ALBAN ENGINEERING

Alban Engineering Inc. is a full service Mechanical and Electrical Consulting Engineering firm. The company is located in Lutherville, Md. just north of Baltimore. The principal of the firm has over 32 years of experience in the field and has been in responsible charge of hundreds of projects during his career. Mechanical designs include Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC), Plumbing and Fire Protection Systems. Electrical designs include interior and site lighting, power distribution, Emergency power, fire alarm, security, voice/video/data and campus distribution systems. Project types include systemic equipment and systems replacements and upgrades, renovations, additions, modernizations, new buildings, feasibility studies, master plans, energy audits, Energy Management Systems, energy efficiency upgrades, energy rebates, Heat Recovery, solar water heating, Solar PV, Lighting upgrades, Building modeling, Geothermal consulting, peer review, cost estimating, phased occupied buildings, developing standards, programming, troubleshooting and commissioning. Projects include LEED certification, high performance and sustainable design. Alban Engineering Inc. is committed to maximizing the energy efficiency potential to meet the projects goals including budget by optimizing design solutions that are unique in fulfilling the projects objectives. Creative designs are founded in the principals and laws of engineering in a way by applying high efficiency equipment, automatic temperature controls, heat recovery and layout in ways that not only create high performance buildings but also maximize indoor environmental conditions such as thermal comfort (temperature and relative humidity), noise and controllability. These conditions lead to enhanced productivity and or learning while reducing energy consumption. Buildings are modeled and both full load and part load conditions are analyzed. While equipment and systems are designed to meet peak load conditions, buildings seldom operate at these extreme load conditions such that the importance of building operation for both maintaining indoor comfort levels while minimizing energy consumption requires the systems to be able to track the load, efficiently generate and then distribute the energy where needed throughout the building as the load varies. As manufacturers design equipment to meet and certify efficiencies or coefficient of performance, we look at the building to optimize its coefficient of performance at all operating conditions from minimum load to peak load. Typically buildings are modeled to reduce energy consumption through the envelope be it insulating factors of walls, windows, roofs etc., solar orientation, thermal mass and reflectivity of materials. Minimizing interior loads include high efficiency lighting systems with occupancy/vacancy sensors and daylight harvesting controls. Heat recovery is maximized by preconditioning ventilation air which recovers energy through relief and exhaust air systems. The use of heat recovery is also a recommended method for free heat and or using heat pump chillers to use waste heat from the air conditioning system and reuse it for domestic water heating, comfort heating or when heating is needed for dehumidification purposes. Capturing free energy from the earth, geothermal systems, also reduces the amount of energy consumed by buildings. The use of solar PV and combined power and heat are also methods employed to generate on site power reducing parasitic loses from the power grid. We understand the importance of getting the design right to have a successful project. The installation cost of the MEP systems, associated operating cost, service and maintenance cost, controllability and reliability over the life time of the system often will cost more than the building itself. Having the occupants comfortable and efficient is an intangible cost that we know exist even if not quantifiable. Our mission when bringing a building to life through the dynamics of the MEP systems is to provide a safe and comfortable indoor environment that is energy efficient and reliable by creating unique design solutions that satisfy each owners goals for their project or building.