Energy Star tax creditsI am worried now. A new report just came out showing that 85% of CMMS (Computerized Management and Maintenance System) software being purchased is not being used. This is software that is supposed to be used by facilities managers to streamline their work, but apparently without much eagerness.
An excellent commentary in [...]
Continue reading about How to Sustain the Energy Efficient Design
BIM, IPD and “private” cloud computing at Little Diversified Architecture in Charlotte. This firm is on the top of the wave of change, being led by the author of the article, Chris France, CIO of the firm. This firm and its predecessors have always been very very good anyway. [...]
Continue reading about Design firm uses a lot of technology (BIM and cloud computing)
I want to clear the air about something that has been problematic for years. I do not have the standard degree in my field.
Recently I have been in close contact with many engineering, architecture, and construction hiring managers. The communication has revealed much and disappointed me on a number of occasions [...]
Continue reading about 30 years versus a certain curriculum.
Stymied by details of education again!
I have devoted 30 years… to this field and still the issue of education comes up again and again.
Certain states will not approve my application for licensure, citing my education not being adequate. I do not have a BSME (BS Mechanical Engineering), and my degrees are not [...]
Continue reading about Why is a BSME worth it and a BSCS not?
I have a BS ED, which is a science that encompasses the junction between engineering and architecture. My expertise is in buildings and how they work. I focused all my career on design of the built environment and building systems. I was educated in energy conservation, [...]
Continue reading about THE LAST ENERGY CRISIS- 1970s and a B.S. Environmental Design
Money
Factoid heard at the recent Eco-Build conference in D.C.: “The number of contractors adopting Building Information Modeling has quadrupled in the past year. ” Coming from a very small core of early and aggressive users to a large cross section.
Another trend is that BIM is being used on larger projects by [...]
Continue reading about BIM Adoption – There is a reason it is spreading fast
I would like to share this 2006 excerpt from the Building Design and Construction magazine white paper on the bottom line of building commissioning.
To put some solid numbers on benefits of commissioning, Evan Mills, PhD, and colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Portland Energy Conservation, and Texas A&M University (Energy Systems Laboratory) reviewed [...]
Continue reading about The bottom line! Building commissioning today
While I was thinking about how to calculate the tax benefits of upgrading and changing or upgrading HVAC systems, lighting and hot water heaters, I decided to see if anyone had made a calculator to analyze it already. Sure enough, General Electric had created this EPact calculator
I have not had the [...]
A repeat/revisiting of The DEC 16, 2007 Blog entry. This one bears repeating because in this difficult economy, it is important to keep a perspective on the teamwork necessary to execute and implement a building.
Building design and construction requires cooperation between a dozen or more actors.
There is an architect designing the [...]
Continue reading about Coordinating differing disciplines: Commitment and accountability?
Change is in the wind. Software and information technology forces a break with the past.
For generations, we engineers depended on drawings. The desktop PC, and software, such as Autocad, changed our dependence into a 2-d CAD.
Stephen Roth wrote in the recent issue of Consulting Specifying Engineers magazine.
HVAC [...]
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HVAC DATA model from LBNL