What You Need to Know About Montgomery County’s Proposed BEPS Legislation
5 min read On May 4, 2021, Montgomery County introduced the Building Energy Performance Standard (BEPS) legislation (Bill-16-21), with its’ first public hearing set for July 20, 2021. The proposed legislation is driven by the County’s goal to reduce 80% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2027 and 100% by 2035. If adopted, the bill will require existing buildings…
Lasting Impressions – The Curacao Medical Center Project
4 min read Sometimes, no matter what career path you are in, certain projects leave a lasting impression on you. This was the case with the Curacao Medical Center, a state-of-the-art facility that has made such a significant impact on the community, especially during a time of crisis. This blog shares my experience traveling from the Island of…
Building Data Rescues Falling Temperatures
< 1 min read The increasing availability of building system trend data is allowing for an ever-clearer picture of what really is going on in system operation. We were tracking the operation of a new grade school in the first year after completion, which included verifying that room temperatures remained in a comfortable range. Our evaluations were based on…
Looking Back at My 15 Years at Baumann
4 min read Jochen Schaefer is Baumann’s Director of Marketing and Business Development–the man behind the company’s strategic planning and marketing programs. He joined Baumann’s Washington, DC office in 2006, the year the company was founded. As the first official employee, aside from Founder Oliver Baumann, Jochen played a key role in shaping the company. In this blog…
LEED v4.1: Why EB O+M is Used Far More Than BD+C!
5 min read LEED v4.1 was introduced back in January 2019, but it is still not as widely used as LEED v4. This is primarily due to the general concern that the new version comes with higher requirements. While this is true for some credits, LEED v4.1 also contains several changes that may actually make it easier to…
Baumann’s Longest-Tenured Employees and Their Contributions
3 min read With Baumann’s 15th anniversary coming up, we would like to honor the company’s longest-tenured employees – Lutz Miersch, Ben Burgoyne, and Torsten Biernat. They have not only been with Baumann for more than 10 years but have also made significant contributions to help shape the company into what it is today. Here is a quick…
DC Energy Performance Standards Set High Bar
2 min read The District of Columbia’s Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) has issued the building energy performance standards that will apply to the first cycle of the city’s Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) Program, which was created under Title III of the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 (CEDC Act). For the first BEPS…
Commissioning: The Final Bits and Pieces
< 1 min read Sometimes in work or life, when 95% of a task is complete, it is tempting to move on to other pressing tasks, with the intention of “circling back”. All too often the list of loose ends grows beyond the ability to manage. When this happens, open items that are obvious when looked at get lost…
Commissioning Moves to the Front Row
5 min read Washington D.C.’s 2017 DC Construction Codes (2017 DCMR) went into effect on May 29, 2020. For those working in the DC construction market, there are several updates worth noting related to commissioning, especially in the new Energy and Green Construction Codes. Overview of Changes Related to Commissioning The first thing to note about the updates…
Gregor Zink Recaps his Master Thesis on Building Physics Refurbishment Concepts for Historic Office Buildings
4 min read I am a Junior Engineer based in Baumann’s Frankfurt office and recently earned my Master of Building Physics from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. The unique details of the VAI Campus project, also known as the Eiermann Campus in homage to the architect of the initial buildings, inspired me to use it as the…
DC BEPS Proposed Rules – A First Read
3 min read The District of Columbia’s proposed rules for implementing the city’s Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) that was created by the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 (CEDC Act) are out for comment. Keep in mind that there will be a 60-day public comment period and revisions may be made before the rules are…
Noticing Issues with Other Systems
< 1 min read We were testing chilled beam operation using an infrared camera. With this handy instrument pointed at the ceiling, we could spot quickly, among several dozen chilled beams, whether they were going into heating or cooling mode as commanded during the functional performance test. While performing the inspection, we noticed particularly cold spots in the ceiling…
