Top 5 Consulting-Specifying Engineer Articles, September 12-18: Product of the Year winners, MEP Giants, integrating electrical and HVAC systems, more

Articles about the 2016 Product of the Year winners, MEP Giants, integrating electrical and HVAC systems, managing transformer inrush current, and HVAC codes and standards were Consulting-Specifying Engineer's five most clicked articles from last week, September 12-18. Were you out last week? You can catch up here.

By Emily Guenther September 19, 2016

Consulting-Specifying Engineer’s Top 5 most read articles online, for September 12-18, covered the 2016 Product of the Year winners, MEP Giants, integrating electrical and HVAC systems, managing transformer inrush current, and HVAC codes and standards. Link to each article below.

1. 2016 Product of the Year winners 

Winners of the 12th annual Consulting-Specifying Engineer Product of the Year awards included a space-saving, low harmonic HVAC drive, aspirating smoke detectors, and geothermal, hybrid energy-system-monitoring software. Each of the following winning innovations has been designed to improve workflow and increase system efficiency.

2. 2016 MEP Giants

The MEP Giants program lists the top 100 mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), and fire protection engineering firms in the United States. The in-depth analysis of these firms appears in the August issue and reveals what’s going on in the industry and how it has changed over the past few years.

3. Integration: electrical and HVAC systems

The integration of electrical and HVAC systems is an important step in providing a smart building solution to improve the overall energy performance of the building and increase efficiencies of the systems within the building. Further emphasizing this concept, several codes, standards, and guidelines are in place that require integrated system design to reduce building energy usage.

4. Managing increased transformer inrush current

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) new efficiency levels for low-voltage dry-type distribution transformers came into effect at the beginning of 2016. Technically known as CFR title 10 Chapter II Part 431 (in Appendix A of Subpart K 2016), the new efficiency requirements are more commonly referred to as the DOE 2016 Efficiency levels.

5. HVAC codes and standards: cooling and energy efficiency

Codes and standards dictate the design of HVAC systems; however, there are ways to improve the design of nonresidential buildings to achieve maximum energy efficiency.

This list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on www.csemag.com, September 12-18, for articles published within the last two months. 

Emily Guenther, associate content manager, CFE Media, eguenther@cfemedia.com


Author Bio: Emily is Associate Content Manager at CFE Media.