Today, more and more building owners recognize the importance of incorporating sustainable practices and procedures into their new and existing buildings. Darren Goody, a senior consultant with Green Building Services, Inc. (GBS) has been performing building commissioning, retro-commissioning, and energy audits for over 16 years. He recently shared his experience and expertise with us on how data loggers play an important role in the green building industry.
Can you briefly describe the focus of GBS?
Our focus includes a broad range of green building services, from design consultation and technical services to facility audits. GBS is comprised of architects, engineers, and others who help clients incorporate sustainable materials and practices into their buildings from all aspects from the life of a building to an existing building to make it better.
What are some of the challenges your clients face — and why is monitoring environmental conditions important?
It varies depending on the application. For example, we will go in and monitor indoor temperature conditions in a warehouse to make sure that temperatures are consistent to maintain the integrity of a company’s product.
Another challenge facing building owners is meeting consistent temperature conditions for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and documenting how that process is achieved. By monitoring and recording various parameters like temperature and relative humidity, data loggers have helped us detect and document IAQ conditions.
Office buildings are demanding because there is less tolerance for temperature variations. By providing improved environmental conditions in a workplace, building owners can improve employee attendance and increase productivity.
Can you describe a project you are currently working on?
Currently, we are working with the federal government in various buildings on a military base. We are helping them achieve more sustainable features from the materials that they use to the process of constructing the buildings. Essentially, we are helping them eliminate construction waste to a bare minimum.
We are using data loggers to monitor the energy efficiency of their buildings’ HVAC system and make sure it hasn’t become contaminated with particles due to construction. This will improve the overall energy consumption and indoor environmental quality of the facility.
How do data loggers fit into the verification and testing of a building’s HVAC system?
Data loggers confirm that the system is able to maintain temperature control and energy consumption in the most efficient manner. They tell us how a system is operating.
We work with our clients to provide long-term cost savings by pursuing energy efficiency measures, and using data loggers is a low-cost way for us to provide substantial cost benefits.