Located on the northern end of Providence College's illustrious campus in Rhode Island, Schneider Arena is an athletic facility. The building serves the needs of the men's and women's Division I hockey programs, men's lacrosse, the club hockey team, intramurals, and Rhode Island's youth and high school hockey teams. Over its nearly 50-year history, the 3,000+ seat arena has undergone several renovations to ensure its state-of-the-art facilities. One of the recent upgrade projects was to improve the efficiency of the chiller system responsible for maintaining the temperature of the ice. The scope of work involved a complete overhaul of the chiller plant.

The increasing energy demand leaves us all facing enormous challenges. Buildings, both new and existing, will need to make a significant contribution to a more sustainable future. Our personal choices affect future generations, not as much of an impact on the planet as commercial buildings. However, HVAC systems typically account for 40% of the building's energy consumption; the time has come to not just measure but to start managing as we enter a new era of integrated thermal energy management.

Even in a pandemic-free world, there are important reasons to maintain healthy indoor air quality (IAQ). Indoor air quality is a concentration of thermal conditions and airborne contaminants in commercial buildings. The indoor air quality parameters are carbon dioxide (CO2), humidity, temperature, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). IAQ is essential for our well-being; poor indoor air pollution is a leading risk factor for premature death. The IHME estimates it's responsible for 1.6 million deaths each year. The WHO puts this figure at 4.3 million.

Studies have shown that up to 70% of economizers are not functioning correctly. Many economizers are not working or are out of service because of the installation or lack of maintenance. Economizers must be working correctly and saving energy rather than increasing costs. Many times economizer systems are not set up correctly or left to operate in factory default mode. Economizer failures generally do not result in comfort problems causing many failures to go undetected. These problems persist, causing poor filtration, ventilation, and inefficient air exchange resulting in poor indoor air quality and increased energy usage with energy standards and building indoor air requirements not being met.

The pandemic has brought a renewed interest in HVAC building systems and indoor air quality. As regions of the Americas begin to reopen, Belimo is here to help HVAC professionals to brush up on skills and expand their industry knowledge. Belimo University offers comprehensive training that will assist you with understanding HVAC fundamentals and Belimo products through a variety of formats. Our training courses are available online or onsite at no cost to you.

Piping Packages, sometimes referred to as coil kits or hose kits, are a streamlined method of piping HVAC terminal units, significantly reducing the amount of field joint connections required between the distribution piping and the coil. Hydronic applications use water or water/glycol solutions as heat transfer fluids in heating and cooling systems. Typically, in large-scale facilities such as commercial buildings, high-rises, schools, university campus facilities, a hydronic system will include a chilled and hot water loop to provide heating and cooling. These hydronic systems consist of centralized energy sources such as a chiller or boiler, pumps to move the fluid, and associated distribution piping to connect to localized heat transfer terminal units. These terminal units require flow control often through actuated valves and ancillary components to allow for commissioning and routine maintenance. Custom factory assembled piping packages offer an excellent solution to meet the numerous piping requirements for these hydronic applications.

When designing commercial HVAC damper applications, many factors are considered that impact actuator selection. Every actuator manufacturer has an applied torque limit to consider. When factoring in the controllability of a damper, the control system is simply sending a control signal to “an actuator” to drive “a damper.” The control signal is not affected that multiple damper sections or multiple actuators must operate as “one” device. Damper manufacturers also have specific product considerations such as rough opening with dampers, manage shipping size limits, damper assembly configurations, and damper performance. Application, product, and manufacture terminology vary when discussing large dampers or high torque applications.

Optimum Energy is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and specialists in data-driven HVAC energy optimization for campuses and extensive facilities. A pilot project was undertaken at the headquarters of one of Optimum Energy's Fortune 100 clients. The purpose was to test the impact of the award-winning Belimo Energy Valve on long-term sustainability by combatting HVAC system problems associated with low Delta-T.

Effective fire protection saves lives, minimizes property damage, and secures the continued operation of buildings. Actuated fire and smoke dampers in walls and ceilings penetrations provide the best protection along with sprinkler systems against the spread of fire and smoke. Actuator dampers also protect against low-temperature toxic smoke produced when a fire breaks out, helping for safe evacuation.