Building Energy Resilience

During this recent cold-snap in the northeast (where it reached -20F at my house in Montpelier one morning!) you can be sure that HVAC contractors were some of the busiest people around. Inevitably, when outdoor temperatures reach what are called “design-day” conditions, (the days with the highest expected heating or cooling loads a building can experience for its local climatic conditions), HVAC systems are put to the test. It is not uncommon for problems that are not obvious at lower temperatures to suddenly arise-- sometimes leading to system outages, frozen pipes, and worse---exactly when you need your HVAC system the most.

HVAC building management systems are not immune from the need for computer security and defensive computing.

Cloud-based building automation represents an exciting opportunity for owners of small-to-mid-sized commercial buildings.

Many apps for smartphones and tablets have become available for business use as these devices have become increasingly ubiquitous. The range of mobile applications is large and rapidly growing—and apps created for use in the HVAC, building energy performance and energy efficiency fields are no exception.

Over the weekend I connected a tank of the refrigerant R-290 to my gas grill, fired it up, and had some delicious fresh grilled Vermont sweet corn on the cob. Very tasty.

Desalination is an expensive and energy-intensive way to produce fresh water, but for some areas of the world, it is the only available option to support growing populations or to mitigate effects of degrading water resources. Are there opportunities to meet this demand for fresh water in a more energy efficient and cost-effective way?

When as a facility operator you’re looking to reduce data center energy use, it can be difficult to know where to begin in the process of improving efficiency. Regardless of whether your organization operates a large datacenter, or a small server room, you probably face the same question: Should we start by improving efficiency of the actual IT equipment, the supporting systems such as HVAC, or both?

There are many opportunities to improve computer datacenter energy performance, whether you’re operating a small server closet, or a large datacenter in a Fortune 1,000 company. But the key to tackling energy use in datacenters is measuring and tracking energy performance over time. Relevant measurement of energy performance over time is feasible now, but that has not always been the case.