Pandemic Building Commissioning: A Case-Specific Strategy for Reducing Infectious Risks

Jack McCarthy | March 30, 2021

Traditional processes for commissioning new buildings, or recommissioning existing buildings, follow a tactical approach to verifying the performance of HVAC systems and ensuring these energy-intensive systems continue to meet the building’s performance and energy efficiency expectations. It’s a process that provides tremendous value, with an average payback of 1.7 years for existing buildings through reduced...

Creating More Resilient Healthcare Facilities: Steps to Take Today to More Rapidly Prepare for a Winter COVID Surge

Bryan Connors | January 18, 2021

The winter surge of the COVID-19 pandemic is here. This time there is no epicenter, the spread of the virus has accelerated across the United States. Some healthcare systems just this summer were able to transition from COVID-dedicated spaces back to general patient care areas. Now they are faced with converting back again to respond...

CDC and ASHRAE HVAC Guidance for Commercial Buildings: Beware of creating new problems when modifying systems for COVID-19

Brian Baker | July 1, 2020

Across the country employers and building owners and managers are working to ready their buildings to welcome back workers and visitors after the COVID-19 shutdown. Maintaining health-protective workspaces is key for controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) during the pandemic and to help minimize the “second wave”. Building systems can play...

Do I Need to Disinfect My HVAC System for the Coronavirus Before Re-Occupancy?

Kevin Coghlan | April 27, 2020

We are fast approaching a point (if we are not there already) where our collective focus will shift from supporting a work-at-home strategy to planning for employees to return to the workplace. There will be a great number of issues to address prior to that happening. From a facility management perspective, one immediate question is...

8 Common Myths and Misconceptions About Commissioning a New Building

Michael Della Barba | February 27, 2019

The commissioning process is an opportunity for building owners to verify that their newly completed building was designed, constructed and delivered as promised. Most often performed by a third party, commissioning provides quality assurance that building owners are receiving exactly what they paid for. This is especially important because once the building is delivered and...

The Dangers of Improper Pressurization and Ventilation

Bryan Connors | October 2, 2018

Healthcare-acquired infections aren’t just dangerous to patients — they can also be very costly for the facilities in question. Since procedures and processes that are high risk for infection are performed in places like operating rooms and central processing, ensuring proper pressurization and ventilation to avoid infection is a matter of life and death. The...

Value of the Design Review: Cutting Costs in the Beginning Can Cost More Later

Michael Della Barba | August 3, 2018

Researchers have put the average cost of construction rework at roughly 4 to 6 percent of a project’s total cost—and closer to 9 percent upon factoring in overhead costs. Too often rework is the result of an overlooked omission on the early drawings, something minute that isn’t addressed by a design team focused on the...

Commissioning is Critical to Validating Containment in the Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) Environment

Michael Della Barba | March 7, 2018

Design standards, biosafety level criteria, and performance requirements are continually evolving to keep pace with the rapidly changing technologies used in Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) laboratories. For BSL-3 laboratory mechanical systems, the ventilation and specific design features are vital to containment and protecting workers, the community, and critical research. Commissioning is an essential risk management strategy...