A building can have efficient HVAC, properly sized electrical equipment, solar panels, and intelligent controls, and still perform badly when those systems are designed in isolation.
Modern buildings are connected energy systems. Heating and cooling loads affect electrical demand. Ventilation changes thermal performance. Heat pumps influence service capacity. Solar PV and batteries reshape power flow. EV charging adds major new loads. Controls determine whether everything works together.
Fundamentals of Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings gives you the engineering foundation to understand these relationships, perform the calculations behind them, coordinate systems correctly, and carry sound decisions from design through commissioning and operation.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
• Building physics, climate, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, heat transfer, moisture, and envelope behavior
• Heating and cooling load calculations with stated assumptions, units, and engineering reasoning
• Furnaces, boilers, electric heating, refrigeration, cooling equipment, and heat pumps
• Ventilation, duct sizing, pressure losses, fans, hydronic systems, piping, pumps, balancing, and diagnostics
• HVAC controls, BAS/BMS architecture, sequences, alarms, trends, and system integration
• Electrical fundamentals, three-phase power, distribution, grounding or earthing, loads, panels, protection, fault current, conductors, motors, power quality, and standby power
• Lighting design, LED systems, daylight integration, controls, emergency operation, and energy use
• Solar PV, battery storage, inverters, energy management, EV charging, managed charging, and bidirectional applications
• Integrated MEP coordination, commissioning, functional testing, handover, diagnostics, and life-cycle assurance
BUILT FOR PRACTICAL ENGINEERING
Across 16 chapters, calculations are developed step by step and connected to practical engineering decisions.
The book includes 74 practical examples, system schematics, design tables, control sequences, compliance checkpoints, practice problems, and answer keys. An integrated building case study brings HVAC, electrical distribution, controls, solar PV, battery storage, and EV charging together in one coordinated project.
You will also learn the DRIVE diagnostic method: Define, Read, Isolate, Verify, Execute and Evaluate. DRIVE helps you follow evidence, isolate likely causes, verify faults, correct confirmed problems, and evaluate the result.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
Designed for study and professional reference, this book is for engineering students, early-career designers, architects, contractors, technicians, facility professionals, and experienced practitioners seeking a cross-disciplinary understanding of building systems.
The approach covers the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, while locally adopted requirements remain project-specific.
Building systems no longer operate as separate specialties. Understanding how HVAC, electrical power, controls, renewable energy, storage, and electrification interact is essential to designing and operating buildings as complete systems.
Stop seeing MEP as separate pieces. Start understanding the building as one engineered whole.
Get your copy of Fundamentals of Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings today and build practical MEP knowledge you can carry from design calculations to commissioning, diagnostics, and real-world operation.
