostats in standby when rooms are empty.” This development “comes as UNL administrators are crafting a plan for utility savings across the university.”
Here’s the especially meaty part for HVAC folks: › Continue reading
Written by: Matt CardinConducting an HVAC Audit: The What and the Why
Friday, December 26th, 2008 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency, HVAC Regulations and Standards, Sick Building Syndrome | No Comments
Quick, don’t think, just answer: Do you know exactly how much energy the HVAC system in your building is using? Do you know when and where it receives the heaviest use, and when it receives the lightest? Do you know the potential trouble spots where the system might be losing energy? Do you know the age, type, and condition of all system components? If your answer to any of these questions is “no” — or even if it’s yes — then you really need to schedule a regular audit of your HVAC system in order to get the most out of it.
What Is an HVAC audit?
An informative article at FaciliesNet (”The Search for Savings“) provides an excellent, capsule-sized definition: “An HVAC audit is a component-by-component, system-by-system evaluation of all HVAC equipment. Whereas most maintenance activities focus on making things work, an HVAC audit focuses on making things work properly and efficiently.”
Why Perform an HVAC Audit?
The answer to the “why” question probably seems obvious: HVAC audits are all about minimizing energy loss and maximizing efficiency, right? Yes, of course, that’s the main goal. But there’s more than one reason why audits are important, and some are less obvious than others.
FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CONDUCT AN HVAC AUDIT OF YOUR BUILDING:
- To maximize energy effiency and minimize loss. Okay, yes, this reason has to be first. HVAC systems use more energy than any other part of a building. Therefore, they have the greatest potential for loss and waste. An audit will determine if, where, and why the system is using too much energy, and will let you know what you need to do to fix it.
- To maximize and protect the health and productivity of the building’s occupants. The issue isn’t just energy and money, it’s people and their well being. The people are the reason the building is there at all, and they won’t be happy, healthy, or productive if they’re forced to spend their days in an environment that is consistently too cold, hot, or humid, or that’s plagued by some other form of bad IAQ. An HVAC audit will help to keep all of this in line by producing the best possible air quality for your particular type of business.
- To convince the controllers of the purse strings to pony up for improvements. Your building’s HVAC system may need serious attention. You may even have the best idea in the world for a brilliant green retrofit. But it can be very hard to convince the people who control the money that funds are truly needed for this purpose. An audit of the sytem will produce exactly the evidence they need to see: hard data.
- To determine the building’s overall value. There’s a lot of variables involved in determining a property’s purchase price. The overall status of the HVAC system — including age, complexity, condition, and how heavily the system is used — can be one of them.
- To keep up with rapidly changing government guidelines. You may have noticed that environmental rules and regulations at all levels of government — federal, state, county, and local — are doing nothing but getting stricter. Many of these regulations relate to IAQ, energy efficiency, and the like. And have you noticed that President-elect Obama has made energy efficiency a major component of his economic recovery plan? In an environment like this, HVAC audits will only become more necessary and central.
For a look at how HVAC audits are performed, see “HVAC Audits: The How.”
For a related post, see “Cleaning HVAC systems: How, When, Why.”
Written by: Matt CardinDon’t Dis Your HVAC Guy This Christmas!
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 | HVAC Jobs / Career Advice | No Comments
Have you ever stopped to consider the power you wield as an HVAC professional? Etiquette expert John Bridges certainly has!
A frequent guest on national TV shows and contributor to major magazines, Bridges has come up with a list of potentially embarrassing holiday situations and the best ways to handle them. It’s titled “The 12 Don’ts of Christmas…Or Any Other Holiday” and touches on everything from re-gifting (”Be sure to re-wrap”) to giving cookies to kids (”Do not offer a second sugar cookie to a 5-year-old”) to drinking (”Keep close track of your trips to the punch bowl”) to proper attire (”Never wear anything that involves blinking lights, reindeer antlers, or a Santa with a squeaky nose”).
Check out item 10 on his list:
If you have to cut back on your gift list this year, do not start with the person who handles the HVAC in your building.
Obviously, Bridges knows who he’s dealing with. Like Peter Parker said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
From us here at Just Venting to you, wherever you are, have a safe and happy holiday season.
Written by: Matt CardinBig Energy Savings at Stanford — Largely Due to HVAC Retrofits
Monday, December 22nd, 2008 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency | No Comments
Facilities.net is carrying a great report (December 2008) about the plethora of energy-saving strategies being used by Stanford University (”Stanford University’s Education in Sustainability“) in their recent push to add even more momentum to their ongoing energy-savings program. Naturally, HVAC upgrades rank among the most important of the campus-wide retrofits that are proving effective.
The story’s a six-parter. Part 4 is titled “HVAC Retrofits Generate Significant Savings.” It presents lots of excellent ideas and information, such as: › Continue reading
Written by: Matt CardinHold Onto Your Hats: Recession Drives Major Changes in HVAC
Friday, December 19th, 2008 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency | No Comments
It’s only been a couple of weeks since the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) formally announced what we’ve all intuitively known for a long time now: that the U.S. is indeed in a recession. (Or maybe there’s no easy name for the current financial crisis; see December 11 New York Times: “No Question We’re in a Financial Pickle. What Do We Call It?“) But the economic crisis is already having a profound effect on the HVAC industry.
One of the most dramatic proofs of this is identified by The News (HVAC’s long-running journalistic roving eye) in its December 8 cover story with a title that says it all: “Soft Economy, Energy Prices Spur Interest in Technologies.” The gist is that the heady combination of soaring energy prices and our tanking economy has lit a fire under manufacturers to invent more energy efficient heating and cooling technology. The opening paragraphs sketch the big picture:
Written by: Matt CardinGet Smart about Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
Monday, December 15th, 2008 | Building Maintenance Industry News, Sick Building Syndrome | No Comments
Check out this useful (and cleverly titled) article at Today’s Facility Manager:
Improved IQ on IAQ
Today’s Facility Manager, November 2008
In addition to introducing the concept of Indoor Air Quality and discussing various challenges to maintaining it such as mold and Legionnaires’ disease, the article discusses the “green” connections of IAQ and introduces “Indoor Air Quality: Best Practices for Design, Construction, and Commissioning,” a new guide from ASHRAE, AIA, BOMA, the USGBC, SMACNA, and the EPA that’s set to be released in spring 2009. It also features an in-depth sidebar article titled “The Facts about Mold” that’s filled with useful information and practical advice, including a recommendation about the importance of scheduling regular maintenance and service for HVAC systems.
Not incidentally, we’re all going to be hearing a lot more about IAQ for a long time to come, what with the current surge in Legionnaire’s disease cases being driven by climate change, along with the cultural tidal shift toward environmentalism, green building design, healthy living and so on. We’ll do our best here at Just Venting to help you keep up with the conversation.
Written by: Matt CardinHVAC Figures Highly in Recent Survey Showing Aggressive Approaches to Energy Savings
Friday, December 12th, 2008 | Building Maintenance Industry News, Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency | No Comments
Ever wonder just how serious all the talk about energy efficiency, green retrofits, reducing carbon footprints, etc., etc., really is? According to a recent survey of more than 30,000 facility managers conducted by FMLink, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Association for Facility Engineers (AFE), it’s very serious indeed. Far from just talking, facility managers are actively and aggressively taking steps to tighten up their buildings’ energy performance and improve their bottom line. And HVAC systems figure more highly in their efforts than anything else. › Continue reading
Written by: Matt CardinAddressing Peak Oil and Rising Energy Costs through Green Building Design
Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Maintenance and Efficiency | No Comments
There’s a huge amount of great stuff being published on the Web these days about HVAC, energy efficiency, and practical ways to help the environment and improve your bottom line — if you know where to look!
Case in point: The December 2008 issue of the online magazine Automated Buildings features an interesting article (”Creatively Addressing Rising Costs & Environmental Concerns“) about the interplay of peak oil, rising energy costs, and the economic and environmental benefits of achieving improved energy efficiency through green building design. The article begins by defining peak oil (a very necessary task since this term is widely misunderstood). Then it goes on to relate PO to 2008’s drastic runup of energy prices and explains how building owners, and by extension other people involved in a building’s life cycle, can react creatively and productively. The offered advice incluces conducting an energy audit and then using a building automation system (BAS) to modify energy usage patterns. › Continue reading
Written by: Matt CardinHistoric Providence Building Gets Geothermal HVAC System
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Regulations and Standards | No Comments
The December 8 Providence Journal of Providence, Rhode Island features a great article (”Ideal Blend of Old, New“) about the renovation of the former Rhode Island Medical Society Building to include a geothermal HVAC system and other green features.
The renovations involved the drilling of “the first geothermal wells in downtown Providence to both heat and cool [owner Jason E. Kelly's] building” and resulted in “one of Rhode Island’s ‘greenest’ office buildings.”
Read it, you’ll like it! In the meantime, here’s a cherry-picked passage about the HVAC system: › Continue reading
Written by: Matt Cardin
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