Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Term Project


Nowadays, the mission of most contractors is to help people make the most while using less of their energy and simultaneously providing various operational and security services to a building.  This is all achieved by also promoting a “green” environment.  Energy management is aimed in making energy be efficient, reliable, productive, and green, all in order to provide energy usage for appliances, machinery, HVAC systems, security and motors.  Rita Pauliushchyk claimed that the use of sensors improves the efficiency of operations in a building. I could not agree with that statement more considering that one of the biggest technologies that are emerging from intelligent buildings and that rely on energy management is sensors. 
Even though sensors have been around for quite a while now, they are now being used a lot more.  Now sensors come in the smallest sizes and their functionality has increased.  Considering that I have a mechanical concentration, I thought it would be interesting to explore the variety of uses of a sensor in a building, for heating, ventilating and air conditioning, as well as for security measures. I will also explore how the design methods of a contractor vary when placing sensors in a building.  These include the challenges that can be encountered while designing in an existing building, as well as a contractors design preference during the construction phase of a building.  In addition, I will further examine how energy efficient sensors can be, their reliability and how they promote “green”.
My original project idea was to compare two different types of programs, Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis and EPA SWMM.  Because I will be using EPA SWMM for my senior design project in order to plan and design a hydraulic system, I thought it would be interesting to compare it to a similar program by Autodesk.  I was going to first create a design using EPA SWMM and then attempt to exchange this design to the Autodesk software, modify it and send it back.  My initial idea was to investigate the interoperability of both, yet I came to realize that it does not have a big connection to BIM.  Because sensors have such a wide variety of uses and are multifaceted, I decided to explore this topic for my term project.

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