【HaiChuan Discussion】HVAC/Plumbing/Air Conditioning/Ventilation/Equipment – Which field are you really good at?
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The industry is confined to the field of construction engineering. The four undergraduate majors originally included plumbing (plumbing engineering, focusing on the treatment and supply of domestic water), HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning engineering, with an emphasis on installation and construction), power systems (gas and thermal energy engineering, focusing on municipal-related aspects), and electrical engineering (electrical and automation engineering, focusing on urban power supply); these were collectively referred to as “building equipment”. Since most civil buildings do not involve the power engineering field, and under the registered engineer system, water supply and drainage, HVAC, and power are classified as three specialties within the category of utility equipment engineering, electrical systems are sometimes not included under \"building equipment\". There are a wide variety of specialized programs, with some colleges even offering a program in \"Building Equipment Engineering\" at the junior college level. “In a narrow sense, “engineering” refers only to the disciplines that involve construction work, such as building houses, repairing roads, constructing bridges, and digging holes ； Sometimes it even refers only to renovation projects; for example, an “engineering design institute” is generally one that specializes in renovation design ； “\"Engineering\" broadly refers to all disciplines with a high degree of systematicity, such as civil engineering, electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, and so on. In “Engineering Management,” “engineering” is used in its narrow sense, whereas in “Management Engineering,” “engineering” is used in its broad sense. Currently, the United States has only around a hundred undergraduate programs, Russia has slightly over seventy, while China once had more than five hundred. A few years ago, the Ministry of Education merged fewer than 300 undergraduate programs; for example, the programs in heating, ventilation, and power were combined into \"Building Environment and Equipment Engineering\". Driven by the Ministry of Education’s calls to broaden students’ academic horizons and to give them more time for self-study, some universities have introduced courses such as \"Building Water Supply and Drainage Engineering\" and \"Building Electrical Systems\" in these programs; meanwhile, the water supply and drainage discipline has also added courses like \"Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Engineering\". However, offering such a specialized course does not mean that HVAC professionals truly understand building water supply and drainage systems, as the teaching materials for these subjects are merely put together temporarily, and basic courses such as \"Pumps and Pump Stations\" and \"Hydraulics\" are never offered. Therefore, in recent years some graduates from HVAC programs have claimed to have knowledge of both plumbing and electrical systems, while many older HVAC engineers do not understand boiler room and gas system design, let alone building plumbing and fire protection systems. Given the size of the architectural design market and the lack of seamless coordination, **it is necessary to assign responsibilities such as civil defense work at levels 5 and 6 (especially level 6) to the architectural design firms’ qualifications, while outdoor water supply and drainage systems in residential areas fall under municipal authorities’ responsibilities, and wastewater treatment in such areas is handled by environmental protection agencies. There’s no need to mention other industries either; naturally, these areas represent the weaknesses of architectural design firms.
In the south, except in some mountainous areas, there are no heating design parameters for HVAC systems; as a result, this field has various names. It is generally referred to as HVAC, abbreviated as “HVAC”, with the code “N”” ； Some are also called air conditioners, abbreviated as “Kong”, with the code name “K”” ； It is also believed that simple ventilation is abbreviated as “wind,” with the code “F”’’ ； Ventilation and air conditioning is abbreviated as “Tong”, with the code “T”” ； Some also refer to it together with water supply and drainage as equipment engineering, abbreviated as “She”, with the code “S”” ； There are even those who abbreviate it separately as “set”. These claims all have their origins, and each can be defended. Some design institutes in the north, represented by the Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute, adopted an integrated approach for plumbing and heating systems, and once suggested that certified HVAC engineers should cover both plumbing and power systems; however, they gave up on this idea due to lack of valid arguments. The embarrassing aspect behind this is the extremely high unemployment rate in the drainage field and the extremely low one in the HVAC field; although HVAC primarily involves installation and construction work, construction companies are not attractive to university graduates. The main employment avenues for graduates from these two fields are architectural design firms. Everyone believes that plumbing and heating are inseparable, yet the Ministry of Education has designated only environmental engineering as a discipline related to drainage. In my opinion, the structure of undergraduate majors in universities will eventually move away from research-oriented approaches and align more with market needs. Architectural plumbing, heating, and electrical engineering will ultimately become separate undergraduate majors, in order to reduce the conflicts, internal strife, and waste that occur in architectural design. To avoid such issues, many large design firms have already integrated plumbing and heating into a single discipline, as these areas are prone to causing disputes. Currently, grade C design institutes generally do not have HVAC and power engineering departments, and the plumbing and electrical systems are integrated. Since there are far fewer professionals in this field compared to those in construction and structural engineering, and it is not a leading specialty, the labor quotas for plumbing, heating, and electrical work are significantly too low and do not reflect reality; nevertheless, the workload in these areas is still incomparable to that in construction and structural engineering. The content related to water, heating, and electricity is highly systematic, and the structure-related information is very accurate; however, an architect is not, strictly speaking, an engineer, especially an architect who works on architectural designs. Architectural design even represents an opposing category to engineers, as it requires imagination and uniqueness, whereas engineering demands pragmatism and standards. The head of the design office is either an outsider (or a relative of the boss who runs things), or an architectural designer; this requires them to break free from conventional thinking, although it is quite difficult.
Water supply, drainage, and fire protection systems represent a typical interdisciplinary field that is given special attention when different specialties are combined. Almost all courses in the sciences, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and geography, serve as the foundation for this field. Any specialty within the civil engineering category, such as urban planning, architecture, structural engineering, environmental engineering, mechanics, HVAC, or power engineering, is also related to it. Therefore, it is not easy to master the skills associated with water supply and drainage systems in university. This is because water supply and drainage encompasses three interrelated but not closely connected specialized fields: building water supply and drainage, municipal water supply and drainage, and environmental protection water supply and drainage.
Large design institutes are recruiting staff for equipment-related positions; generally, three years of experience in the electrical field is sufficient for such roles, while five years of experience is required for work related to water supply and drainage, as there are many strict regulations in this field that are quite difficult to implement (for example, outdoor water meters have to be placed in meter wells, which is not practical at all). Similarly, due to the fact that many people in the water supply and drainage field act recklessly and cause problems for themselves by not paying attention where it matters and being overly careful where it doesn’t, they end up taking on a lot of the tasks that should be done by construction technicians; the construction workers consider such drawings to be good. People who don’t use software for drawing plumbing diagrams fall into this category: due to things like the requirement that sprinkler systems must be designed according to specific standards and cannot be estimated roughly, manually calculating everything for a garage takes at least two weeks. All software programs for sanitary fixtures only provide one point for water supply connections, so it’s not possible to go into too much detail in the drawings; moreover, such detailed drawings are useless, as it is the client who chooses the sanitary fixtures, and they have to be installed according to their instructions rather than based on assumptions made by the designer. Yet many people pay too much attention to this aspect. Fire protection is a concept with an unclear meaning. Sometimes it includes the relevant components of various specialties such as architecture, plumbing, electrical systems, and HVAC; among these, plumbing is its own specialized field, that is, the field related to faucets (note that it is not the architecture specialty that handles faucets) ； Sometimes it specifically refers to a part of water supply and drainage ； Sometimes, water supply and drainage refer only to domestic water supply and drainage, which exists alongside other aspects of water supply and drainage ； And sometimes it refers only to the fire hydrant system in the fire protection aspect of the water supply and drainage field. In architectural design, the professional title of fire engineer was introduced only four years ago; initially it was called fire water and electricity engineer, encompassing the relevant aspects of specialties such as plumbing and drainage, electrical engineering, as well as small portions from specialties like HVAC and architecture. Firefighting emerged as an independent profession.
Large design institutes have generally kept up with global trends by establishing efficient internal local area networks to achieve paperless office operations. Small design firms, on the other hand, only use the \"Feige Message Transfer\" system; they are not capable of embracing modernization, and in fact they do not even allow access to the Internet, cutting off communication with the outside world under the pretext of avoiding work disruptions (which is actually a lack of trust in their employees – after all, anyone would abide by basic moral standards). I don’t think there’s any organization that would shut down internet cafes across the country just because people like to play games. Moreover, since the staff in small design firms lack competence, they also prevent employees from communicating with colleagues, teachers, and friends (most people prefer to use free online services rather than making long-distance calls using their own phones), so naturally they end up relying on assumptions when dealing with things that are not certain. Communication is needed at all times and in all places; some leaders only use one computer connected to the Internet at work, which is completely useless in practical applications. Without communication, there is no progress, and in today’s world, no progress means falling behind.
When it comes to communication, it is only through communication that team spirit can be developed, and that rapid progress together can be achieved. For example, battle heroes often appear as a group; aside from those with exceptional talent, heroes usually come from the same unit, as they are influenced by the same culture of progress, which leads to them sharing experiences and lessons with one another. There is a design institute in Luoyang that has topped its industry for many years; this seems strange for such an unattractive inland city, as the market there is limited and talent gradually moves to the coastal areas. The key reason for its success lies in its organization into departments based on major fields of specialization. The vast majority of design institutes are composed of many small firms that, though small in size, have all the necessary facilities. Each firm handles its own billing and remains independent of the others; they are essentially in a affiliated relationship with the larger design institute. You just need to find a few people who charge low prices, pay them a management fee annually or per project, and that’s enough to make you part of some well-known design firm; they then use this label to intimidate others. As a result, there are too many substandard products on the market, which in turn creates the well-known vicious cycle.
Although professional categories are more difficult to manage, they yield greater results. Since people with similar specialties work in the same large office, and several senior engineers (at the professorial level) are also there, it’s very convenient to ask questions of each other, search for information, and exchange ideas. Everyone is intelligent; they will share their personal insights without needing to be asked, because you need those insights as well. When one person has a direction, others will help, so everyone can achieve good results with high quality. If you need anything, you don’t have to spend hours searching through books; you just need to ask. You want everyone to have several research achievements, for the organization to publish several papers, edit several sets of books, and issue several industry standards; people also learn from each other’s drawings and improve their own skills. It’s strange if project owners don’t rush to hire them for design work, and it’s strange if the design fees aren’t high – after all, what proportion do design costs account for in the total cost? When a company has sufficient funds, and since it is a state-owned enterprise, it can offer more to its employees; it also becomes easier to hire talented people, creating a positive cycle like this. It’s strange to see Shanghai Modern Group, which boasts such a large pool of talented people, having its projects taken away one after another, but it’s actually inevitable. In Shenzhen, Zhubo can barely be considered a scaled-down version; it separates the experts from each other, making it difficult for them to communicate. And so on; these are far removed from the meticulous management practices that others have developed over decades.*
The inlet direction for non-optoelectrical gas is hardly available in any case. Reports say that the drawing review center in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, has rejected most of the water supply and drainage projects submitted by design firms from other regions, with electrical drawings also being affected as a result. It’s quite obvious that in most areas of the city, the municipal water pressure exceeds 8 kilograms per square centimeter, enough to supply water up to the 20th floor. Yet people still install water pumps to increase the pressure. If pumps aren’t necessary, then what’s the need for electrical systems to power those pumps or for buttons to start them on each floor? Removing such elements would require rebalancing the load across various phases and adjusting numerous devices, which is a very complicated process (it’s not as simple as just removing those components). In fact, the designers work hard without getting proper recognition and end up taking the blame; the project owners are like gods to the design institutes. Who among the institute owners would dare to insist, as requested by the plumbing designers, that the client provide maps of the surrounding pipeline networks and information on municipal water pressure? As long as they have the land title, they should have it; or rather, without needing to offer gifts or bribes, they can rightfully request it from the relevant authorities. For electrical engineering, it can be assumed; for water supply and drainage, it must be specified clearly. But at least in small design firms, these requirements are rarely met; it has become standard practice to assume the worst-case scenario for water supply and drainage. Considering the use of pumps to pressurize the piping system means incurring unnecessary extra costs. In fact, it’s unclear how many projects actually require such hassle and waste.
Just as magnetic levitation is only discussed abroad, our country dared to build the world’s only section of such a railway, at a huge cost that left us in deep financial trouble. Ice-based thermal storage air conditioning is a method that has gained considerable attention abroad in recent years; it involves cooling energy at night and storing it for use during the day. A facility was built in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei, but it was scrapped within a month; it was redesigned and rebuilt in a traditional format (chill storage rooms are more than twice as large as ordinary ones, so this approach is feasible). After studying it in detail, I realized that it’s just an ideal concept proposed by those who only talk the talk, similar to mechanical parking spaces. Even if there are successful examples abroad, that’s because those countries have substantial financial resources (this system involves many high-tech components, making it extremely expensive), as well as advanced manufacturing capabilities (China is still not able to produce complete sets of such equipment; its mechanical manufacturing and installation techniques are still at the level of World War II era). The difficulty of implementation and the high technical requirements are also factors at play (there are simply too many workers in China). There is an efficiency involved in storage conversion, an efficiency during the storage process, and another efficiency in storage release; it is the product of these three efficiencies that constitutes the actual efficiency. It’s by no means the 70-80 percent efficiency he claims – rather, it’s the product of these three values, and the figures he mentions represent ideal conditions. In design, having too many intermediate steps is something to be avoided at all costs. Before the New Year, I attended a press conference held by the Energy Conservation Center of the Ministry of Construction. Recently, a type of chiller unit has been developed in China that eliminates the need for a cooling tower; it is called a direct evaporation cooling unit. This unit combines the advantages of traditional air-cooled and water-cooled systems, eliminating the two efficiency losses associated with cooling towers, thereby **improving energy efficiency and reducing costs. However, in this chaotic market, it is likely that such products will take another 20 years to become as widely accepted as the currently popular water-cooled and air-cooled systems, which have been in use for over a hundred years. Yuan Longping had to be nominated four times before he was finally appointed as an academician of the Engineering Academy; meanwhile, he has yet to be appointed as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, yet he was accepted as an academician by the American Academy of Sciences, which has even stricter selection criteria – there are too many strange phenomena like this.
Now VRV air conditioners are everywhere in China, to the point that major air conditioning companies around the world consider China to be their main market for VRV products; this is a reflection of the irresponsibility of design firms and similar entities. VRV, also known as variable-frequency air conditioning, is not a central air conditioning system; it simply involves combining the outdoor units of split-air conditioners. Due to the use of special variable-frequency drives in these outdoor units, their price is extremely high. More importantly, their energy efficiency is very low. VRV was developed as a solution for many older buildings where it’s not possible to install separate outdoor units, or where converting the system into a central air conditioning system isn’t feasible. In villas, for example, the presence of too many outdoor units – along with all the associated pipes and drainage systems – would affect the aesthetic appearance, so VRV is chosen despite its high cost. It is also used in the upper floors of very tall buildings where the large circulation radius of central air conditioning systems leads to instability; thus, VRV becomes the only viable option. VRV is rarely used abroad. Compared to split-air conditioners, the advantage of VRV systems is the smaller number of outdoor units; however, their major disadvantages are the lack of fresh air intake, high cost, and significant performance degradation. (Just like split-air conditioners, the indoor and outdoor units must be at the same height and at a short distance from each other, otherwise the cooling capacity is greatly reduced, as both types use the same volatile refrigerant, whereas central air conditioning systems use water, which is quite stable.) Central air conditioning replaces split-system air conditioning (including VRV) for two main reasons: comfort due to fresh air, and cost-effectiveness for large projects (in Shenzhen, this generally applies to buildings with 40 rooms or more). However, the reversal of VRV’s situation in China can be attributed to two reasons: first, it is very easy to create the necessary drawings; design institutes (many in the south do not have a specialized department for air conditioning) often don’t even need to produce such drawings, as manufacturers can create them without any problems. Second, this thing is often rejected due to its high cost and poor suitability, and there are many issues involved.
When it comes to the idea of having a kitchen without a floor drain, almost everyone comes up with various assumptions, as if they know more about plumbing than you do, or as if you’re trying to deceive them, rather than doing some research first before speaking. Some architects even believe that things related to water, such as roof rainwater drainage, building waterproofing layers, basement drainage systems, and even the placement of floor drains, are matters within the scope of the plumbing and drainage specialty, thus shifting responsibilities belonging to their own field to others. Hearing more than one person say that outdoor water supply and drainage systems consist of just a few pipes, I thought to myself that if the water supply system is designed to deliver only the necessary amount of water to the desired locations, then there’s no need for any balancing adjustments. As a result, the residual chlorine in the water decreases, the water pressure falls, and problems with the pipes can cause widespread issues. People may suffer from health problems, fires might break out, and there could be water shortages – and you would be held responsible for all these things, as there are regulations governing this. But those who are unaware of these regulations are careless. People lack teamwork spirit and mutual trust; it’s all too common for outsiders to criticize those who are more experienced.