When a building’s HVAC system fails, timing is everything.

The sooner a system is up and running again, the better, and every minute with a system down is a minute where a building’s occupants are uncomfortable, office appointments may need to be canceled, and, in some cases, landlords may have to offer rent Abatements to make up for the inconvenience.

One way building owners can ensure they don’t experience the long-term ramifications of an HVAC outage is to partner with the right HVAC team that can not only quickly diagnose and fix the problem, but can implement solutions to keep it from happening again.

“When you’re facing an HVAC outage, every second counts,” said Brendan Dowd, service team leader at Boland, a Washington, DC-based provider of commercial HVAC systems, services and building energy solutions. “It’s important to work with a knowledgeable team that knows how to work fast.”

Dowd shared a story about a medical office building in Chevy Chase, Maryland, that experienced an outage to both of its chillers — shutting down cooling to the entire facility. The building had gone through a repositioning a few years earlier, and while some of the air handling systems had been replaced, the old chillers had remained untouched. At this point, he said, these chillers had reached the end of their life expectancy and as a result, when one failed, they both shut down, creating a serious issue for the facility.

Boland was able to install a rental chiller within hours to resume medical services and keep the building’s occupants comfortable. Later on, the team replaced the failed chillers with high-efficiency water-cooled Trane chillers.

“Luckily, we had two brand-new machines, which were in stock in our factory,” Dowd said. “So the owner executed a contract and 30 days later, the old machines were out of the building, the new machines were operating and the temporary rental chiller was removed.”

The Boland team went even further than just replacing the failed chillers; it also upgraded the facility’s building automation system, implementing new controls and technology that allow for optimized heating, cooling, lighting schedules and sequencing. It also upgraded the lighting system by replacing 660 T8 fixtures with LED fixtures throughout the building and the garage.

“Now we have a connected building, where we’re monitoring the energy usage and utility usage in real time, with 24/7/365 monitoring,” said Mechelle Munn, an energy performance engineer at Boland. “We’re watching that building every minute of every day to ensure it is operating optimally.”

Munn and her colleagues on Boland’s Applied Building Insights team work to provide clients with data-backed insights for continuous building energy and sustainability improvements.

As a result of these upgrades, the client not only has a reliable HVAC system that fosters a safe, comfortable and healthy indoor environment, it saw a 34% reduction in electric consumption, which led to $168K in electricity bill savings. As for the cost to the client, Dowd said the lighting system paid for itself within 10 months, while the building automation system paid for itself in just six months.

To ensure that things continue to run smoothly, Dowd said, the Boland team is not content with simply monitoring the building automation system and waiting for a problem to present itself. Instead, it meets with the client on an annual basis to discuss the client’s long-term plans for the asset and develop strategies to keep the building and its equipment operational and efficient for years to come.

“It’s all about having an experienced team by your side who can work fast,” Dowd said. “When a catastrophic failure occurs, you don’t want to waste time searching for the right people. You need a reliable team you can count on who can provide an immediate solution, and then work with you on a long-term basis to ensure this never happens again.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Boland. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house branded content studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.

The post When An HVAC System Fails, Buildings Want A Companion Who Can Ship An Rapid Answer And A Lengthy-Time period Repair appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco workers are moving from pandemic hotels to homeless people

Christien Kafton of KTVU reports.

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco’s shelter-in-place hotel program for its non-accommodating residents is coming to an end.

The city said it is working to ensure those staying in the hotels don’t end up back on the streets.

In April 2020, not long after the COVID pandemic became a looming threat, San Francisco mobilized to evacuate homeless residents from large gathering places. They relocated 3,700 people to 25 accommodations in hotels across the city.

The city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) said the scheme had always been a temporary measure and is now being phased out.

“This program was a FEMA-sponsored emergency response and was always intended to be temporary,” said HSH’s Emily Cohen.

The department said it is working to seize this unique opportunity and has already moved 915 people from accommodation in hotels to longer-term housing solutions.

San Francisco is dissolving hotels for the homeless program

KTVU’s Candese Charles reports.

“As we move through the pandemic, closer to recovery, we are learning more about COVID. We really want to make sure we build on the opportunity that we’ve had over the past 20 months to build on those relationships with people in the SIP hotels and transitioning them into permanent homes,” said Cohen.

Nicole McDonald is in an emergency shelter trying to get out of homelessness. She said she was frustrated that more people weren’t being let in.

“I stay there myself and I see that they don’t let people into the shelters,” McDonald said. “They’re getting more people out of the shelters, they’re telling them there aren’t any beds available.”

The Department for Homelessness and Supportive Housing said the city’s emergency shelters are not yet operating at full capacity. The department said it’s not that easy to refill beds. There must be all-round services for those seeking protection, and with the Omicron variant still posing a threat, security must come first.

“Congregate Shelters continue to play a very important role in responding to the homeless, but we must do so responsibly in the context of COVID,” said Cohen.

The city said it aims to close the last of the Shelter-in-Place hotels by September.

The post San Francisco works to maneuver homeless out of resorts and into long-term housing appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.