Design Guidelines & Standards

Plant Engineering works with Architectural and Engineering Services (AES) in developing Design Guidelines and Standards. (Click on the link below for current UM Design Guidelines and Standards.)

Design Guidelines:

The Design Guidelines are utilized by all design entities. General design conditions and criteria as well as specific requirements and acceptable manufacturers are compiled in roughly a CSI format. The bound edition is updated and periodically reissued. We review and provide input based on maintenance information, system operation, efficiency and life cycle cost. We created numerous standard details. While most of our involvement is with mechanical systems, we also interface with electrical and roofing issues where necessary. We have engineers that attend regular AES Standards committees. These committees include standards for HVAC, hydronicsHydronics is the name for the use of water as the heat-transfer medium in heating and cooling systems., and plumbing.

Standards:

Plant Engineering is actively involved in development of:

• Standard specifications utilized by AES.
• Standard details used by AES and outside firms.
• HVAC control diagrams and programming standards.
• Energy design standards.

We are part of the team now rewriting the Mechanical Specification. The intent is to create a document reflecting the most recent technical, life cycle and empirical data that will also have the flexibility for any size project. We wrote and maintain standard specifications for DDC and pneumatic controls (15975) and for Variable Frequency Drives (15960), utilized verbatim in all applicable projects for the last eight years.

We also join AES in the team developing Mechanical Standard Details. We bring maintenance data from the shops into the effort as well as our design and Plant experience.

Plant Engineering is developing and producing a book of standard CAD DDC control diagrams, covering almost any potential HVAC application. The first installment, approximately 75% complete, is in AES’s hands. The intent is that AES will use this as a source CAD library to promote quality and consistency in all projects, and to:

• Make our proactive effort on control design more efficient.
• Reduce our review effort.
• Reduce conflict and AES’s revisions based on our review comments.