Mechanical rooms are the heart of commercial buildings — these systems control the quality of the indoor environment. Because these rooms are so important for building health and safety, it makes sense for the equipment to feature the latest and greatest technology. In fact, many mechanical rooms are increasingly incorporating smart products.
“First and foremost, the one thing that makes a mechanical room smart is the designer or installer,” says Dave Yates, former owner of F.W. Behler, a contracting firm based in York, Pennsylvania, and BNP Plumbing Group columnist. “He or she sets the stage and is the band director. Once you step beyond the ‘smart’ product, be it a boiler, furnace, geothermal or inverter heat pump (either unitary or mini-split), the entire system will soar like an eagle or fall flat on its face, depending entirely upon the skills of the designer or installer.”