The First Facility Management Blog

As troubleshooters for the workplace, facility managers need to deal with serious issues on a daily basis. When April 1st rolls around each year, serious can turn silly, especially for facility managers who need to clean up after classic office pranks. Here are a few that will crop up across offices around the world after this weekend (some of these come courtesy of Australia’s Pepsi Max site).

Chia desk (see photo above)
When your boss or colleague goes away on vacation, pour water and scatter cress seeds or lettuce onto the carpeted area in their office. With decent light, the seeds should germinate on the damp carpet and the person should find a growing carpet upon their return.

Switch Telephone Cords
When two (or more) people are working at desks that are put next to each other, switch their telephone cords. With all those cables lying around it will take some time before they find that one out!

Smelly Mouthpiece
Put a piece of onion or a clove of garlic inside the mouthpiece of a phone. Give it some time for it to fester and build up a strong odor. Then call them and keep them on the phone for as long as possible.

Frozen Shaving Cream
Take a can of non gel shaving cream, and put it in a freezer. When it is frozen remove the bottom of the can and put it in co worker’s drawer. When it melts it expands and explodes all over everything.

“LOSER!” Auto Correct
Go into MS Word or similar program on co-worker’s computer, and add an entry to the AutoCorrect feature. This is a very simple prank that will send the novice user into a frenzy. Configure the AutoCorrect option to replace the word “the” with the phrase “loser!”. They will usually panic and start scanning for viruses.

Full Blast
Try to find a very obnoxious CD laying around. Preferably a reggae or rap CD. Pop it in their CD ROM. Put up the sound full blast by double clicking on the volume control on the bottom right. On normal configurations the audio CD will auto play when windows first starts up. The person starting up there PC in the morning will definitely be embarrassed.

Sticky Mouse
Take clear tape and tape the underside of the mouse. Make sure you take the sticky end of the tape and apply it to the bottom of the mouse so it locks the ball in place. The victim will most likely check the connections in the back, reinstall drivers, reboot, etc., before they realize what has happened.

“M” not “N”
Simply pop out the ‘m’ and ‘n’ key on someone’s keyboard and reverse the two. Any flat tool will work. Just pry it with little pressure and they will easily come right off. Then just sit back and watch the confusion.

Who used all of my staples?
On a daily basis, after work, go in and empty someone’s stapler so that it has 2 or 3 staples in it. The owner will be pissed that they have to refill the stapler every day or so.

Uh-oh umbrella
Take any umbrella and fill it with any amount of small objects and place back in its original position. Ping pong balls work great.

Too hot, too cold
If you work in an office where the temperature fluctuates dramatically during the day, then you probably have more that one colleague that has a sweater for such times. When this person is not around use small binder clips, or similar items, to clip the end of the sleeve to the hem or bind the inside of the sleeve shut.

Sticky drawer
Use some duct tape to secure a colleagues top center desk drawer shut. Leave the drawer is slightly open so that it’s obvious the drawer isn’t locked, but not so much that they would be able to see or feel what could be holding the drawer shut. Now, tape the edges of the two sides and the back.

Faulty pens
Take ink pens from the desk of a co-worker, remove all the ink cartridges and put them back.

(In no way does FacilityBlog and its editors sanction this behavior. This is all just meant to be humorous.)

Here are some additional office pranks, captured on film, along with our very own bobble head collection (pictured above).

Finally, here is some great “motivational” thinking, courtesy of despair.com. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Make sure to get over to the site to select your favorite.

Over the next few months, Wausau Paper will be featured on “Business and Beyond,” an educational series aired by The Platinum Television Group, a media production company specializing in educational programming. Wausau is included in a segment on “Certified Green Seal Recipients,” which highlights the company’s EcoSoftTM Green Seal® line of towel and tissue products for the “away from home” market.

The segment is scheduled to air nationally on CNBC and National Geographic as well as regionally in 50 local markets. The latest airing schedules for “Business & Beyond” can be accessed by visiting www.wpbaywest.com or www.platinumtelevision.com.

Officials in China spoke this week about the nation’s efforts to reduce energy consumption. On Tuesday, Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said that China will take four measures to reduce energy consumption in construction projects over the next five years.

For TFM’s coverage of this topic, see “Green Around The Globe” in the March 2006 issue.

Zeng said the measures include:
* Implementing eco-friendly construction standards
* Refurbishing old buildings to improve energy efficiency
* Enhancing studies on eco-friendly technology, equipment and materials, which will become preferred options in construction projects
* Improving the legal system to facilitate energy savings

On Wednesday, the Deputy Minister of Construction, Qiu Baoxing, stated that China has begun a massive reconstruction of old buildings to make them more energy efficient. Work on buildings of the 10 central government ministries, including the Ministry of Construction, has begun and will be finished in a year-and-a-half, he said.

If reconstruction on the first 10 buildings proves successful, all departments of the central government and provincial governments will follow suit.

Qiu pointed out that the refurbishment of old buildings is part of the government’s bid to build a resource-saving and environmentally-friendly society.

According to experts, by 2020, China will see the construction of new buildings totaling 30 billion square meters in floor space. The demand to light, heat and cool these buildings on the current energy consumption model would be impossible, they say.

The Chinese government has approved plans to reduce energy consumption of new urban buildings by 50% by the end of 2010. For big cities such as Beijing, it will be cut by 65%.

By 2010, big cities shall have 25% of their old private and public buildings refurbished for energy saving. Middle-sized cities will have 15% and small cities 10%. By 2020, all the old buildings in Chinese cities are targeted to be refurbished for energy savings.

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute announced that Owens Corning is the first insulation manufacturer to qualify for its GREENGUARD Product Emission Standard for Children and Schools. The certification includes Owens Corning faced and unfaced PINK fiberglass insulation batts and rolls, VaporWick® pipe insulation, flexible duct media, FoamSealR™ sill plate gasket, Foamular® and Celfort® extruded polystyrene insulation, metal building insulation ELAMINATOR® insulation system, Certified R and utility blanket, SOFTR® All-Service Fiber Glass Duct Wrap, and QuietZone® acoustic batts and floor mats.

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute developed the school certification in response to rising concern over illnesses such as asthma and respiratory illness that are sometimes associated with poor indoor air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that half of U.S. schools have indoor air quality problems, which are blamed for reducing student’s performance on mental tasks requiring concentration, calculation and memory. The certification subjects products to rigorous emissions testing in an effort to protect school children from exposure to high levels of potentially harmful chemicals that may be released from furnishings, paint, flooring products and building products.

“As the leader in the insulation market for 67 years, we are thrilled to be able to continue to be at the forefront of the market on issues facing the industry – especially when it relates to something as sensitive as children and schools,” said Gale Tedhams, product and program manager for residential insulation at Owens Corning.”Along with our industry leading 35% recycled content, acknowledgement from the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute gives our customers valid, third-party affirmation that our products continue to be on the cutting edge of green technology and meet the strictest guidelines for indoor air quality.”

To remain competitive, many businesses are adopting new information technologies and initiatives that depend on power and cooling technology for their reliability and performance. Yet, according to a joint Emerson Network Power/Continuity Insights survey, many business continuity executives may not be prepared for the affect of these technologies on their mission-critical systems. Three-hundred and twenty-one subscribers of Continuity Insights magazine responded to the survey, which addressed business continuity objectives and business-critical power and cooling systems.

The survey revealed the high degree of change occurring in IT today:
42% of respondents are planning to add blade servers.
69% are adding other high-density systems.
49% are adopting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems.
53% have plans to physically expand the network into new locations.

Thirty-five percent of survey respondents said their current power systems won’t support planned expansions. Nearly 40% said their cooling systems do not have the capacity to support expansion, prompting Earle Weaver, president of Liebert North America to observe, “While IT systems themselves have been effectively integrated into business continuity plans, in some cases, critical infrastructure systems have not, and that can leave an organization vulnerable to disruption.”

Although 49% of the respondents had recovery time objectives for re-establishment of business-critical functions of two hours or less, and 38% had recovery point objectives of two hours or less for lost work, many are not factoring power and cooling for their mission-critical systems into their plans for restoring operation. Only 44% had calculated the amount of time their computer systems can operate without cooling in the event of an outage, while nearly a third lacked redundancy in their power distribution or back-up power systems. In addition, more than 70% had not quantified their cost of downtime. For those who did know, the potential loss per hour ranged from $1,500 to $800,000.

For complete survey results, e-mail cisurvey@liebert.com.

Overall, U.S. employment growth continued to expand in March for both the manufacturing and service sectors, and hiring expectations for the next 30 days remain strong. The employment increase is attributed to typical seasonal hiring, however, the manufacturing growth is stronger than this time last year, and data indicates April employment growth for both sectors to be even greater than March. The findings are reported in March’s Leading Indicator of National Employment (LINE™), a collaborative effort between the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.

Manufacturing employment continues to expand, and nearly 58% of respondents plan to recruit employees in the coming 30 days; this is the highest level for the employment expectations index since February 2004. This demand for manufacturing employees is increasing the number of open positions that employers are already unable to fill with skilled workers. The number of unfilled openings is increasing among both exempt and nonexempt positions.

While overall service sector employment dipped slightly in March, total vacancies and employment expectations rose sharply. The jump in vacant positions was for exempt or salaried, workers. In addition, nearly 58% of employers have plans to hire in the coming 30 days. Employers are finding it increasingly difficulty to recruit skilled workers; however, there appears to be little pressure yet to increase new-hire compensation.

The SHRM/Rutgers LINE data are collected through a survey of human resource executives at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service sector firms. The SHRM/Rutgers LINE is a weighted average of five component indexes—employment, vacancies, recruiting difficulty, new-hire compensation and employment expectations. All data are reported using diffusion indexes. A copy of the March report and answers to frequently asked questions can be found online.

This past January, the Responsible Solutions to Mold Coalition (RSMC) was formed with the goal of providing accurate information on how to prevent mold by controlling moisture in commercial and residential structures. Formed through a grant by USG Corporation, RSMC is currently comprised of 13 member organizations (see below for full list).

For recent Facility Blog coverage of this topic, see “CDC Mold Guidance Document”.

“While five years ago there was a dearth of information on moisture and mold control, just the opposite is true today,” said Frank Nunes of the International Institute for Lath and Plaster, an RSMC member. “If anything, the industry suffers from too much information that needs to be evaluated and put into a format that is more useful to both the construction industry and homeowners. That is a role that RSMC hopes to play.”

To further its mission, RSMC’s activities include:
* Maintaining a Web site to serve as a clearinghouse for accurate information on how to control/prevent mold (www.responsiblemoldsolutions.org).
* Publishing a brochure with accurate information on the systems approach to mold control. (Copies are available on the RSMC Web site.)
* Participating in demonstration projects in which these solutions are applied to fighting mold in a variety of settings.

Current member organizations are:
* Association of Wall and Ceiling Industries International
* Building Research Council, School of Architecture, University of Illinois
* Drywall Information Trust Fund
* International Institute for Lath and Plaster
* Lath and Plaster Institute of Northern California
* National Institute of Building Sciences
* Network for the Advancement of Building Science
* North American Insulation Manufacturers
* Northwest Ceiling & Wall Bureau
* Tile Council of North America
* U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, Department of Agriculture
* USG
* Western Wall & Ceiling Contractors Association

ABB Inc., a technology-based provider of power and automation products, systems, solutions, and services located in New Berlin, WI, offers tips to help reduce energy consumption of HVAC systems:

With soaring energy prices as the foil, motor drives are in demand like never before among commercial building users. This leads to the question: How do you harvest from the installed base of drives you already have for optimal performance?

Despite the economic advantages and energy savings available by using AC Variable Frequency Drives in HVAC applications, many building operators do not repair or replace drives when they fail; this is because the motors can easily continue to run through a bypass contactor. While this is a great solution for short-term outages, continued operation in this mode quickly becomes a very expensive way to operate a fan.

The Challenge
Budget cuts and competitive pressures have reduced building maintenance staffs in many public and private enterprises. This frequently results in a reprioritization of activities, forcing concentration on addressing issues which are required to be fixed at the moment. Repair items such as an HVAC drive system operating in bypass mode may be considered only a nuisance, to be dealt with as time permits.

Historical Perspective
Consider the rationale for installing HVAC Variable Frequency Drives over the past 10 to 15 years to control the air flow in buildings. These drives were originally installed to replace the throttling systems designed to regulate flow of air in the system. While throttling reduced the flow, the motor still ran at nearly full-load speed and, in some cases, worked even harder to overcome the added system restriction. By reducing the speed of the motor, the variable speed drive ensures no more energy than necessary is used to achieve the required flow.

For example, in theory a fan running at half speed consumes only one-eighth of the energy compared to one running at full speed. Field experience has shown that, when the effect of static back pressure is factored in, the relationship is somewhere between one-fourth and one-eighth of the energy consumed at full speed, depending on the application’s mechanical application.

Bypass Failures
Recent studies indicate that 8% to 12% of HVAC Drive Systems are running in a bypass mode due to a drive fault. The intent of a bypass contactor is for use in case of a drive failure for short time emergency service. It was never intended to be a long-term solution to a drive malfunction. While the misapplication of long-term use is understandable due to increased pressures on typically undermanned building maintenance organizations, there are proven approaches to solving this pressing problem.

Why worry about this now? Energy costs continue to soar. Between 1999 and 2004, electricity costs increased by nearly 15% (source: Department of Energy). When VFD’s were purchased for the application, the additional costs were justified based on saving money and improving profitability by using less energy for HVAC air handling in the building. Here’s an example of how long-term use of bypass contactors affects energy costs: if 10% of the drives are in bypass mode, up to 56% more energy can be consumed by the HVAC air handling system. This is based on the assumption that all motors being operated are the same size, and all HVAC systems are operating on average at 50% flow.

4 Steps to Achieve Energy Savings

Facility managers can develop a program which will change the way drives are proactively maintained. To develop such a program, it’s useful to detail how a typical Preventative Maintenance Program is centered around the following activities:

1. Review your situation. Utilize either an outside or internal resource person to inventory the drives in the building/complex to gather the following information:
* The number of installed drives and the make and model of each unit.
* Age of the drives and how long they actually have been in service.
* The HP of each drive.
* The duty cycle of each drive. Note that load-level vs. length-of-time data may be difficult to determine so this will often be an estimate.
* The number of drives operating in the bypass mode.
* Existing replacement drive inventory and on-hand spare parts to support downtime.

2. Replace or repair all of the drives operating in the bypass mode to begin realizing the original energy savings. It is important to work with a supplier that demonstrates the capability to replace or repair drives easily. Select one that will assist in the maintenance and support on an ongoing basis.

3. Create or contract a Preventative Maintenance Program which focuses on the specific issues of drives and how to keep them up and running. These activities typically include, but are not limited to the following.

With the VFD de-energized:
* Inspection of the environmental conditions on each drive.
* Inspection of power components and circuit boards for deterioration.
* Inspection for loose connections.
* Cleaning interior components of the drives.

With the VFD re-energized:
* Simulation or variation of signals from the control system to verify that the VSD is responding properly.
* Calibration of the drive to original factory settings.
* Review of the drive application for possible upgrades and operational enhancements.

4. Replace older and highly critical drives before they fail. When a drive is over 10 years old and/or in a demanding and highly critical application, consideration should be given to replacing it before failure. Even with the cost of a new drive and installation, the benefits will include lower operating costs and improved client comfort. Simple-payback, 10-year life cycle costing or other financial analysis techniques may be performed to evaluate, formally, the economics for drive change- out.

Conclusion
VFD systems installed in the facility have a proven track record of energy costs and improving client comfort. The ability to keep drives running as designed will assure continued savings and comfortable occupants.

A number of significant improvements have been made to present-day VFD systems compared to what was available 10 years ago. Drives size and parts count have been reduced along with cost while increasing performance, quality and warranty periods. Commonly available features include embedded PI control functions which eliminate the need for closed loop output signals from the BAS. The PI controller typically includes feedback inverse, square root and differential control functions on board which lower your costs of HVAC control systems installation and wiring.

VFD units now typically combine sophisticated IGBT power switching with advanced microprocessor logic to reduce audible motor noise and meet accepted power quality standards. A number of communication options are available which can be tailored to a wide variety of BAS data and control formats. On board metering of electrical kW and kWh information provides data useful in efficiency and billing calculations.

For information on a complimentary facilities audit from ABB Drives, contact Jeff Miller at (262) 780-3865. The audit service from ABB is available in most major U.S. metropolitan areas.