Hawaii Building Engineers Association

IM LOST

A technican gets called for a room getting to hot. He finds the fan is running on the dx r-22 unit , so he goes outside to check on the condenser. He sees the compressor is running and then shutting off. he looks at the condensor fan and it is running really slow. what is the problem?

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A building Engineer responds to a building that has had a hot complaint for years. The Engineer investigates the chill water system and finds the chill water set point is 43 degrees. The air handle is a constant velocity unit (10,000 CFM) with a three way valve. the air wet bulb temperature was 70 (34.09) entering and leaving was 67 degrees (31.62 Enthalpy), the chill water valve was a three way valve. The leaving air had an inline thermostat to control the valve and supply air temperature. What was the proper troubleshooting procedure? What should he look for? Calculate the System Total BTU delivery

4.5 x ________(CFM) x (Enthalpy change) = system total Btu

What is the equipment rated BTU ?

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A condo owner arrives back home after five weeks and finds his living room ceiling has fallen into the floor of the room. The chill water pipes turn above his space at a ninety degree turn and go across the floor and then down to the chiller room. the lagging is dripping and the engineer is called. the lagging is deteriorated and is leaking from a floor above and the chase is buried in every wall to the 30th floor.

what measures can be taken to fix my problem?

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After buying a building without doing the properly inspecting it very well. The cooling tower started to experince problems with the evaporation of water. The engineer opens the door to the cooling tower discharge and finds a fern garden growing in the top of his cooling tower. how should he remedy this prooblem?

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A Building Engineer investigates a problem with the chiller plant and finds that the energy management system (Trane Tracer Summit) is calling for cooling with a set point of 43 degrees.  He finds the chiller is running at 40% of load and will not load up to supply the required 43 degree of supply chill water. What is the problem? What steps should be taken to resolve this problem?

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A building engineer is called to a suite to respond to a work order about a light that is out. he arrives and finds that the light is out and then finds that it will not energize the ballast and lights. he measures the voltage and finds that it reads 35 volts, when normally it should read 277 volts. he measures the voltage to ground and the meter reads the normal 277 volts. what is the problem?

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After replacing a condenser motor in the main chiller plant, the motor continues to fail. After repeated times the engineer is stumped by the problem. The electrician replaced the motor and stated the controller should also be updated and replaced. The motor was rewired to the new controller. What could be the cause of the motor failing after installation and what caused the first motor to fail?

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After being waken by a phone call at

2:30 a.m.

that morning the building engineer arrives at the building to find that the contractor working that night could not get into the electrical room for his demolition work. So he took the electrical wires and shorted them together to finish the work. He left 30 minutes ago and now the floor is reported to have no lights to the surrounding tenants. What is the problem? What steps would you take to solve the problem?

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A commercial building security manager calls the Chief Engineer of the building to report that the #2 chiller did not start up at 4:30 a.m. as it is programmed to do each day. The chiller control board has a fault light flashing red. After arriving at the building the Engineer goes up to the roof to look at the central plant. The chillers run in series with the number two chiller starting last after the number one chiller with the VFD drive ramps up in the morning. The number #2 chiller has tripped on low oil pressure and needs to be reset. After resetting the fault, the chiller will not develop enough oil pressure and the York chiller serviceman is contacted. What is the problem? And what diagnostic steps should be looked at to solve this problem?

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HBEA has a monthly contest for HBEA members to compete in to win a prize at the end of the year. The person with the most correct answers will be the winner.

This month's problem is:

A commercial Building Owner receives a complaint; there is no air conditioning in the office upstairs located on the third floor. This is a three story building with an air handler on each floor and a chiller in the basement. The tenant on the 2nd floor is fine with no complaints. When looking at the air handler on the third floor the chill water piping supplying the air handler feels cold to the touch and the blower motor is running. The tenant states” they are hot and the maintenance chief notices very little movement in the space. What is the problem and what diagnostic steps will help the chief solve the problem?

Send all answers to the editor @ RREILEY@TOPA.COM