Thanks to industry leaders and groups like ASHRAE, best practice in data center HVAC has come a long way. Unfortunately, many older data centers and telecom facilities are cooled with constant-speed computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units with simple controls.The...
Consumers Energy Retro-Commissioniong Facility IQ Program Beginning 2009, Consumers Energy (CE) in Michigan created a pilot program to help customers save energy and dollars in their existing buildings. The pilot program was used to determine the feasibility and cost...
Trend Sumo™, G/BA's new in-house analytics software, is an HVAC trend data review application tool built to identify faults and energy savings opportunities. By analyzing trend data, engineers can better understand building system performance across a multitude...
Effective Sept. 23, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reclassified Chicago's ozone nonattainment status from "moderate" to "serious." Affected counties and townships in Illinois include Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, Aux Sable, Goose Lake, and...
Grumman/Butkus Associates' engineering team recently played a pivotal role in a once-in-a-lifetime project: Turning the shuttered Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, IL, into a 430-bed COVID-19 surge response facility in less than a month. "It was a job we'll be...
As states and municipalities begin to ease COVID-related business restrictions, or at least to contemplate plans for "reopening," owners of all types of facilities that have been vacant should take measures for preventing bacterial issues related to water stagnation,...
During the past few months, many hospitals have scrambled to make urgent facility changes to accommodate a surge, or anticipated surge, in patients seeking treatment for the COVID-19 virus. The changes have been hastily made in response to an emergency, and they have...
As health systems scramble to cope with current or anticipated surges of patients infected with COVID-19, engineering strategies are emerging. Some involve renovations in existing healthcare buildings (both operating and previously shuttered) to create more beds for...
Healthcare buildings are under extreme operational demands due to the COVID-19 virus. At the same time, non-healthcare buildings may see the reverse conditions, with limited occupancy and sharply reduced operational hours. G/BA offers this guidance to help facilities...