Miki Minic knew immediately how to solve IAQ issues at a 227,000-square-foot Miami Class A office complex. The building engineer was in his first week with real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) when he told supervisors he could significantly slash HVACR energy use at the 12-story Harbour Centre complex.

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

Industrial plants need steam for heating and other processes. Boilers are commonly used to provide this steam, and you may be called on to operate the boilers in your plant. The first step toward the safe and productive operation of boilers is a good working knowledge of boiler fundamentals.

Restaurants and commercial kitchens are notoriously one of the largest consumers of energy per unit of floor area. Moreover, the kitchen ventilation system is often the largest energy-consuming component in a food service facility.

This month's Facility Files will focus on the Back2Basics test addressing the renovation of an existing Metro station with the addition of a new smoke evacuation system located within the building and within the subway’s inbound and outbound tunnels. The associated ADA-compliant elevator will have its own stand-alone, engineered, smoke control, 100 percent outside air fan to a positive-pressurized elevator shaft system.

Most of us have experienced one of our best solutions backfiring and unintentionally creating a bigger problem in the future. One historical example of an unintended consequence occurred in the early 1900s in Hanoi, Vietnam. Under French Colonial rule, the city was proud of the sanitation benefits of its indoor toilets supported by a vast sewer system.

In order to make effective recommendations for your customers related to selecting systems, components, and processes, a project should be grounded in three principles.

The industry standard commissioning process includes development of a systems manual to supplement the equipment O&M manuals provided by equipment manufacturers. The systems manual is intended to document at least the following information about each commissioned system:

We are starting a new year, and I believe the HVAC consulting engineers responsible for design engineering need to make a change in 2019 as to how HVAC systems are engineered to be safe.

This spring, the staff at Engineered Systems began kicking around the idea of honoring the women of engineering.