The Earth is what we all have in common.–Wendell Berry
I recently started volunteering with the Cincinnati Reuse and Recycling Hub, and offered to use my engineering background to help with plastics recycling. In the Cincinnati area, Rumpke handles the curbside recycling, removing large quantities of #1 PET bottles and #5 tubs from the waste stream (i.e. the landfill). At the Hub, we were getting... Continue Reading →
We recently had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica for Spring break. It was beautiful. The only thing that wasn’t completely idyllic about it was the driving. The five hours required to drive the roughly 130 miles to the place we were staying were a descent into chaos. My boyfriend, who has driven many... Continue Reading →
A fact of modern building construction is that most cooling is produced by rooftop units. Improving the energy efficiency of rooftop units and connecting the sizing and operation of them to actual demands in the space would produce significant energy savings. Instead, most rooftop units are (over) sized by rule of thumb, using a tons... Continue Reading →
I came across an article recently about Climeworks, a Swiss company who is manufacturing machines to extract CO2 from the air. The machines look somewhat like a jet engine (see below) and they saturate a filter with the CO2, then extract it from the filter by heating it. One jet engine looking module extracts 150... Continue Reading →
What do you think this is? If you said a CO2 generator for a green house, that's correct. Plants thrive with added CO2. What do they do with it? According to climatecentral.org, "In a process called “photosynthesis,” plants use the energy in sunlight to convert CO2 and water to sugar and oxygen. The plants use the sugar for food—food that we use,... Continue Reading →
Last week, I gave a presentation at PEDCO's High Performance Building Seminar on Living Green Walls. I had a super fun time preparing the presentation. The subject is fascinating and hopeful, somehow, I guess because plants are everywhere and it was surprising to realize how many wonderful things they do. Also, viewing the pictures of... Continue Reading →
This is an expanded version of an earlier post. A heat recovery chiller is a traditional screw type chiller where the heat of condensing is absorbed by a heating water loop. Typically, the temperature of the water produced by the heat recovery chiller is not high enough to do stand-alone heating, so it supplements the... Continue Reading →
So how does an engineer adapt a new technology? Adapting a new technology is not significantly different from dealing with some new element on a project, which happens frequently. A new element could be a new type or version of medical equipment, which has different utility requirements than the previous version. Or it could be... Continue Reading →
Recently, I investigated the use of a variable refrigerant flow system with ground loop condensing for a school HVAC renovation. For the building in question, the ground loop was estimated to cost $405,000, and the savings produced would be expected to show an 8-10 year payback in order to be considered. I used Mitsubishi equipment as... Continue Reading →
In 2009, I was fortunate enough to be doing mechanical engineering design work for the Cincinnati Zoo, and the Zoo was building three new buildings at the main entry--the Ticketing/Membership building, the Restroom/Stroller rental building and a large Gift Shop. The Owner wanted to use a ground source heat pump system for more energy efficient... Continue Reading →
Innova Engineering, Inc 