Engineered Systems - January 2009 - (Page 10) Letters Exceeding the LEED® limit? I enjoyed Kevin Dickens’ article, “LEED® or Get (It) Out of the Way” in the September issue of Engineered Systems. I agree. LEED tends not to be very practical for high process energy facilities. There are two LEED trends which I find bothersome, which are the relatively low percentage of LEED registered projects ultimately being certified and the number of my clients wanting a LEED charette, incorporating LEED credits into design, but having no intention of registering or obtaining LEED certification due to cost and hassle factors. Vincent Sakraida, P.E., LEED AP Jacobs Global Building Denver What I did not say, but was thinking, was that perhaps it’s time to get over the idea of relying on treating huge quantities of air for survival, and move on to new systems of heating and cooling spaces. My white paper eventually got rejected because it was “scary.” It suffered months of scrutiny without much feedback. The emergency had obviously passed. — Eileen Duignan-Woods, P.E. Silver Spring, MD well as potential clients — asking our advice on how to prepare the HVAC systems in the event of a repeat activity. Our president asked me to put together a white paper, which I did and submitted it to him within two weeks. I did a lot of reading and research of information (in 2001 there was a lot of excellent information — for free — on the Web) and combined it with over 40 years of experience in HVAC design and construction. My paper was dated 11/16/01. What I concluded was that HEPA filters, combined with UV and gas filtration (both carbon and potassium permanganate) would be ideal under any circumstance. It was also clear to me that fresh air intakes needed to be kept safe — not on the roof where some person could toss in a chemical, but in a secure area or on the side of the building (someplace inaccessible). Additionally, return air ceiling plenums are very vulnerable; empty office spaces in commercial and even governmental buildings, are vulnerable to tampering. All it would take would be a closed door, a chair, and the pop of a ceiling tile to insert something deadly. It was also clear that just shutting down systems would not be sufficient. There’s a lot of residual air in ductwork lying there, ready to contaminate spaces. What I did not say, but was thinking, was that perhaps it’s time to get over the idea of relying on treating huge quantities of air for survival, and move on to new systems of heating and cooling spaces. I cautioned that air filtrations systems needed to be verified as extremely tight in construction, and that maintenance needed much improvement. My white paper eventually got rejected because it was “scary.” It suffered months of scrutiny without much feedback. The emergency had obviously passed. What’s really “scary” is that it has taken almost a decade to come up with possible changes to Chapter 58 of the 2011 ASHRAE Handbook. We’re clearly not ready to deal with the risks of an emergency. I still believe that ASHRAE needs to move out of the “air moving business” and move on to the “heating and cooling of spaces business.” Dickens responds: Thanks for the compliment on the LEED article; your experience is my experience. I have a real love/hate relationship with LEED, and lately it’s been more hate than love. LEED and local codes I enjoyed Kevin Dickens’ article “LEED or Get (It) Out of the Way?” in the September 2008 issue of Engineered Systems (page 36), and I appreciate his thoughtful and constructive criticism. Energy efficiency considerations should be integral to every design project, but it’s hard to imagine any organization or engineer knowingly sacrificing a data center’s reliability or redundancy in exchange for a certification. It’s also hard to understand how a financially responsible project manager could rationalize the fees required for a professional engineer (or a team of them) to spend hours studying something so counter-intuitive. Let’s just hope code officials and politicians can stay on the sidelines of this debate. Bad government policy, foolish business practices, and reckless leadership have done serious damage to the financial markets — hopefully we can avoid similar mistakes with our building codes. Jeff Crane, P.E., LEED AP FM Frequency Columnist Today’s Facility Manager Dickens responds: Thanks for the comments, and I hate to say it, but the LEED folks have gotten the attention of the busybodies. Just look at Chicago and Portland, where all buildings over a certain size now have to be certified. All it will lead to is gaming of the system. I can almost guarantee they won’t be saving any more energy. Security concerns: time for new thinking This letter refers to Howard McKew’s “Tomorrow’s Environment” column in the October 2008 issue of Engineered Systems (page 86) titled “HVAC Security According to ASHRAE.” Another excellent article. Allow me to share my experiences. In September 2001, I was working as chief mechanical engineer at a nationally recognized MEP consulting firm. Immediately after the horrific incident, we started to receive phone calls from clients — as Eileen Duignan-Woods, P.E. Principal E.D.W. Associates, Inc. Mechanical Consultants Silver Spring, MD 10 En gi neer ed S y stem s January 2009
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.