This month’s Facility File will focus on the B2B March test for the retrofit of a 1960s, 250,000-sq-ft hospital conversion to apartments changing out the high-pressure steam boilers to hot water boiler modules.

Last month, this column explored the best time to functionally test new systems. This month and next month, I want to back up and talk about the best time to prepare the functional performance test procedures (or “scripts” as some people call them).

Quite often, design engineers choose decentralized HVAC systems because of first-cost benefit, packaged equipment, simplicity of design, and the repetitiveness of the installation, to mention just a few of the features.

Welcome to our post-show issue. We squeezed in a little AHR/ASHRAE content from Chicago last month thanks to a favorable schedule, but now that we’ve returned back home to unpack the suitcase and the virtual mountain of information, we can serve up some follow-up to the week in Chicago.

Over the past decade, I have spent many hours with engineers, specifically with mechanical engineers who deal with HVAC systems.

The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) was one of the biggest energy hogs on the University of Maryland campus.

BIM, creative pre-fabrication, and even some on-site disassembly/reassembly teamed up with excellent design coordination and communication at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum. As a result, the new central chilled water plant and dehumidification system will preserve priceless collections for the future.

Understand the thinking behind a system that blends condensing and non-condensing boilers, from the attack on oversizing to a controls strategy that shifts with the weather.

BAS integration has long fed our hopes for a future with greater building intelligence.

In the October 2017 issue, three dehumidification methods for health care were introduced (“Dehumidification For Health Care”): low temperature DX, low temperature glycol, and desiccant dehumidification.