— Insights
Long-form, written down.
Field notes, BD perspective, and the technical questions we keep getting. Forty years of installing, servicing, and arguing about it in San Dimas, distilled into pieces worth reading end-to-end.
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Recent pieces worth reading first.
Access Expert or Security Expert? A field guide to Schneider’s two access control products (and who should install them)
Two Schneider access control products, one deep EcoStruxure Building Operation integration, one common installation mistake. A plain-English guide to Access Expert vs. Security Expert…
Read moreCloud-managed BMS, explained — what Neeve actually does.
What a cloud-managed BMS actually is, what Neeve actually does, and where it fits — from an integrator that runs it on our own…
Read moreTwisted-pair adapters, compared — the open T1L standard vs. Schneider’s free topology.
Which twisted-pair adapter fits your building? A side-by-side of the open T1L standard, Schneider's free-topology approach, and where each one belongs.
Read more— More insights
All published pieces.
Reuse the wiring you already have — upgrading building controls without a rewire.
How the Schneider SpaceLogic Twisted Pair Adapter lets you upgrade to BACnet/IP without pulling new cable — and where its limits sit.
Read moreHow lab pressurization actually works — and what most BAS designers miss.
What separates a lab BAS from a building BAS, why valve mechanism matters more than valve brand, and how Athena Engineering ties lab controls…
Read moreHow We Migrated Piper Spirit From LonWorks to BACnet/IP
In 2025 we migrated the BAS at our own headquarters from legacy LonWorks to BACnet/IP. Our controls crews did the work. Here is what…
Read moreForty Years In. The Arc Behind the Work.
Forty-plus years of Athena Engineering — founded in a Covina garage, grown into a San Dimas firm with its own building on Foothill Blvd.…
Read moreTwo Generations on the Cover
Inside the Winter 2020 Diversity Professional Magazine cover feature on the Chiera family. Three generations of work, one suit and one uniform in the…
Read moreInside the Ebell of Los Angeles
How Athena Engineering designed and built a custom VRF retrofit for the Ebell of Los Angeles — a 1927 historic theater featured in LG's…
Read moreSchneider Electric Brands
A field guide to Schneider Electric's brand portfolio — Square D, APC, TAC, Andover Continuum, Invensys, and more. The legacy lineage running 40-60% of…
Read morePowered by Niagara: what the small Tridium logo on your BAS controller actually means
A short guide to the open framework most building automation systems are actually running on — and why it changes the math on vendor…
Read moreTo Our Daughters: Play in Dirt, Dream Big
Revisiting a 2019 essay about being asked, on nearly every jobwalk, how I ended up in construction. Seven years on, here's what I'd add.
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