A look back and a look forward is how Trane is celebrating a century in the HVAC business this year. In addition to multiple employee-celebration events across the country, Trane invited members of the trade press to tour its facilities in White Bear Lake, Minn., recently.

The Universal Communication Gateway is an external, high-performance, low-cost building automation multiprotocol gateway for integrating boiler/burner controls into building management systems. 

The chillers at Broward Health Medical Center were not achieving the kW per ton for which they were rated — a serious problem that they had not been aware of before, and which had probably cost them over $1 million in excess energy use since installation. 

It’s no secret sensors play a critical role in building automation operation and efficiency. Their impact and effectiveness will depend on how the sensors correlate with other devices and components across the greater HVAC system. This requires some emphasis on effective design attributes and integration strategies.