GBA is occasionally asked about the potential impact of upcoming phase-downs of some common HFC refrigerants, including R410A. In 1988, the U.S. Senate unanimously ratified the Montreal Protocol, which led to a phase out of CFC refrigerants responsible for damage to...
Electrical designers must be conscious of environmental factors that will impact electrical equipment, including temperature, wind, snow, and so on. This is especially critical for photovoltaic (PV) installations where a large portion of the system will be subjected...
By Laurence Steiner, PE, LEED AP Thanks to efforts by the industry, a lot of progress has been made in improving energy efficiency in data centers. Completing a project last year, I was struck by the impact of the changes being made through improved HVAC design and...
Design-build retro-commissioning (DBRCx) is a new approach Grumman|Butkus Associates (GBA) has developed to assist a large for-profit healthcare organization in implementing a retro-commissioning (RCx) program across multiple hospitals nationwide. The process is...
PACE provides low-cost financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.The Cook County Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) Program was launched in February, providing new funding for a variety of commercial building improvements. It joined...
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...