As people begin returning to work, school, and other places that will require them to go into large-scale facilities with the masses, facility managers will need every tool possible at their disposal to ensure their well-being. Typically, building automation systems (BAS) that control HVAC, access, lights, and fire alarm systems have 3 main functions:
This webinar, presented on Wednesday, May 13th, 2020, featured a panel of facilities and automation experts to discuss what strategies they and their organizations were implementing to ensure the safe return to facilities in the coming months.
Continue reading Webinar: Re-Occupying Buildings During COVID-19With the rise of automated HVAC, lighting, and security systems, the Building Automation System Market is expected to grow from USD 75.0 billion in 2019 to USD 121.5 billion by 2024—growing at a CAGR of 10.1%.
No matter your level of education, there is a career path for you in the building automation industry. In this webinar, we discuss :
You may have heard a tenant overtime system referred to as a TOS, overtime HVAC and/or lighting, tenant billing system, tenant after-hours billing, or any combination of these names. You’ll primarily find these systems in commercial real estate as a means for tenants to schedule HVAC and lighting in their spaces after the agreed-upon hours in their lease.
Continue reading What is a Tenant Overtime System (TOS)?When you look at the list of points, either in Text View or Hardware View, you see the point name on the left. To the right of that is the status of the point, and to the right of that is the priority of the point.
Adding HVAC controls to the repertoire seems like a natural evolution for many mechanical contractors but in reality, most are not well-prepared for the additional challenges that come along with supporting this new line of business. To successfully add controls to your offering, you have to be willing to push your service team beyond what they are currently doing, add at least one employee that is solely dedicated to controls, and push your salespeople to sell a new product that they are unfamiliar with. Join us on Thursday, November 7 at 12pm CT as we share a blueprint on how mechanical contractors can address these challenges and more to successfully start a controls division.
As property management professionals start looking at not only the first cost but also the total cost of owning and operating their assets, the question lies, “how does one assess the total cost of selecting a particular product or service partner?” Depending on the piece of equipment or particular service, calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) may be simple, but with technology as complex as building automation systems (BAS), there is an abundance of factors to consider. Below, we have put together a comprehensive checklist of potential expenses associated with the operation of a BAS over 5 to 10 years. For more information on this topic, you can also download our Ebook or view our webinar on Understanding the Life Cycle Cost of a Building Automation System.
Enthalpy is defined as the amount of internal energy within a system combined with the product of its pressure and volume. When dealing with the term in the HVAC industry, we usually assume that the process is at a constant pressure and, as such, the change in enthalpy is equal to the heat absorbed or released. At its core, the main function of an HVAC system is to transfer heat, which is a form of energy. The first law of thermodynamics, the Law of Conservation of Energy, tells us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. From that, we can infer that the only way to cool a space down is to remove the heat energy and transfer it somewhere else, typically outdoors. This is generally accomplished by absorbing heat from an airstream and then distributing this cool air to the area we wish to control; it helps to think of conditioned air like a sponge with the capacity to ‘soak up’ heat. The air, now laden with unwanted heat, is routed back via a Return Air pathway to start the process over again. The newly absorbed heat is ‘wrung out’ and expelled, and the cool air is distributed again in a constant cycle. This ‘wringing out’ process is mainly accomplished by mechanical cooling, such as a compressor, or free cooling provided by an air-side economizer.
Continue reading Enthalpy as it relates to free cooling in HVACThe Energy Cost Index (ECI) is the measurement of cost per square foot per year of conditioned space in a facility ($/ft²/year). The average ECI of electricity for an office building in the U.S. is about $1.73/ft²/yr according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. What are you doing to reduce your ECI?
Continue reading 5 Energy Conservation Measures with Quick Returns