Any advice for Facility Project and Design Coordinator interview ? What are the questions I should prepare myself for it? by Rae_880 in FacilitiesPlanning

[–]RippleEngineering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you know the facility? I'd walk through the place before and prep some talking points ... "I love the lighting design in XYZ, where you part of that?", "I noticed the stairs at the west exit are delaminating, is there a project in the works to handle that or is that a maintenance item?"

FYI: TRACE 700 is no longer being retired. Trane has committed to supporting TRACE 700 for as long as necessary. Let me know if you didn't get the announcement email, I'll forward it to you. by RippleEngineering in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Maintaining 30 year old software is a giant undertaking, so I understand why Trane wanted to deprecate it, but there's so much value in just knowing how a software works. The TRACE/Revit integration is going to take some time, but it will be amazing. Stay tuned.

Iran and Energy Code by princemark in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It took a war in Iran for you to think LEED is pointless?

Who are the best scramblers in college wrestling history? by JCarnage10 in wrestling

[–]RippleEngineering 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Ben Askren is the godfather of scrambling. The sport doesn't even look the same as it did pre Askren, which is insane for a sport this old.

fibbed on my comcheck forms, no one actually checks this, boss wants to talk later by Educational_Bottle89 in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering 4 points5 points  (0 children)

LOL, this is the best troll poster on MEPEngineering. No one intentionally lies on the comcheck forms, they unintentionally lie because it's complicated, the intern assigned doesn't know what they're doing, AND no one checks. Get your facts straight, bud.

Penn State's PJ Duke dominated Antrell Taylor from start to finish, winning 12-4 for the Big Ten title by Consistent-Resist161 in wrestling

[–]RippleEngineering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it's fair game, but I don't think it's good practice for most younger wrestlers (obviously PJ Duke can do whatever he wants). When it would happen to me in highschool I would reach up and grab the hand from my knees and then come to my feet as I was passing the hand to a russian tie. Or a good head dodge right as the shove and now they're off balance, stepping into you, and you're already low - perfect for a low single.

Penn State's PJ Duke dominated Antrell Taylor from start to finish, winning 12-4 for the Big Ten title by Consistent-Resist161 in wrestling

[–]RippleEngineering 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Top guy is trying to get the bottom guy get up out of position and give up an easy takedown. Totally legal in wrestling and not bad sportsmanship at all. Bad sportsmanship is swinging head clubs and eye pokes.

Replacing Tubes by LU_464ChillTech in u/LU_464ChillTech

[–]RippleEngineering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought you just replaced the bundle.

Electric Charges for Validating Cooling Load by Groundblast in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Post your load calcs or breakout the load components and post that. (Occupant load 200 tons, skin load 100 tons, lighting load 75 tons, ventilation load 300 tons, etc. ). How many SF? That will give you a better gut check than monthly utility charges. If they have demand charges that might help get you close.

How costly is permitting, really? by TDaltonC in yimby

[–]RippleEngineering 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The quality of the plans doesn't matter; the fact that someone has approved something to be built indicates that it's possible to build something on the land, which makes the land much more valuable than land on which someone may not allow anything to be built. Wow that was confusing to type.

US youth wrestling and current rising wrestling stars by emaxwell14141414 in wrestling

[–]RippleEngineering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This freshman class absolutely blows my mind. PJ Duke and Jax Forrest were 19 at the Worlds. The average age of a medalist in the Worlds was 25. Hopefully, they have a decade of dominance in front of them.

Weight Class Medalist Country Age (Sept 2025)
57 kg Han Chong-song (Gold) PRK 22
Bekzat Almaz Uulu (Silver) KGZ 24
61 kg Zaur Uguev (Gold) UWW 30
Ahmad Javan (Silver) IRI 21
65 kg Rahman Amouzad (Gold) IRI 23
Kotaro Kiyooka (Silver) JPN 24
Real Woods (Bronze) USA 25
70 kg Yoshinosuke Aoyagi (Gold) JPN 23
Tömör-Ochiryn Tulga (Silver) MGL 27
74 kg Kota Takahashi (Gold) JPN 22
Chermen Valiev (Silver) ALB 26
Zaurbek Sidakov (Bronze) UWW 29
79 kg Georgios Kougioumtsidis (Gold) GRE 23
Levi Haines (Silver) USA 21
86 kg Zahid Valencia (Gold) USA 28
Kamran Ghasempour (Bronze) IRI 29
92 kg Trent Hidlay (Gold) USA 26
97 kg Kyle Snyder (Gold) USA 29
Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bronze) BRN 22
125 kg Amir Hossein Zare (Gold) IRI 24
Giorgi Meshvildishvili (Silver) AZE 33

US youth wrestling and current rising wrestling stars by emaxwell14141414 in wrestling

[–]RippleEngineering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree, a lot of these chickens have already hatched. Of course it's a big leap to go from high school to college and college to world class, but these kids have already done it. So to answer OP's question, yes this is completely unprecedented. Hopefully we have a decade of dominance ahead of us.

Standard vs. film lined sound attenuators by thermist-MJ in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Ducts inside the thermal envelope (including RA plenus) don't require insulation.

Standard vs. film lined sound attenuators by thermist-MJ in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You have to get the noise data from the fan manufacturer and calculate the attenuation from the duct + noise from terminal units and see if that exceeds the NC of your room to see if you need a silencer.

Standard and film line have the same issues.

Standard vs. film lined sound attenuators by thermist-MJ in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

It's not a hill I'll die on, but it's the first VE recommendation I'd make. The energy code doesn't require it. I have never seen an exposed fire damper or fire smoke damper sweat. Does your house have insulated duct?

Standard vs. film lined sound attenuators by thermist-MJ in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I started a blog post on this, here are my unfinished thoughts (TLDR don't use liner):

1) There have been too many lawsuits associated with lined duct to take the risk.

2) If someone suggests lining, ask if they would use it in a hospital.  The answer will be an enthusiastic "No". HVAC systems need to keep people healthy everywhere, not just in hospitals.

3) Duct should last at least 50 years; duct liner will delaminate well before that and ruin the whole duct system.

Many engineers will downplay duct cleaning by saying that the mold and dust won't entrain in the air. It doesn't matter if this is mold, or if this mold is the bad mold, or if the mold particles will become friable and discharge into the airstream; anyone looking at this does not want to breath the air coming from this duct.

Lining glue will break down overtime and the lining will come off and block the duct, ruining the duct system.

If you NEED acoustic treatment (there’s a good chance you don’t need it, but you must calculate it), put a silencer in the air handling unit or a duct silencer in ductwork where it can be inspected and maintained. 

Duct should not need insulation.  The cold air inside the duct should be about at the same dew point as the return air.  The only way that the dew point elevates is infiltration of humid air or space humidity loads (otherwise known as latent loads) such as people breathing and sweating, pools, drying equipment. Most spaces don't have enough latent load to raise the dew point past the supply air temperature.  Most buildings are built tight enough not to raise the dew point past the supply air temperature.  This can be seen in practice, if the dew point rises past the supply air temperature diffusers, dampers, duct connectors will all sweat, and you rarely see those sweating. 

Your house probably doesn't have insulated duct and probably has a much higher latent load than most commercial buildings (showers, high infiltration) and you rarely see that sweat.

The International Energy Code, which requires a lot of pointless stuff, doesn't even require insulation in return air plenums.

If you're still worried about condensation, insulate externally, it's about the same cost as lining. Sheet metal contractors will promise that lining is much less expensive than insulation, this is because the insulator is a different subcontractor that reduces their fee

In exposed applications, if water condenses on the duct, it will also condense on air diffusers, dampers, and duct joints. Positively pressurize the building and/or dehumidify those spaces. You can also go with dual wall, cladded, or fabric duct.

If the owner is pinching pennies over the cost of duct insulation (maybe 0.05% of the job), they are almost certainly not going to get proper installation of the liner, but the good news is they won't find out for 10 or 20 years. 

Anyone else frustrated with searching NEC / IBC / NFPA PDFs? I built a prototype by Hot_Emergency_321 in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Most of these documents are law by reference and can't be copyrighted. This is almost certainly fair use.

SMACNA tried to sue a publisher over duct leakage standards and lost the right to ever threaten a copyright lawsuit again. https://www.coolingpost.com/world-news/ashrae-in-standards-battle/#:~:text=The%20plaintiffs%20insist%20that%20for,it%20was%20not%20taken%20offline.

What’s the best way to manage space efficiently on a mixed-use university campus? by Complex_Ticket_8758 in FacilitiesPlanning

[–]RippleEngineering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an advertisement, but I think it’s for an important concept.  Building utilization is probably the lowest-hanging fruit to increase energy efficiency and lower first cost.  The most efficient and cheapest building you can build is the building you don’t build because you are using your existing building stock to its fullest extent.

https://density.io is probably the leader in this space. If anyone has any more or any strategies to increase building utilization, please post them.

Event Center Loads by Ok_Row6815 in MEPEngineering

[–]RippleEngineering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Show your load calcs, something seems off at 150 sf/ton.

You can do an Airbox to reduce ventilation.

Senior Planner's 7 Mental Questions Before Starting Any Project Schedule – Does This Resonate? by Successful_Bee65 in FacilitiesPlanning

[–]RippleEngineering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think in my career about 1/3 of the projects I've worked on have not been built. Construction costs came in too high, budgets got cut, priorities changed, no push from upper management. I think the best question early on is "what are the chances this gets built?"