Have you walked outside recently and felt sticky as sweat starts to bead up on your forehead? In the summer, the relative humidity can seem unbearable. The HVAC field involves more than the acronym H (heating), V (ventilation) and AC (air conditioning) indicates. A key factor in human comfort is humidity control.
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With spring approaching, everyone is excited by thoughts of sunny days and the absence of snow. Although you may be ready for this change in weather, it’s important your air conditioner is too. Some preventative measures can be taken to help prolong the life of an air conditioning system. (more…)
Fan experience is the number one thing that architects try to achieve in their vision for a sport facility and the most important thing for an owner to realize at the end of the project. It’s important because fan experience determines the long term success of a facility; more so than even the record of the team playing in it.
Building a stronger design team is the key to winning more sports and athletic facility projects. As an architect, how you build your design team often means having to choose a consultant based on either locality or experience. Going with a local consultant does offer the advantage of having someone knowledgeable of the project and its managers.
However, when upwards of 60% of a facility’s cost falls under structural and MEP systems, choosing a consultant for these disciplines based only on geography is not the most strategic choice for building a better design team.
Many people enjoy swimming for sports and recreation but may not be aware of the unique HVAC systems that keep swimmers comfortable. Buildings that contain a pool room are called natatoriums. Examples of natatoriums are commonly found in hotels, sports and recreation facilities and fitness centers.
By: David R. Simpson, P.E., SECB
Hopefully everyone has a fantastic holiday season! The weeks leading up to Christmas can be frantic with decorating, crowded malls, finding the perfect gifts, wrapping, and visiting family. As enjoyable as Christmas day is, it seems to come and go entirely too quickly.
One of my favorite parts of the build up to Christmas is seeing homes decorated with Christmas lights. Whether your house looks like the Griswold household or you took a milder approach to decorating, all Christmas lights have something in common. Christmas lights are considered festoon lighting.
According to the Article 100 of the NEC, festoon lighting is defined as a string of outdoor lights that is suspended between two points. Festoon lighting is mentioned in Article 225 Section 6(B) in regards to conductor size and support, but for this blog we’ll highlight Article 590 Section 3(B). Article 590.3(B) states temporary electric power and lighting installations shall be permitted for a period not to exceed 90 days for holiday decorative lighting and similar purposes.
In other words once Christmas passes and the fast pace starts to return to normal, it’s okay to enjoy your Christmas lights for a little longer. Just remember to remove your festoon lighting within 90 days of installation.
Engineers at Allegheny Design Services can assist in answering code compliance questions or provide code compliance inspections related to mechanical, electrical, plumbing, or structural engineering. You can reach Allegheny Design Services at 304-599-0771. We look forward to working with you!
Thanks for reading,
Alex Clarkson, EIT
Junior Mechanical Engineer
Journeyman Electrician
A DX system uses a refrigerant, a compound that changes phases from a gas to a liquid and back, to move heat indoors to outdoors or vice versa. (more…)
“Preferred Parking” was featured in the December issue of Modern Steel Construction.
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia, excels at natural beauty and football, among other things.
Home to West Virginia University and its acclaimed Mountaineer football team, the town of roughly 30,000 (twice that when WVU classes are in session) sits amongst the rolling hills of northern West Virginia along the banks of the Monongahela River.
But one thing the town lacks is public parking, particularly in the downtown area. (more…)
This story was featured in the December 2016 issue of Modern Steel Construction.
I used to believe that good engineers never made mistakes. Now I believe that good engineers have simply learned to never repeat mistakes. In the decade I’ve been working as an engineer, I’ve made countless decisions — most good, but some bad. Each decision taught me something, but the lessons from the bad ones are harder to forget. One of those lessons has stuck with me since my first week on the job, more than ten years ago. (more…)
With the energy efficiency and relatively small size of LEDs, lighting manufacturers have a tremendous amount of flexibility to create different shapes and sizes of light fixtures. But with all of the advantages of LED light fixtures, there are always some disadvantages. (more…)
If you are in the construction or development industry, you’ve seen projects where the cost of construction spirals out of control. This can lead to projects that are over budget and often run out of time due to delays. But whether you are an owner, a vendor or even a designer, there are several things you can do for keeping construction costs low. (more…)
Allegheny Design Services’ Senior Mechanical Engineer, David Cotton, presented at the February 12th West Virginia ASHRAE Chapter and WVU Student Branch Joint Meeting. (more…)