Back in the late 90’s I was one of the top consulting engineers in the Southwest. My specialty (and passion) was energy conservation’
My vita: Texas license #74416 (ret), certified in mechanical, electrical, HVAC, software (my own startup, Bar X Software), ground source heat pumps (President of ASME Geothermal Energy Committee), and energy conservation.
I was the Design Review Engineer for the Texas LoanStar Program, the world’s largest energy conservation program, for several years. I did my design reviews with zeal and genius.
One of my design reviews of the iconic tower at the University of Texas (PDF) found that the renovations provided zero fresh air to the entire facility during the heating season. The engineer of record wouldn’t fix that. Said it would cost too much!
Soon thereafter, I was fired from several jobs in succession for “gross incompetence” because (so I figure) my analyses had offended pretty much every major engineering firm in Texas.
A few months later, McGraw-Hill published my book Retrofitting for Energy Conservation, the first text in the discipline from a major publisher. The next year, 1998, they published the sequel, Electrical Design Guide for Commercial Buildings, which is still in print – the first edition. That makes it a classic!
Gross incompetence? Says who!
WH Clark, P.E.