High-Performance Buildings & Automation

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This month’s Facility File is based on a new 40,000-square-foot office building HVAC system using VRF heat pump equipment with a focus on the Back2Basics February test. The project will include two VRF systems, each serving approximately 20,000 square feet of space. The building will also have a 100 percent DOAS gas-fired rooftop HVAC system for ventilation to the occupants in the building.

In last month’s article, we discussed the topic of technology — when to use it and when not to. When we start to utilize technology on our projects, we tend to run into the concept of openness.

As demonstrated with manual winterization requirements last month (Winterization and Commissioning, January 2019), systems manuals should include more than a regurgitation of the BAS as-built documents. Not everything in a project is necessarily controlled by the BAS, and, believe it or not, some buildings are still constructed with no central BAS at all.

Heating and air conditioning is something we all take for granted. We probably don’t remember that each type of heating and air conditioning system comes with a “user beware” awareness.

Featuring a first-of-its-kind retractable roof, a signature high-definition “halo board” screen that surrounds the playing field, and more than 700 concession and dining areas, Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium has taken the concept of the “ultimate fan experience” to new heights.

Over the next 40 years, an estimated 2 trillion square feet of new and rebuilt building space will be constructed worldwide.

The Lebanon Special School District (LSSD) in Lebanon, Tennessee, is one of the nation’s first school districts to retrofit conventional two-pipe classroom unit ventilators with combination VRF and ERV drop-in replacements.

In the summer of 2016, UBER Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) officially opened its doors in downtown Pittsburgh. As the main campus for UBER’s autonomous vehicle research and development labs, the building presented a unique design challenge. 

HVAC and trade educators know the importance of students learning and working on equipment they will encounter in the field. This exact focus on experiential learning informed the plans for an expansive new trades teaching facility at Sheridan College’s Brampton, Ontario, Canada, campus.

Design often creates the sensation of being in a box with the sides moving in and no means of escape.