Abstract: Church heating represents a challenging task because multiple goals have to be fulfilled simultaneously, such as the thermal comfort for the occupants and the optimal internal environmental conditions for the preservation of building components and artworks. In addition, current requirements for environmental and economic sustainability impose to make efforts to minimize the amount of energy needed and the consequent environmental/economic impact. In this context, the present work represents the assessment of the energy, environmental and economic impact of different strategies for church heating, including a novel technology based on the exploitation of renewable energies. The analysis was carried out in a real case-study building, represented by the Basilica di S. Maria di Collemaggio (L’Aquila, Italy), a church of worldwide relevance, currently under restoration.
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
― Franz Kafka
HP Critical Facilities Services | Bethesda, Maryland
Mark Beirne
DLB Associates | Chicago, Illinois
Abstract. The key feature of this article is the application of quantitative method for evaluating risk and conveying the results into a power system design that is scaled according to hazards present in any given emergency management district. These methods employ classical lumped parameter modeling of power chain architectures and can be applied to any type of critical facility, whether it is a stand-alone structure, or a portion of stand-alone structure, such as a police station or government center. This article will provide a risk assessment roadmap for one of the most common critical facilities that should be designated as COPS per NEC 708-a 911 call center. The existing methods of reliability engineering will be used in the risk assessment.
* Robert Schuerger is the lead author on this paper
Harvard University Art Museum | In the Sierras, Lake Tahoe | Albert Bierstadt
Best is water
— Pindar 476 B.C.
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has an extensive catalog that sets the standard of care for water quality and piping systems running through all communities.
We approach them from the point of view of education communities; some with agriculture, vast hospital systems heavily dependent upon a higher level of water quality and district energy plants. Like most every technology in the United States, water issues enliven political discourse. Essential features of water supply — such as backflow protection, separation, piping systems to playground water fountains, etc. — are subordinated to fury over to access and tariff issues. For the moment we steer away from them.
The landing page for the AWWA standardization enterprise is linked below:
The original University of Michigan standards advocacy enterprise engaged in some back-and-forth with the backflow and cross-connection technical committees. It found ambiguity in the language found in AWWA C510-C511-C512 covering reduced pressure zone (RPZ) values that caused some education facility units to over-specify RPZ valves for all facility classes. Many research universities have enterprises that create toxic water waste which must be blocked from entering the municipal water supply. Some of that back-and-forth is recounted in the workspace linked below.
We found that minimum requirements for backflow prevention technology was easier managed at state level plumbing safety administrative boards.
Several AWWA standards are now open for public review; AWWA G430 Security Practices for Operation and Management among them. We point you toward them; though, in the interest of resource conservation, we will follow but not advocate user-interest in this product at the moment. It appears to have stabilized compared with other standards in the water safety domain (though that could change).
Comments due August 9th.
We find AWWA best practice literature heavily referenced in school district, college and university design guidelines and construction contracts. We do a status check of the AWWA suite every month during our Water teleconferences. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
#Backflow Incident: A winery in a small town of Italy, backpressures 1,000 liters of wine into the water supply. The cause, a faulty valve.https://t.co/pFMIUSfwfp
Legionella risk is a domain rich in possibilities for lawsuits so we should not be surprised that best practice titles in the ASHRAE suite — and other standards bibliographies — go unstable with new findings. We encourage facility units in education communities to contribute data to technical committees and to participate directly. you may access titles open for public comment at the link below:
ASHRAE runs one of the best public consultation facilities in the United States. Its titles appear in most of our daily colloquia; this one best practice titles are on the standing agendas of our Energy, Mechanical, Water 200/Water 400 and Risk colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Columbia University
Issue: 12-42
Category: Mechanical Engineering, Occupational Health & Safety, Water
Colleagues: Richard Robben, Ron George, Larry Spielvogel
Set within a vineyard the chapel emulates the silhouette of surrounding mountain ranges; mimicking the historic Cape Dutch gables dotting the rural landscapes of the Western Cape.
Constructed from a slim concrete cast shell, the roof supports itself as each undulation dramatically falls to meet the ground. Where each wave of the roof structure rises to a peak, expanses of glazing adjoined centrally by a crucifix adorn the façade.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
