What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
(OP)
For an MEP type job, what is the purpose of Schedules?
I understand that the specs are a detailed description and listing of what the installer will bid on.
So what is the Equipment Schedule used for?
Are they the same thing? If not, what is the difference?
I understand that the specs are a detailed description and listing of what the installer will bid on.
So what is the Equipment Schedule used for?
Are they the same thing? If not, what is the difference?





RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
A schedule is a list of specific equipment that you want provided.
A specification is (or could (or should) be) a description of the performance you want. It is then up to the bidder to select the appropriate equipment to achieve that performance.
In the real world, most "specs" are a combination of the two.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
if the equipment schedule serves as the basis to select equipment, then what is the full spec for?
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
The Equipment Schedule specifies the specific preferred brand of equipment that meets the design intent (the designers favorite brands, usually).
The detailed Specifications include detailed minimum performance standards and installation (execution) requirements to allow the Contractors to supply different brands of equipment, provided they can meet the minimum specified performance and installation standards.
A Trane 200 ton air cooled chiller, an Airstack 200 ton chiller, and a York 200 ton air cooled chiller are so dissimilar that they really aren't "equal" at all, and they all have different installation requirements, and different performance issues. Hence the "detailed performance specs" to allow the Contractor to try to use different brands of equipment, but still meeting certain operating and design criteria that are deemed important for that particular project and Client - pressure drops, flows, delta T's, refrigerant type, compressor type, kw/ton, etc.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
As an example there are around 80 ventilation fans in the project, the specification gives the technical requirements for each type of fan, the schedules schedule the duty and specific requirement for each fan, eg air flow, pressure, efficiency, motor size diameter, noise levels etc.
For items such as chillers, there typically only a few different ones in a project, and could just as easily be specified with or without schedules. If there numerous items of a type of equipment, such as VAV boxes, fans, pumps, AHU's, etc it becomes simpler to schedule all the duties of the equipment.
I view the technical schedules as part of the specification (or appendix A in all my specifications). The design documentation includes all drawings, and specifications, and schedules and all need to be read in conjunction with each other.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
Some clients like schedules because the technical information stays with the drawing set....most clients throw out the spec after the project has been accepted.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
I also often find that suppliers who propose equipment other than the specific make and model as scheduled don't read the specs for a lot of the detailed performance and installation standards, and we get crap submitted for "approval" and then we get the hostility when we reject stuff that clearly doesn't meet the requirements.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
Detailed specifications details gives the specific requirement of materials that is required in materials /equipments.
Every equipment may meet all the technical requirement or more, some times some of the equipments may not meet all the specification need.
Schedule of quantity is always in conjunction with specifications.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
The specifications, on the other hand, are more general in nature covering the constructional features, testing requirements, relation to codes, standards, etc. These are, typically done once and rarely modified (modified only when there are major technological advances) and forms part and parcel of the consulting engineer's standard documentation.
HVAC68
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
A simple example is a fan schedule. You would have one specification section for each type of fan, and then a fan schedule outlining the different capacities.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
It called profit maximisation for the contractor and you need to realise your design is only one of the many options that could be installed! On a recent project, the contractor refused to install something because it was too expensive, typical consultant over-design, and not required, all of this despite it being clearly specified, scheduled, and a specific client request.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
At that point I make sure that my advice and recommendations are recorded and filed, and that has helped me a number of times when the costs savings and system or equipment performance have failed to live up to the suppliers' or Contractors' claims of "it's equal or better" than what was specified.
That being said, these days there is far too much reliance on "master specifications" that are edited by people who don't know enough, resulting in over-specification or completely wrong material contained in the body of the spec, that doesn't even match the scheduled equipment. If the checking isn't good enough, crap will slip through from the engineer's end too. Unfortunately, these days building services engineering is seen as a commodity service, and it's a race to the bottom for fees, service, and quality.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
The customer pays lesser than his original budget and the contractor makes more money than the original !!!
The key is to have good and knowledgeable consultants who know their job !
HVAC68
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs
>>the specifications, on the other hand, are more general in nature
snip
Specific and general are antonymic. I have heard this argument a lot in arbitration.....there is no such thing as a general specification. Specifications are specific.
RE: What is the Purpose and Difference in Equipment Schedules and Specs