By Walt Rutherford Notes from the Facility Managers Survival Guide Today’s Facility Managers have the ability to utilize cost saving measures only dreamt about a few short years ago. Digital control systems that provide extremely flexible equipment operating parameters, extensive zone monitoring & control and virtually unlimited scheduling points have become the norm. Coupled with the advanced mechanical equipment that condition & maintain the building environment, the control system provides for powerful management of the resources that affect the bottom line. However, as the old saying goes, ‘a building’s environment is only as good as its weakest link’. And there is big potential for a facility to include multiple weak links, each less obvious and more impactful than another. For example; a fan running backward will still produce airflow in the proper direction, only at about half of its capacity and at 130% of the normal energy consumption (amp draw). A thermostat/sensor with an incorrect offset (or none at all) will still transmit zone temperature variances, but if it’s off even by 2⁰F it’s still not operating properly and needs 2⁰F of correction in order to do its part in efficiently controlling temperature . An outside air damper introducing fresh air into an AHU system that is allowing just 10% volume over the required amount puts an unnecessary strain on the cooling/heating operation. At 400 cfm and 12000 btu’s per ton, a 4000 cfm unit drawing 1200 cfm of osa as opposed to the required 800 cfm is wasting an obscene amount of energy each hour, like 60 tons of conditioning. Also, air & water conditioning can be accomplished, albeit far short of efficient if barely acceptable, with a pump moving less water than designed-especially if multiple pumps are available. These are just a few examples of very common issues found in a buildings HVAC mechanical, electrical & control systems. Issues that are not readily apparent, but have huge impact on energy-efficiency, indoor air quality and operating costs. That fan running backward will not only consume more energy but will also generate excessive heat which will cut its motor life at least in half. And a pump not carrying its full share requires others to pick up the slack. The reasons for system performance inadequacies range from design flaws, to devices installed improperly to component failure to years of maintenance personnel focusing on the product (an office is too cold, a hallway that becomes a wind tunnel every morning…) as opposed to the process. But these issues and many more like them can be identified and remedied with a thorough air & hydronic systems testing, adjusting & balancing (TAB) process. The process is just as it sounds; the term ‘Test’ refers to the act of determining quantitative performance of the HVAC equipment. ‘Adjust’ refers to regulating the various fluid flows such as water thru a terminal coil or the amount of air a fan produces; and ‘Balance’ the proportioning of flows within a particular air or water distribution network to obtain specified or required quantities. But there’s a little more to the process that needs to be accomplished first in order to get the most from the TAB effort. The first step is to gather all related data. Engineered equipment schedules and system drawings, O & M manuals, equipment data sheets and sequence of operations need to be reviewed and relevancy to actual equipment and systems in place established. If this information is not available or no longer relevant a survey should be conducted to get actual equipment data and Google can be used to find equipment cut sheets, device operating parameters and fan & pump curves. From this document review a TAB plan can be formulated. Hint; break your plan down by system. This will allow for a coherent approach and once the work has begun tracking progress will be simpler and you won’t have an entire building in different stages of balancing with different systems working against each other wreaking havoc on the building environment. Next is the preliminary investigation of the system chosen to be addressed. This phase will uncover components that need repaired, replaced or calibrated, ductwork and piping that may not be installed per design and overall system integrity. This is also the time to ensure all manual volume dampers on the air side or circuit setters on the water side of a particular system are operational & set in the full open position. Once the initial investigation is complete the actual testing adjusting and balancing can proceed. Although the data gathering and preliminary investigation(s) would benefit greatly with in-house participation a certified balancing company should be called on to perform the TAB operations. They are equipped with the necessary tools & equipment to conduct the various tests and have the training needed to accomplish what may appear to be fairly simple procedures but are in fact rather complex and at times complicated. Another benefit to bringing a certified TAB company into the mix is that they provide a written guarantee that is backed by an alliance of companies that will step up to make things right if the original company fails to do so. The TAB technicians will test the various fan & pump systems to ensure the required total volumes are produced. They then proceed to adjust terminal devices, air outlets/inlets and water coils. They will bring these volumes into original design parameters or more realistic space demand requirements and when needed adjust to the occupants requests. The results of a good test & balance operation will be evident in that those doors that always seem to be held open by a breeze, that pesky bathroom that never regains a fresh clean smell once used, hot/cold spots and drafty areas will all be rectified. And more efficient, proper systems operation will show in the utility bill. Walt Rutherford has been involved in all things MEP since 1986. He currently resides in Las Vegas, NV where he manages a branch office and regularly contributes to Nevada Industry Excellence. Walt manages a branch office in Las Vegas, NV for Precision Air Balance Co. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to comment on this article. You can also reach Walt by email. 2 Comments  As an independent IT professional / consultant, the need to advertise what I do is very real. Certainly, at some point you acquire repeat customers and you're set, right? Get real...that's a perfect world. Now, fast forward to today's economy and realize that if we rely on what we've done in the past and what's always worked before we'll be out on the street wondering what happened! I've written and promoted hundreds of thousands of professionally authored words of my own which have helped me promote both my services as well as promote the offerings of many of my clients. Additionally, I offer my site for articles promoting the products of others and make available space on my website (note ads on the right here an other pages of my site) as a way of promoting client services, software, and other product offerings. If you're interested in promoting yourself or your product on my blog in the form of one or more articles or with 6-month or 12-month long logo/link advertising terms, please contact me either through the contact form on this site by emailing me at brad (at) bradegeland (dot) com. For articles promoting your services or products, I'll promote them to my Twitter followers (which usually are retweeted to thousands within hours reaching many potential customers), to the 25-30 LinkedIn professional groups I belong to, and to a professional project management group that I administer on Facebook. Your information will propogate quickly to many eyes. Let me know if you'd like to discuss further. Thanks! This article appears on the Project Management Tips site here. This is a topic I have been thinking about for awhile. I'm an independent consultant so theoretically, I could manage projects and consult from anywhere. Being near a major airport is somewhat necessary. I'm in Las Vegas, so the airport thing is covered. In fact, it's hard to find a locale with cheaper airfare options than Las Vegas. The Local Market One problem with consulting in Las Vegas is the local economy. Unemployment is high, businesses are disappearing, and those clients that used to have money to spend are trying to do everything themselves or putting off some needed work. It's that where everywhere, I realize, but it's fairly pronounced in Las Vegas. Casinos always have some money to spend, but they're not often the ones that seek out consulting services. So, your local market becomes a concern no matter what, unless your plate is already full with clients in other locations. Then, it's just a matter of staying close to an airport you utilize regularly. If my wife had her preference, I'd probably be consulting from Maui. We use to live in Iowa and she told me that was as far north as she wanted live. And we'd generally like to remain in the US, so that limits me to the southern states, but we'd probably go wherever for the right situation. Likewise, I'd stop consulting for the right situation, too. Just today I was on a call with an organization in New York. What I didn't immediately realize was that the job would actually be in New York, not remote with travel. New York is not in our relocation plans right now so that one wasn't going to work. Warm Weather! I'm with my wife - if I have a choice - which I currently do, warm weather is the way to go. I lived in Iowa for 40 years. Enough snow and rain to last a couple of lifetimes. I love the weather in Las Vegas - even when the temperature reaches 110-115˚ in July and August since it's only for two months. Once you're set up with a remote office, flexible software like Seavus' Project Viewer or similar tool - either desktop or web-based, and a cell plan that covers everything, you can truly go just about anywhere if you can survive the moving process! The only weather that both my wife and I like better right now is the San Diego or Orange County climate (we're Disney fans and have small children). Anyone in San Diego or Los Angeles in need of an experienced Project Manager/IT Consultant/Business Strategistic with an entrepreneurial flair? What's Your Ideal Locale? It's your turn to chime in now. What's your ideal work location? Right where you are? If so, tell me why. If not, where would you like to call your business home if you had your choice of anywhere...and why? What's stopping you? Let me know....send a comment to this article. Thanks! Remember when business cards were just your information - really just your name, position, company, phone number, and fax? Remember. Eventually email addresses and web URLs were added, but still, that's about it. Those days have changed - at least for me. I've discovered Moo business cards. You can check them out at www.moo.com or, preferrably by clicking on the link on the right side of this page. If you do that, I think I get a kick back ... I'm not sure ...but either way you'll be happy, I promise. What makes this cards different is hard to explain but when you see them and handle them you'll know. They're easy to create from the Moo.com website and one option lets you upload up to 50 different pictures to put on the back of your 50 business cards. Obviously they're great business cards for small businesses with multiple products to show off or for individual professionals such as photographers with a portfolio to display. I've become fairly addicted and have ordered multiple varieties - check them out at www.moo.com or again, you can just click the Moo advertisement on the right. Thanks. This article was originally authored by me for the Real Deal Technologies website and published there on 8/20/09. Go here to view the original article. At first thought, cloud computing reminds me of the old concept of a flow chart that would have this big box that said “and something happens here” when no one could figure out the right process to show or how to solve the problem. Defining Cloud Computing Cloud computing isn’t quite like that…it isn’t something that just happens…but done right it IS basically something that sort of “just happens.” Like the internet…you turn your computer on and there it is and your connected to information, networks, servers somewhere else, a remote printer, etc. You don’t really worry about it, it’s there. And that’s the concept of cloud computing. Cloud means Internet. The computing takes place on the Internet – in place of the software you use executing on your desktop pc, it’s hosted on the Internet on a server installed in a data centre usually staffed by people who are experts in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is sometimes called “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS). I was watching an online video the other day where some IT industry experts were asked what cloud computing meant to them. You can view that video here. It’s funny how it means something a little different to everyone and some of them were at a loss of words to describe which gives you an idea of how new it still is to everyone…and yet how simple the concept really is. And that’s mostly what it is…a concept. After all, the cloud idea came from the image used to display the concept of the Internet in diagrams. Like a big cloud that we connect to not caring really what is in that cloud and how we get information and services from it. Back to the video I was watching…one individual described it simply as…”if you need more than your laptop and an Internet connection, then it’s not cloud computing." Cloud Computing and the Small Business So what does cloud computing mean to small businesses? What does it mean for their? At a minimum, this is what I believe it means to me as a project manager when considering the small businesses and startups that I’ve worked with:
To me, as a Project Manager, cloud computing means a more green, less costly, and more carefree processing environment for the customer. Does this mean a more carefree and less costly implementation? Possibly less costly, but from and implementation or project manager perspective I don’t believe it’s any more carefree. Everything must still be tested, everything still must work upon deployment, and everything must still be supported. Effective Business Communication 11/01/2009
This article was originally authored by me for the Real Deal Technologies website and published there on 6/19/09. Go here to view the original article. This one is probably common sense, but needs to be discussed. For you married business leaders out there…how many times has your wife been absolutely certain she told you ‘x’ when you either heard ‘y’ or nothing at all? And how many times has that worked the other way around? My guess is that it’s at least a weekly occurrence. Granted, we’re often very casual with our ‘at home’ communication methods and we certainly aren’t committing discussions to notes like we do during our client conversations and status calls. But our communications with our spouses are very important and we often drop the ball on them knowing full well how important they are and how much ‘in trouble’ we could get if they are misinterpreted or ignored. Listen Effectively What I’ve been trying to say so far in this article basically is that effective communication begins with effective listening. As the business owner or leader, our primary communication comes mainly from the following sources:
Document Well If you develop a reputation for taking good notes and distributing critical notes and meeting updates to members of your organization, then your documentation will be well trusted on current and future undertakings. This has worked well for me as I have a reputation for frequent emails to my project team members as well as providing follow-up notes following meetings and discussions. My co-workers, employees, and customers know I take detailed notes on calls – they like to joke about the keyboard noise they hear in the background while I’m leading meetings. But they also never question me when I backup things that were promised or said on calls with notes that I’ve captured from those conversations because they know I’m listening and taking accurate notes of important project discussions. Review Your Communications In order to preserve this reputation, read, read and re-read communications that you are sending out. If it’s not an emergency communication that needs to be made immediately, then take the time to proof-read your communication, check for appropriate email attachments and view your communication from the receiver’s point of view. The last thing you want is to have the reputation as the one how always has to send communications twice because you forgot the attachment the first time (you know who you are!). Nor do you want the reputation of the one who sends rambling emails and documents that leave the reader confused or that fail to make a strong point. If you struggle in this area, trying outlining your thoughts first and treat every written communication as if it were the most important thing you have to do today. Summary How you communicate information on your business projects can have a profound effect on the outcome. Do whatever you can to ensure that you listen effectively and pass on information accurately to your team or employees and to your customer. Misunderstood and miscommunicated information can result in improper actions taken, assignments missed or misunderstood, and overall major negative impacts to timelines and budgets. |         Click to set custom HTML
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