Facilities Management articles for the week of 8/9/2020 - 8/15/2020

6 Tips to Prevent Electrical Switchgear Downtime

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of paying attention to details to ensure power and cooling reliability.

Read This » 3 Strategies to Prevent HVAC from Spreading Airborne Coronavirus

Protocols keeping people safe from COVID-19 have been implemented at facilities throughout the world.

Read This » Essential Workers: Facility Managers' Expanded Role During the Pandemic

As facility managers step into an expanded role in helping organizations reopen after the pandemic lockdown, they are interacting in different ways with a range of essential players in facilities: Top leadership, to understand key decisions such as when facilities will reopen, proximity requirements and the ways they will be reinforced, and occupant-density requirements Legal, to understand areas of risk and ways to manage them. Human resources, to understand messaging to employees, as well as potential sensitivities.

Read This » How to Keep Drains Clean and Facilities Flowing

Drains and piping in institutional and commercial facilities are out of sight and out of mind to occupants – until something goes wrong.

Read This » Buyer Beware: Practical Tips for Germicidal Lighting Use

The germicidal lighting industry operates in what James Malley, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire, specializing in UV technology for public health, calls a "regulatory abyss," though there is some oversight from EPA and FDA.

Read This » Why FMs Must Be Communicators Par Excellence

From elevator policy to cleaning frequency, how can facility managers know that these new strategies are not just effectively mitigating the spread of coronavirus, but also contributing to a positive occupant experience of the space, as much as that is possible in these trying times? Before the pandemic, a simple bi-annual or quarterly occupant satisfaction survey would probably do the trick.

Read This » Code Considerations for Inspecting, Testing, and Maintaining Fire Alarm Systems

Fire alarm systems play an important role in the ability of institutional and commercial facilities to provide early warning to and safely evacuate occupants during a fire emergency.

Read This » Restrooms Upgrades Must Consider Coronavirus, Hygiene Issues

Maintenance and engineering managers planning upgrades to plumbing and restrooms traditionally have focused on such goals as water conservation, accessibility and user hygiene.

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