The first role of the engineer is to apply science to the solution of human needs. As a young engineer, that was what attracted me to the profession.

I have been designing and managing for over 3 decades. I have seen it all but as project engineer, I find it useful often focus on the how’s and wherefore’s as much as the solution itself.

More and more of us face a flood of information. (More on information overload below). And I am encouraged that design teams are improving collaboration and information sharing with all concerned. Designing and executing can often feel more complicated than the building produced.  
“Information Age and Construction,” from 2004, is a snapshot overview of information in design and construction.

Architects, developers and owners, all related specialists, engage in an agonizing complicated business of design and construction. It can be complicated in your specialty area. There is a constant need to synchronize work among a dozen or more other engineers, architects and designers.

The exchange of design information is improving as ubiquitous connectivity and data access become the norm.  

Even as I do my work, I am always working to improve organization and composition. It should not be a puzzle. KISS Simple works. Complex doesn’t work.

I would break the project designers tasks down to:

• Collect information
• Collect more information
• Calculate and evaluate
• Design
• Vendor contact
• Evaluate
• Design some more
• Etc.
• Repeat

For HVAC, much of this is boils down to optimization of temperature, heat exchange and air exchange for maximum human comfort, energy efficiency, ease of maintenance, and initial cost. Simple, eh?

The rest of the HVAC engineers work :

• Making      some order out of a chaos of mass amounts of building and equipment      information
• scheduling equipment information
• Creating drawings (3D preferably)
• Checking other disciplines for physical collisions

The mechanical contractors work

• pricing the work
• coordinating the construction with other trades

Good Design

Better design leads to a holistic view of the built environment, both literally and figuratively.

• Total design documentation
• Design processes using Building Information Models (BIM)
• Best green practices.

There is a lot of change and opportunity happening in this realm.

Energy and building

Buildings consume 48% of all the energy that we use in the USA. A huge chunk of that is from fossil fuels, which (oil, gas, coal) are THE MAJOR COMPONENT of carbon emissions and related global warming. Carbon dioxide levels are climbing exponentially due to world-wide economic growth and industrialization. Global climate change is a dire threat, hence the need for sustainable and green practices. In my family we do our part by doing the sensible things to reduce our electric bill at home while driving the most fuel efficient cars to work.

How do we contribute to solving the problem of global warming caused by our civilization? First define the problem and see what you can do about it. If you are interested, read and talk to others about it and come back here to see what I have discovered as well. Check out the Good Idea Green Blog. A page on which I share my ideas, and I want to hear yours, too.