Design Guidelines: HVAC Simulation Guidelines
The HVAC Simulation Guidelines are comprised of the following documents: Underfloor Air Distribution Energy Efficient Chillers Advanced Control Sequences Complete HVAC Simulation Guidelines - 9 MB

Design Briefs: Displacement Ventilation
Displacement ventilation provides improved IAQ, cooling energy savings, and better acoustics for high performance buildings. Displacement ventilation (DV) is an alternate air distribution method for commercial and industrial spaces.1 Used since the late 1970s in Northern Europe and more recently in U...

Design Briefs: Advanced Variable-Air-Volume (VAV) Systems
This Advanced VAV System Design Brief provides recommendations to help engineers improve the efficiency of large HVAC systems. It focuses on built-up variable-air-volume (VAV) systems in multistory office buildings. The recommended measures promote efficient, practical designs that advance standard practice, achieve cost-effective energy savings, and can be implemented using current technology...

Design Briefs: Integrated Design for Small Commercial HVAC
By using recommended design methods for rooftop heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, significant improvements in operational savings, energy efficiency, and indoor comfort can be achieved. Summary: Small HVAC systems are the workhorses of the light commercial building market, which represents more than half of the annual commercial new construction floor area in California...

Design Briefs: Chiller Plant Efficiency
Though more costly to install and more complicated to operate, a chiller plant offers a number of benefits over simple packaged cooling units, including greater energy efficiency, better controllability, and longer life. Summary: Chilled water-based cooling systems are frequently used to aircondition large office buildings or campuses that encompass multiple buildings...

Design Briefs: Air Conditioning & Ventilation
Using the whole-systems approach to building design, designers around the world have succeeded at creating highly efficient air-conditioning systems that provide excellent workspace comfort. Summary: Air conditioning and ventilation systems can significantly affect a building’s profitability...

Design Briefs: Underfloor Air Distribution and Access Floors
Underfloor air distribution and access floor systems can provide energy savings, improved indoor air quality, and a technology ready environment for today’s commercial buildings. Summary: Underfloor air distribution and access floor systems provide numerous advantages to commercial building owners and occupants compared to traditional overhead air distribution systems with “pipe and wire” data, telecommunications, and electrical distribution systems...

Design Briefs: Drivepower
To truly minimize the energy use of a drivepower system—which includes the motor, its controls, and the connection between the motor and the equipment it drives—designers need to consider how these components operate as a system rather than looking at them on an individual basis...

Design Briefs: Energy Management Systems
On average, energy management systems save about 10 percent of overall annual building energy consumption. Summary: An energy management system (EMS) is a computer that controls the operation of all major building systems, in order to run the building efficiently and effectively...

Case Studies: Innovative Mechanical Designs in the Sierras
The Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences (TCES) is a three-story, 45,000 ft2 building on Sierra Nevada College’s Lake Campus. Located in Incline Village, Nevada, the building serves as a research laboratory for scientists and students working in the Lake Tahoe watershed region, and includes lab space, offices, classrooms, teaching labs, and various support spaces...