Facilities Management articles for the week of 10/6/2019 - 10/12/2019

New Era of Utility Incentives: EV Charging, Energy Storage

In California, the three largest investor-owned utilities (Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Pacific Gas and Electric) have approved $1 billion in utility investments for charging stations for electric cars, trucks, buses, airport equipment, cranes, and the like, says Max Baumhefner, senior attorney for the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Read This » Sustainable Deicer Use: A Sample Policy

Every deicer has a different effective range of use, side effects, and potential dangers or challenges tied to environment, supply, storage and other factors.

Read This » Security, Access Control and Key Considerations

Although access control systems have been in use for decades, it is surprising how many institutional and commercial facilities still rely on mechanical keys.

Read This » Achievement Awards: Shining a Spotlight on Maintenance

Maintenance and engineering departments rarely receive recognition for their efforts to ensure facilities are safe, reliable, energy efficient and sustainable.

Read This » Winter Equipment Preparation Checklist

TRUCKS AND EQUIPMENT •Pressure wash equipment, and inspect and repair as required. •Inspect electrical components, including batteries, starters, alternators, connections, fuses and lights. •Check hydraulic systems for leaks, damaged hoses and connections, and repair as necessary.

Read This » Snow and Ice Strategies: Assessing Needs and Resources

Most grounds managers approach snow and ice management by first considering which product to use, as opposed to reviewing the tools, knowledge and resources they can combine that will tackle whatever nature throws at them and will meet the expectations of the building owners, occupants and visitors. For sites that do not mandate an extremely low tolerance of snow and ice on paved surfaces, chloride-based deicers still might be the most sustainable financially and environmentally — if a prevention strategy is in place and managed well. For sites that require very low tolerances, are sodium- or chloride-sensitive, or are concerned with corrosivity of specific metals, non-chloride deicers are available, though generally at a higher cost.

Read This » 10 Keys to Monitoring-Based Commissioning Success

  Building owners and facility manager face myriad decisions when it comes to optimizing building efficiency.

Read This » Best Practices for Sustainability in Snow and Ice Removal

There are two schools of thought when it comes to sustainable snow-and-ice removal.

Read This » How Cool Roofs Promote Energy Savings, Cooler Cities

Any airline passenger seated in a window seat during the 1980s would have looked out the window on approach to their destination and — if they noticed roofing at all — would have noted that the building roofs were dark colored.

Read This » Paints and Coatings: Primer Pointers

Manufacturers offer an application sheet with each paint and coating product that describes the substrate for which the product is formulated.

Read This » Water Watch on Plumbing Systems

Domestic water use accounts for about 40 percent of the water use in most buildings.

Read This » Roof Inspections and Streamlining Maintenance

A manager’s long-term experience with a roof system can be invaluable in developing and implementing comprehensive inspections plans in place, and it can be an immense benefit to the organization.

Read This » Using CFD Analysis to Prevent HVAC Equipment Oversizing

What do complex spaces in buildings have in common with Formula 1 race cars, America’s Cup yachts, spaceships, and jet fighters? Increasingly, it may be that all have the opportunity to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimize design of complex architectural spaces.  For the majority of its life, CFD has been synonymous with the design of the most expensive, fastest, and highest performing human creations of human beings.

Read This » How Water Efficiency Creates Resilient Facilities

As building owners and facility managers plan and prioritize capital improvements, resilience during extreme weather, power interruptions, and other events has become a priority.

Read This » Explaining Experiential Design's Benefit for Healthcare Facilities

For healthcare interiors today, the marriage of experiential design with sustainable materials and practices creates an environment that aids in positive patient outcomes while furthering the business and social responsibility interests of the healthcare organization. Experiential design is not a new concept.

Read This » K-12 Upgrades That Target Lighting and Plumbing

While HVAC systems are traditional targets of upgrades in K-12 school districts, lighting and plumbing systems also offer a host of opportunities for improving energy efficiency and controlling utility and maintenance costs. Lighting.

Read This » Defining Security for Access Control

No matter the type of access control system a manager specifies, a number of issues must be addressed before the project can begin.

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