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Duane Kubischta

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Higher Ed Lab Closer to Sustainability with 30% Estimated Energy Savings

Lab Sustainability / By

A UC Davis lab participating in the the Smart Labs Incentive Program (Smart Labs Program) received approval of initial savings estimates by PG&E, which are almost a 30% reduction in annual electricity use. To get here, the Smart Labs Program provided UC Davis: free technical assistance including: a scoping study, a ventilation risk assessment, HVAC […]

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Optimize your VAV system to improve comfort, reduce over-cooling and save energy with time-averaged ventilation (TAV)

Building Controls, Commercial Buildings, Energy Management, HVAC, Retro-Commissioning / By

Commercial building heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems commonly use variable air volume (VAV) systems for their heating and cooling needs. VAV systems can be more energy efficient when properly controlled and operated. We frequently find these systems performing less than optimally and recommend a variety of energy saving solutions depending on current operations.

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Under the Hood of Your Building: Verification Is Essential for Optimized Building Energy Use

Building Analytics, Building Controls, Commissioning, Retro-Commissioning / By

Trust, but verify. Seems reasonable, but sometimes in commissioning I think ‘always verify’ is a better phrase. Investigation is key in retro-commissioning We were completing a retro-commissioning project on community college building in Southern California and noticed something off in the trend data. The economizer on two air handlers did not seem to be functioning

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Under the hood of your building: Curiosity discovers big RCx savings from inefficient chiller operation

Energy Management, Refrigeration, Retro-Commissioning, Schools K-12 / By

As efficiency engineers it’s important to be curious, persistent and to get into our client’s shoes. How, why, and can you show me? These questions help me remember an ethos that drives me every day as I solve big energy problems. Here is one great success story that resulted from those questions. We were back

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An Energy Detective’s Best Friend: Visualizing Building Performance with Tableau

Building Analytics, Retro-Commissioning / By

I spend a lot of time with building engineers deciphering what’s happening in their VAV systems. Unfortunately, it’s often not what the design engineer intended, or what the controls company envisioned when they set up the system. When identifying problems with building control systems, it’s much easier to do when you can see the data,

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