January 10th is National Cut Your Energy Costs Day! Time to Think About an Energy Audit for Your Facility!

Commercial Building Energy Audit

The main purpose of an energy audit, from an economic perspective, is to provide information to the Building Owner that will help them to make energy saving decisions in regards to where and how to best invest money into their building. A proper energy audit report will quantify the effect on operating costs (and reduction of energy) of implementing modifications to a building (such as lighting upgrades, HVAC controls improvements and building envelope improvements). While some improvements may seem obvious choices to implement, it is often not obvious that the life-cycle cost of the improvement is the best economic decision, and would be a more sound investment than using the financial capital elsewhere. A properly executed energy audit is a key component to the operating plan for a well-managed building or portfolio of buildings.

Would you like more information on energy audits? Contact us! info@horizon-engineering.com

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Spot the Deficiency! January 2019

Q: What needs to be fixed?

A: This is a deficiency because the duct is going to run into the pipe. Either the pipe or the duct has to be moved. If this was not caught by the commissioning process, the project would not be able to continue; the ductwork could not be finished until the pipe moved.

Did you get it right? Let us know!

Thank you to Phil McCrory, QCxP, Field Engineer, for capturing this.

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Employee Spotlight: Michael McDonnell

Meet Michael McDonnell! He is HEA's Senior Accountant and he recently was selected as an Employee of the Month! Here's a quick Q/A with him: Who would you like to swap places with for a day? My 18 month old son, would love to see his... Read More
 

Spot the Deficiency! December 2018

Q: What needs to be fixed?

A: Questionable temporary shoring used to support an unstable shelf angle at a brick veneer parapet.

Did you get it right? Let us know!

Thank you to Eric Turcotte, Field Engineer, for catching this.

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Employee Spotlight: Tracy Kiernan

Meet Kieran Tracy! He is a Field Engineer at HEA and he recently earned his LEED Green Associate credential. HEA is committed to our tagline, “Demand a Higher Standard” and encourages our staff to always be learning and being ahead of the curve. ... Read More
 

Antonio Delise

Q/A with Antonio Delise, Field Engineer II Employee of the Month: September 2018 Who would you like to swap places with for a day? I would swap places with Captain Sully. What did you want to grow up to be when you were a kid? I always... Read More
 

Featured Deficiency September 2018

Featured deficiency: Control Panel

A wall was built around the control panel (on the left) where the conduits go in. Will be unable to access the controls or do any service on this unit.

Submitted by: Philip McCrory, Field Engineer II

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John Stocker

Q/A with John Stocker, Senior Project Engineer Employee of the Month: July 2018 If you could vacation anywhere on the planet, where would you go? There’s many places I’d love to vacation, but if I could choose anywhere, might as well be... Read More
 

Featured Deficiency! July 2018

Featured deficiency: Dirty Pipes

Having dirty drain pipes would lead to clogging which is the sole purpose of having drain pipes in the first place! Timely flushing and cleaning water treatment would prevent this. In this case, the facility was having issues because of the age of the building and that it was not properly maintained. We were able to snap a picture of the samples they took after pipes were cut out.

Written by: Gopal Lalwani, Project Engineer

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Behind the Scenes: Support Columns

Photo is in the basement of a prominent museum in Philadelphia, PA. As part of the Core Phase project, the museum is performing a lot of excavating to make way for increased usable space for galleries, classrooms and support areas. In some areas, they have found that the footings below some of the 90 year old support columns need to be deeper and/or repaired. The shoring is in place on either side of the support column so that they can install new footings. The scale of this is pretty impressive when you consider the bottle of water on the right hand side of the photo.

By: Michael Palumbo, CCP, Senior Project Engineer

Questions? Contact us at info@horizon-engineering.com.

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