Considering that we spend 90 percent of our time indoors, mechanical engineering – specifically HVAC&R engineering – may be the engineering discipline with which we come in contact the most, yet think about the least. That must change given our nation’s current energy crisis and how much our comfort heating, cooling and lighting systems contribute to energy use.
Everywhere you look, there’s talk of increased fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, alternative fuels and compact fluorescent light bulbs. These are admirable efforts, and I would never want to detract from those.
But as those of us in the building industry also know, the biggest impact we can make on reducing energy use is through our nation’s existing building stock, which constitutes 40 percent of the nation’s primary energy use and is the single largest area of energy consumption in the United States.
Buildings also account for almost one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, while the carbon emissions associated with U.S. buildings equal the combined total emissions from the United Kingdom, France and Japan.
Reducing this energy use – and the resulting environmental impact – is the top focus of engineers given that heating, air-conditioning, refrigeration and water heating systems account for 65 to 75 percent of energy use in residential and commercial buildings. The engineering community already has the technology available to drastically reduce energy consumption in buildings. In fact, some building owners have been employing it for years; the only problem is there aren’t enough of them doing so.
Engineers need your help to drive home the message that we must take the energy out of buildings. From hotels to hospitals, schools to self-storage buildings, we must put energy efficiency first when it comes to the design, build and operation of buildings.
For too long, our industry has focused on only the minimum requirements of the building codes. But engineers are working to increase those minimum goals, setting standards that can provide a 30 percent energy reduction through careful system design, selection and installation.
However, this goal of energy reduction and efficiency can be only partially reached solely through the efforts of mechanical engineers, as they apply their expanded knowledge of the HVAC industry through the development and installation of new technology. Mechanical engineering is only one facet of the construction process, and it requires the collaboration of the entire design and construction team before real energy efficiency can be obtained.
Historically, buildings have been designed using a linear design process where building elements are often defined and developed in a sequential and somewhat isolated process. The architects, mechanical and electrical engineers, contractors and consultants would work separately on each element of the building, not necessarily in close conjunction and cooperation. This would make overarching design goals more difficult to achieve.
However, by bringing design teams together through integrated building design (IBD), the team’s collective knowledge and processes together can create a truly high-performing building. IBD is a collaborative process that can provide the strategies to achieve high-performance, low-energy, sustainable buildings by considering all design variables together simultaneously.
IBD looks beyond the immediate building to how the building and its systems can be integrated with supporting systems, on its site and in its community and at how materials, systems and products of a building connect, interact and affect one another. It is not enough to simply put in high-efficiency lighting and HVAC systems. Only by collectively addressing such issues as building orientation, day lighting, natural ventilation, lighting control and occupancy/demand control can we see the levels of overall energy efficiency that we are all seeking.
Interaction among all building disciplines (engineers, owners, architects, contractors, consultants, etc.) is required to achieve design goals such as sustainable buildings, superior indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency, building security and maintaining critical operations. Early commitment and participation of these parties that extends throughout all stages of the design process, from project inception through commissioning, design, construction, operation and maintenance, is necessary to optimize the building’s overall performance.
The IBD process also helps to assure an optimized design through the collaborative generation of multiple design options and evaluate using an iterative design process. Using analysis tools such as building information modeling (BIM), energy modeling and life cycle cost analysis are crucial in IBD to support design decisions.
Through the integrated building design process, mechanical engineers help to engineer the world in which we live; from the heating systems that keep us warm during the cool autumn months to the roofs over our heads to the very air we breathe.
Gordon V. R. Holness, P.E., the 2009-10 volunteer president of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), is an independent consulting engineer in West Palm Beach, Fla. Questions may be directed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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