At
least 8 of the 23 states that have deregulated their retail electricity markets
are considering reversing that decision. In the process, issues are being
raised that could impact power pricing, regardless of how such changes occur.
Power customers should be looking for ways to insulate themselves from sudden
electric “shocks.”
Being in charge of an engineering group, a department, or a
company takes a lot of planning ahead of time and then continuous improvement
as time goes by. I wrote a book titled, Managing People In The
HVACR Industry that was published by BNP Media that could have
simply been titled Managing People: An On The Job Experience
because the experience and process applies to many who advance into a
management role.
The first-ever GridWeek was
a great success. And, although I thought I had been keeping on top of the
GridWise movement by reading all the articles and interviews on my website
(AutomatedBuildings.com), GridWeek provided many opportunities to learn more.
Last month, this column addressed special considerations
for developing the owner’s project requirements/DID for projects that are
designed and constructed as a core and shell (C&S) by the developer with
customized tenant fit-out (TFO) of occupied spaces as they are leased.
Documenting the owner’s project requirements/design intent is valuable for any
project and is imperative for commissioned projects.
Light fixtures using light-emitting diodes (LED) hold great promise, but some early models have not met claims or expectations. Early adopters need to carefully test units being promoted for area and task lighting.
It is exciting to see that the benefits of commissioning are being realized by more and more commercial real estate developers and their tenants. A traditional speculative office building presents special challenges for the commissioning process. In the commercial real estate market, many office buildings are constructed as a core and shell (C&S) by the developer with customized tenant fit-out (TFO) of occupied spaces as they are leased.
In the April 2007 issue of AutomatedBuildings.com, our entire staff of contributing editors provided their thoughts on the radical changes needed in the building automation industry. They did what AutomatedBuildings.com does best: think out loud. It is this process, while using the power of the Internet, that enables us to inform, educate, change minds, and connect industry leaders to take this industry to the next level.
For several years now, I have had this vision for the building industry to combine the ATC sequence of operation with the FPT narrative because it just made good sense. After all, why should a client pay for the design engineer to write a sequence of operation and then pay a second time for a commissioning engineer to write it over again but in far more detail? At the same time, the commissioning business has grown with more and more people saying, “Yes, I can do that too” when it comes to writing these FPT’s. The problem with ATC and FPT’s is that there are no industry standards when it comes to writing either of these narratives, so how can we combine them into one format?
In 2006, a few very special people left us, and I think it
was that last person, a sales engineer in his eighties, whose obituary got me
thinking of all the people who have helped me over these past 42 years in the
building industry. Within that group of mentors, there were a select few that
really, really made a big difference and he was one that did so from a sales
engineer’s point of view.