Laboratories Best Practices: Right Sizing Laboratory Equipment Loads

Steven G. Liescheidt, P.E., CCS, CCPR

Course Outline

This one hour online course discusses the benefits of right sizing equipment in laboratory buildings from the perspective of design considerations through to operational benefits.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

• Be able to understand equipment load estimation typical practices;
• Be able to learn how to incorporate right sizing strategies; and
• Be able to understand the benefits of right sizing equipment serving laboratories.
  
  

Intended Audience

This course is intended for mechanical engineers.

Benefit for Attendee

Attendee of this course will be able to better understand how HVAC system equipment for laboratories can be “right sized” to provide more energy responsible and cost conscious system installations while also providing reliability in system performance.

Course Introduction

Equipment load measurements from various laboratories has shown that peak equipment loads are significantly overestimated. Evidence from laboratory designers and planners suggests this is not unusual and occurs widely in laboratory design practice. This course discusses strategies to “right size” equipment used in HVAC systems in laboratories.

Course Content

This course is primarily based on Laboratories Foe the 21st Century:  Best Practice Guide – Right-Sizing Laboratory Equipment Loads, August 2006:

Laboratories Best Practices: Right Sizing Laboratory Equipment Loads

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

The best-practice guide used in this course first presents the problem of over-sizing in typical practice and then describes how best-practice strategies obtain better estimates of equipment loads and right-size HVAC systems, saving initial construction costs as well as life-cycle energy costs.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites:

United States Green Building Council – www.usgbc.com
US Department of Energy – www.doe.gov
National Renewable Energy Laboratory – www.nrel.gov

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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