“Go To” Technical Reference Books

July 2, 2020
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Quality, Consequences and the Construction Industrial Complex (part 248).

There is only so much “brain hard drive space” available, it is not possible to carry everything you need to know around in your head.

IMHO, it is important to have some go to resources that you can keep close by and depend on. I have been asked several times what my go to reference books are. These are the resources I always find myself dipping into, I consider these part of my utility belt.

Property Development. An easy read and great overview of the property business which in my experience, building services engineers do not understand well.

Economics and Property. It is always about the money, never forget that.
HVAC Equations, Data & Rules of Thumb. US centric but a great help to me when I am working in North America.
Building Services Handbook. Good “aide memoire” overview on building systems.
CIBSE Concise Handbook. Has great charts and tables for reference data.
Newnes, Electrical Pocket Book. UK centric, useful for me as someone who is mechanically biased.
Total Hydronic Balancing. Robert Pettijean is the “THE GOAT”. I had the privilege of hearing him speak when he launched this book. He was as clever as a man with 3 brains plus he was super articulate in his non-native language. One of my hero’s.
Tall, Supertall and Mega Tall Building Systems. Peter Simmonds is one of the worlds best building services engineers. Robert Bean and I had the privilege of interviewing him for the Edifice Complex podcast. One of my hero’s.

Very honorable mention for AABC National Standards for Total System Balance.

This is the best, most comprehensive balancing standard out there and covers specialist systems well. My only complaint is that it is in imperial units only. Come on AABC, lets move into the modern world, give us a metric edition!