Commercial engineering

Mechanical engineering and HVAC service for the commercial Triangle.

Commercial engineering at Halberd

The Halberd commercial division is led by Phillip Halberd, PE, ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, and staffed by Jonelle Park, PE, LEED AP, plus four commercial-credentialed service technicians and a project administrator. The division has handled rooftop unit replacement, chilled-water system retrofit, VAV-zone modification, and BMS integration projects across office, medical-office, retail, and light-industrial buildings throughout Wake, Durham, and Orange counties since the mid-1980s.

Commercial work is dispatched out of the Raleigh engineering office. PE-stamped scope documents are produced as standard practice. When a commercial proposal is requested, the engineering office will conduct a site walk, gather the existing system documentation, and produce a scope document with an itemized cost basis, an installation schedule, and an optional ROI analysis if the client requests one. Proposals are typically delivered in seven to fifteen business days depending on scope.

Halberd does not bid Class A high-rises above twelve stories and does not handle process-cooling work for industrial manufacturing — those are specialty practices we leave to firms that focus there exclusively. Our work centers on the commercial mid-market: office buildings of 20,000-200,000 square feet, medical office parks, neighborhood retail centers, and Class B and B+ commercial portfolios.

What we do for commercial clients

Rooftop unit (RTU) service and replacement

Carrier WeatherMaker, AAON, Trane Voyager, and Daikin Rebel package units. Replacement scheduling that accounts for occupied-building constraints. Crane logistics, electrical disconnect coordination, and roof curb work handled in-house. Most RTU replacements run on a phased schedule to maintain partial conditioning during installation.

Chiller plants and chilled-water systems

Air-cooled and water-cooled chiller service and replacement up to 600 tons. Pump replacement, expansion-tank work, and chemical treatment program coordination. We do not own a CTI-certified cooling-tower testing crew — those services are subcontracted to a specialist firm we have worked with since 2011.

VAV zone retrofit and TAB

Variable air volume zone retrofit on existing buildings, including new VAV box installation, terminal-unit replacement, and reheat coil work. Testing, adjusting, and balancing performed by NEBB-credentialed staff. We are a member of the AABC for balancing on critical-environment projects.

Building Management System (BMS) integration — Niagara, BACnet, Tridium

Niagara N4 framework integration, BACnet/IP and BACnet/MSTP, Modbus RTU and TCP, Tridium drivers. We commission new BMS installations end to end and integrate Halberd-installed equipment with existing third-party BMS platforms. The Raleigh engineering office maintains a small in-house test bench.

ASHRAE-compliant Manual N and Manual D engineering

Manual N for commercial load calculation; Manual D for duct design; ASHRAE 62.1 for ventilation; ASHRAE 90.1 for energy compliance. All calculations are PE-stamped on Halberd commercial projects.

Indoor Air Quality programs for office and assembly buildings (ASHRAE 62.1)

Outside-air verification, CO2 sensor commissioning, filtration retrofit (MERV-13 minimum on commercial), demand-controlled ventilation programming. Particularly relevant for post-2020 commercial portfolios where IAQ has moved from a compliance line item to a tenant-retention concern.

Project portfolio

Commercial Office · Raleigh

A 28,000-sf office headquarters in downtown Raleigh

Three Carrier WeatherMaker 25-ton rooftop units replaced on a phased weekend schedule. A VAV-zone retrofit added eleven new terminal units to accommodate a tenant build-out. The existing BMS was migrated from a proprietary platform to a Niagara N4 framework. Project delivered on schedule; the building remained occupied throughout.

Medical Office · Durham

A medical office park in Durham (6 buildings, 84,000 sf total)

Service-and-replace contract on six adjacent medical-office buildings for a Triangle-area property owner. Mixed Carrier and Trane equipment, ages ranging from 6 to 19 years. Halberd performs quarterly inspections, manages a planned-replacement schedule, and runs an annual ASHRAE 62.1 outside-air verification across all six buildings.

Property Portfolio · Triangle-wide

A 14-building Class B commercial portfolio for a Triangle property manager

Halberd is the dispatched service provider for a 1.8M-square-foot Class B commercial portfolio across Raleigh, Cary, and Morrisville. Each building has a documented equipment inventory, a planned-replacement schedule, and a single point of contact at the Halberd Raleigh office. Emergency dispatch within four business hours, no third-party referral mills.

Engineering staff

Phillip Halberd, PE — Director of Engineering
Licensed PE in mechanical engineering. ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer. Twenty-five years of commercial design experience. Leads scope-of-work development and ROI analysis on commercial proposals.
Jonelle Park, PE, LEED AP — Staff Engineer
Licensed PE in North Carolina and Virginia. LEED AP BD+C. Eleven years of commercial engineering. Leads BMS-integration projects and commercial Manual D duct design.
Four commercial-credentialed service technicians
NATE Service Core and equipment-manufacturer credentials on Carrier, Trane, Daikin, and Mitsubishi commercial equipment.

Our commercial maintenance approach

Commercial maintenance is bid separately from residential — the Halberd Concierge Plan is residential only. Commercial maintenance contracts are scoped to the building, the equipment inventory, the occupancy profile, and the owner's planned capital schedule. We do not sell tiered commercial maintenance packages; every commercial contract is a one-page document specific to the building.

Quarterly inspections are typical for commercial RTUs, monthly for chiller plants during the cooling season. The contract names a single Halberd technician as the primary, with a backup named, so the building owner is not introduced to a new face every quarter.

Request a commercial proposal

A commercial proposal request begins with a site walk by Phillip Halberd, PE, or Jonelle Park, PE. The engineering office will produce a written scope document with an itemized cost basis, an installation schedule, and an optional ROI analysis. Proposals typically deliver in seven to fifteen business days depending on scope. References from active commercial clients are available on request.

Request a commercial proposal →

Capability specifications

BTU/h capacity range: 12,000–600,000 CFM range: 400–60,000 Chiller capacity: up to 600 tons (air- and water-cooled) BMS protocols: BACnet/IP, BACnet/MSTP, Modbus RTU/TCP, Niagara N4, Tridium Building types: Office, medical, retail, light industrial, assembly, multifamily 5+ stories Filtration: MERV-13 minimum on commercial; MERV-15 available Code basis: ASHRAE 62.1 (IAQ) · ASHRAE 90.1 (energy) · NC Mechanical Code 2018

Frequently asked

Do you provide PE-stamped scope documents?

Yes. Phillip Halberd, PE, and Jonelle Park, PE, LEED AP, stamp commercial scope documents as standard practice. We also provide ROI analyses on request.

What BMS protocols do you integrate?

BACnet, Modbus, Niagara N4 framework, and Tridium drivers. We integrate with existing building management platforms or commission new installations end to end.

What building types do you service?

Office, medical office, retail, light industrial, assembly, and multifamily buildings over five stories. We do not bid on Class A high-rises above twelve stories.