The First Facility Management Blog

The International Facility Management Association is pleased to announce it has partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® program to help facility professionals improve building performance through energy conservation.

The IFMA Energy Challenge: ENERGY STAR encourages all facility professionals to track their progress as they work toward a goal of reducing their organization’s measured facility energy use by 15%. IFMA has created a master account within the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and asks facility professionals to create their own accounts, add information about their facilities, and share that information with IFMA.

By measuring facility performance in a consistent manner, benchmarking energy and utility use, and sharing and implementing efficiency measures and best practices, ENERGY STAR can help organizations save money; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; improve facility performance; and qualify for tax incentives and rebates. In 2008 alone, Americans saved $19 billion on their utility bills with the help of ENERGY STAR.

“EPA is very excited to work with IFMA as it rolls out its energy challenge. We applaud the association for calling on its members to achieve an aggressive energy reduction target and promoting the value of benchmarking as a key component of successful energy management,” said Alyssa Quarforth, program manager for ENERGY STAR, Commercial Properties. “We have found that association-based initiatives such as IFMA’s can drive significant energy improvements across commercial buildings, while also promoting increased awareness of ENERGY STAR and the value of strategic energy management.”

Facility professionals interested in tracking and reducing their buildings’ energy use are encouraged to download the IFMA Foundation’s free “Sustainability How-to Guide: EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager” publication here for step-by-step instructions and tips on how to create their own account and share their information with IFMA and others. IFMA will not publicize the organization names of those who submit information, only relevant benchmarking data.

Additionally, IFMA’s upcoming Facility Fusion conference — held in Philadelphia April 13-15 — will feature the educational session “Measuring Energy Consumption: IFMA’s ENERGY STAR Initiative” on April 15. Presented by representatives from FEA and CFM2: Conley Facility Management, the session will explore how incorporating energy management and other sustainable facility practices can save money and improve overall facility performance.

Public input to help shape the technical requirements in Standard 90.1 is being sought through 21 proposed addenda, which could become part of the 2010 standard. ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, provides minimum requirements for the energy efficient design of buildings except low-rise residential buildings. The proposed addenda cover a range of topic areas, including daylighting, air leakage, EER and IEER values, and requirements for VRF air conditioners and heat pumps.

“Our goal is to produce a standard to increase energy efficiency in buildings,” Mick Schwedler, Standard 90.1 committee chair, stated. “Public input from the industry into development of the standard has proven invaluable since it was first published 35 years ago.”

Daylighting image courtesy of Sunoptics

If no comments are received on the addenda, they likely will be incorporated into the 2010 version of the standard slated to be published this fall. If comments are received, the substance and volume of those comments will determine whether they are incorporated into the 2010 standard.

Daylighting And Computer Rooms Among Possible Changes

Among the proposed addenda are two that deal with daylighting. Addendum cu, which would control the “night lights” that are part of the emergency system when there are no occupants in the space. Today, generally by default, lights are kept on even if buildings are unoccupied. Therefore, there are savings to shut them off. Addendum ct would reduce the threshold for daylighting to 250 square feet from 1,000 square feet.

In another area, addendum bu would modify computer room efficiency requirements based on comments from an earlier public review.

“The 90.1 committee worked closely with manufacturers, designers, and owners of computer rooms to address comments and produce the language in this addendum,” said Drake Erbe, Mechanical Subcommittee chair.

The public review and comment period for this first group of 12 addenda runs from March 5 to April 4, 2010:

• Addendum bb would modify Appendix C and Appendix A in response to comments received on the previous version of the addendum, which modifies all fenestration and opaque assembly requirements in the standard.
• Addendum bf would place performance requirements for air leakage of the opaque envelope. Performance requirements have existed on fenestration and door products to date, but evidence suggests that the opaque envelope is the source of the majority of air leakage in buildings caused by lack of attention in the design, construction and enforcement process due to the absence of performance criteria.
• Addendum bz addresses the comments received during the first public review calling for clarification of the requirements to reduce misinterpretation on the proposed monitoring requirements.
• Addendum ce would clarify the requirements and avoid conflicts with other existing requirements for lighting space control.
• Addendum cs originated with a continuous maintenance proposal to address information received on addendum bs on receptacles after the public review period closed and which the committee found to have merit.
• Addendum cu would control the “night lights” that are part of the emergency system when there are no occupants in the space. This has definite energy savings and is not prohibited by the electrical codes.
• Addendum cv would add energy efficiency requirements for service water pressure booster systems.
• Addendum cw would address corrections and clarification necessary to Section 11, Table 11.3.1 section 11 Service Hot Water Systems.
• Addendum cx would allow a 40 percent window wall area path within the prescriptive Tables 5.5-1 through 5.5-8.
• Addendum cz would incorporate bi-level control for parking garages to reduce the wasted energy associated with unoccupied periods for many garages and allows an exception for lighting in the transition (entrance/exit) areas to accommodate IES recommendations.
• Addendum da would establish that an Appendix G baseline shall be based on the minimum ventilation requirements required by local codes or a rating authority and not the proposed design ventilation rates.
• Addendum dc: The conditions and common practice that existed to create the need for this requirement on tandem wiring are no longer practiced primarily with the new Federal efficacy requirements and products available on the market.

The public review and comment period for these nine addenda runs from March 5-April 19, 2010:

• Addendum bu would modify the computer room efficiency requirements based on comments received during the first public review.
• Addendum cd would strengthen the language to actually require exterior control rather than just require the control capability; add bi-level control for general all-night applications such as parking lots to reduce lighting when not needed; and add control for façade and landscaping lighting not needed after midnight.
• Addendum cn would add two versions of a combined advanced control to the control incentives table.  These control system combinations involve personal workstation control and workstation-specific occupancy sensors for open office applications. The control incentive will apply only to the particular controls when they are applied in open office areas.
• Addendum co would make three major amendments to Table 6.8.1A: update EER and IEER values for all condensing units and water and evaporatively cooled air conditioners with cooling capacities greater than 65,000 Btu/h; establish a separate product class for evaporatively cooled air conditioners with different energy efficiency standards; and replace the IPLV descriptor for condensing units with the new IEER metric and amends the EERs with more stringent values.
• Addendum cp would establish, for the first time in Standard 90.1, efficiency requirements for VRF air conditioners and heat pumps, including heat pumps that use a water source for heat rejection.
• Addendum cq would modify the duct sealing requirements in 90.1.
• Addendum cr would set a definition for an unmet load hour currently lacking a throttling range or limit to the setpoint. It was decided that the baseline and proposed shall have the same thermostat throttling range. This required additional language in the unmet load hour definition as to how throttling range effects determination of an unmet hour along with additional language in Table 11.3.1 and Table G3.1, Design Model sections.
• Addendum ct would reduce the threshold for daylighting from 1000 square feet to 250 square feet.
• Addendum cy would make several revisions to the economizer requirements in section 6.5.1 and in section 6.3.2

The proposed addenda to ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 are available for comment only during their public review period. To read the addenda or to comment, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews. The addenda for Standard 90.1 can be found under the heading: 45-Day Public Review Period from March 5, 2010 to April 19, 2010.

Solar and wind power can supply the vast majority of North Carolina’s electricity needs, according to a report released last week by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER). Combined with generation from hydroelectric and other renewable sources, such as landfill gas, only 6% of electricity would have to be purchased from outside the system or produced at conventional plants, states the report. It is titled, “Matching Utility Loads with Solar and Wind Power in North Carolina: Dealing with Intermittent Electricity Sources.”

“Even though the wind does not blow nor the sun shine all the time, careful management, readily available storage, and other renewable sources can produce nearly all the electricity North Carolinians consume,” said the study’s author, Dr. John Blackburn, who is Professor Emeritus of Economics and former Chancellor at Duke University.

“Critics of renewable power point out that solar and wind sources are intermittent,” Dr. Blackburn continued. “The truth is that solar and wind are complementary in North Carolina. Wind speeds are usually higher at night than in the daytime. They also blow faster in winter than summer. Solar generation, on the other hand, takes place in the daytime. Sunlight is only half as strong in winter as in summertime. Drawing wind power from different areas—the coast, mountains, the sounds or the ocean—reduces variations in generation. Using wind and solar in tandem is even more reliable. Together, they can generate three-fourths of the state’s electricity. When hydroelectric and other renewable sources are added, the gap to be filled is surprisingly small. Only six percent of North Carolina’s electricity would have to come from conventional power plants or from other systems.”

Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of IEER, explained why his center published Dr. Blackburn’s report, “This is a landmark case study of how solar and wind generation can be combined to provide round the clock electric power throughout the year. North Carolina utilities and regulators and those in other states should take this template, refine it, and make a renewable electricity future a reality.” Dr. Makhijani is the author of the 2007 book, “Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy.”

To request a PDF of the report, which contains an executive summary, send an e-mail to avazquez@groupc.com.

The Planon Group, a global provider of enterprise real estate and facilities software, recently unveiled Planon Green Intelligence for Facilities, a solution that gives facility management executives the tools to measure, monitor, and act upon collected property and asset data to achieve both cost savings and corporate sustainability goals.

Available as part of the company’s core suite, Planon Green Intelligence, the energy management component of Green Workplace Economics, offers facility executives a practical way to jumpstart environmental sustainability programs by transforming aggregated asset level to property level data into actionable information.

Planon can then generate corrective work orders to quickly diagnose and correct overconsuming facilities assets. Planon Talk, Planon’s integration application, also ensures full connectivity with existing building technology and energy measurement facilities, giving organizations a fully integrated solution.

With Green Intelligence, facility executives gain a global view of their real estate portfolio and assets and gain the ability to automatically issue corrective or reactive action within one seamless solution. With Green IT for Facilities, organizations can:

• Cut costs through reduction of energy consumption
• Extend the efficiency and lifespan of facilities assets through planned maintenance
• Reduce carbon footprint
• Manage energy supply and costs
• Comply with organizational and federal environmental mandates
• Track LEED certification status across an entire real estate portfolio

Earlier this month, Planon was named the recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 Product Leadership of the Year Award for the Real Estate and Facilities Management software market. The award recognizes Planon’s portfolio of real estate and facility management software solutions for its broad array of features and functionality, high quality, innovation, market acceptance, and for providing its customers with valued enhancements. Planon announced the latest version (2010.A) of its software last week.

(Image courtesy of IBM)

IBM and Johnson Controls have formed a new relationship to provide a Smart Building Solution that can improve operations and reduce energy and water consumption in buildings worldwide.

Building on an existing relationship formed in 2007 to create energy efficient data centers, this new offering can benefit any building or portfolio of buildings. Johnson Controls will combine its experience in energy efficiency and sustainable services and technologies with IBM’s experience in software, hardware, and services. The result will help facility management professionals address the growing pressure to improve energy and asset management performance across their enterprises.

Key elements of the offering are designed to address critical building performance areas including systems integration, energy management, enterprise reporting, space utilization, and asset management.

• Systems Integration: The integration of building systems, business systems, and smart grid technologies using Johnson Controls’ EnNet and IBM software offers increased information on the performance of buildings to reduce operating costs and keep occupants safe, comfortable, and productive.
• Energy Management: Energy management offerings that use energy waste detection, reporting, and intelligent control capabilities have proven potential to drive between 10% and 20% energy savings across an enterprise. The Johnson Controls Metasys Sustainability Manager, combined with IBM business analytics software, provides actionable information to help reduce energy consumption and waste.
• Enterprise Reporting: The Johnson Controls’ Energy and Emissions Management System, with IBM enterprise reporting capability, provides organizations with the capability to calculate greenhouse gas levels by measuring, managing, and forecasting activities related to energy cost, consumption, energy efficiency projects, fleet emissions, and waste.
• Space Optimization: Johnson Controls’ Visible Living Lab tools and services, combined with IBM building space management solutions and advanced analytics, provide visibility across a building or building complex, driving between 10% and 20% improvement in space utilization. Underused space can be identified and more efficient options defined, including footprint consolidation, divestiture, and relocation.

The Johnson Controls Metasys Building Management System integrated with the IBM Maximo asset management solution provides tools and services that deliver between 10% and 20% savings across enterprises by enabling visibility across a building portfolio, boosting the efficiency of facility operations, and improving occupant safety and comfort, use, and lifecycle management.

Core solution components include IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management, IBM Business Services Manager, and IBM Maximo Asset Management, IBM Maximo Asset Management for Energy Optimization; and Johnson Controls’ Metasys Building Management Solution, Metasys Sustainability Manager, Energy and Emissions Management System, EnNEt middleware, Visual Living Lab and Technology Contracting services.

Imagine 5th and 6th grade students donning hard hats and safety glasses, helping to design and build their own school, and then acting as energy conscious stewards for the facility. For public school children in New Haven, CT, Kids Build, an educational program developed by architecture firm Svigals + Partners, in conjunction with the New Haven School Construction Program, is allowing them to do just that. By offering participants the opportunity to gain firsthand experience working with architects, construction managers, and tradespeople, Kids Build offers career mentoring, side by side with lessons in art, science, and math.

The first Kids Build project focused on the Beecher School, completed in 2006.

The Kids Build program is intended to educate schoolchildren about the design, construction, and maintenance of their new schools. Students are involved in the design and ongoing maintenance, becoming “stewards” who can responsibly care for their schools and help younger students learn about these important values.

Kids Build is an energy conscious program that supports the City of New Haven’s efforts to reduce energy use in schools. It provides opportunities for schoolchildren to explore career paths in architecture, design and building/construction and is supported by New Haven Public Schools.

With two schools completed under the program—the Beecher School in 2006 and The Columbus Family Academy in 2008, participants are gearing up for a third project at the Engineering and Science University Magnate School.

Throughout the construction of each school, groups of 30 5th and 6th grade students meet for four two-hour workshops. Activities include exploring the office of Svigals +Partners, visiting construction
trailers, participating in discussions with the architects, construction managers, and tradespeople, and touring the schools at various stages of construction.

Students learn about a variety of building topics related to construction and operations.

Students in past projects hailed from several New Haven Public Schools and included several of those who would be entering the new schools upon completion. Once the schools opened, these students prepared a presentation of their Kids Build experience for their classmates.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., has said: “Kids Build is an innovative way to introduce city students to meaningful careers in architecture and construction and also to teach them to be proud of their schools. The City’s $1.5 billion Citywide School Construction program presents a great opportunity for kids to learn more about how to care for assets like their own schools. Kudos to Svigals + Partners for their involvement.”

Late last year, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) disclosed plans for an industry wide “transmission efficiency” demonstration collaborative that will identify technologies leading to greater efficiency in the bulk power system, an increase in system utilization, and a reduction in line and equipment losses.

The initiative’s goal is to improve efficiency and stem losses of electricity that would otherwise flow to the end user. The losses account for about 300 billion kilowatt hours in the United States, and reducing such losses will allow utilities to generate less power and thereby lower the industry’s carbon footprint.
The collaborative is outgrowth of efforts by EPRI, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), independent system operators, and leading utilities to identify and implement best practices in the United States and abroad to make transmission systems more efficient.

“Improving the technology and efficiency of the transmission system is a key component in developing a smarter national grid,” said Arshad Mansoor, vice president of EPRI’s Power Delivery and Utilization sector. “This collaborative will go hand-in-hand with on going efforts to extract new efficiencies—from generation to end use—throughout the entire industry.”

“This is a timely initiative in that it comes as the government and industry work together to improve the efficiency of the transmission system,” said FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff. “Clearly, implementing new technologies on the bulk power system would benefit both the industry and consumers, while at the same time, reducing the sector’s carbon footprint.”

The Bilco Company has introduced an enhanced performance roof hatch that meets LEED standards for recycled content and is nearly 50% more energy efficient than standard roof hatches. The new thermally enhanced hatch is designed with a fully insulated cover and curb, and features a 2″ ozone-friendly polyisocyanurate thermal insulation board with an R-value of 12. The EPDM finger-type gasket ensures a positive seal between the cover and curb to reduce air permeability and ensure energy performance. The hatch also has a high solar reflective index.

Bilco’s thermally enhanced hatch is fabricated from corrosion-resistant aluminum milled primarily from recycled content. It is equipped with a heavy duty slam latch that securely locks the cover in the closed position, and features interior and exterior hasps for additional security.

Fully enclosed compression springs counterbalance the cover for controlled operation regardless of its size or weight, and minimize the effort required to open and close the hatch. For added security, a rugged hold-open arm automatically locks the cover in the open position, and the grip handle allows for users to release and close the hatch with one hand.

As with all Bilco’s roof hatches, the insulated curb is equipped with cap flashing and the Bil-Clip® flashing system for ease of installation on single-ply roofs.

GE Lighting has established an ESCO Energy Services Program to continue its work providing customers with a full-service approach to energy savings. Through alliances with selected energy services companies (ESCOs), this GE program aims to help customers explore energy strategies that take into account such factors as cost-of-light payback, return on investment (ROI), rebates, financing, and government incentives that can reduce investment costs.

“The ESCOs involved meet high customer service, integrity, and credibility standards,” says Lou Mane, ESCO sales development manager with GE Lighting, a unit of GE - Appliances & Lighting. “By working together, we‘re better able to develop comprehensive strategies for customers’ lighting and electrical controls, motors, drives and overall building management. These alliances enhance our ability to help customers develop all-encompassing plans for energy savings.”

The primary focus of this approach is to analyze, design, and implement solutions that work together to conserve energy for customers over the long term. Throughout the process, including planning and installation, GE’s specification team will work with customers and ESCOs to create customized plans that ensure optimal energy saving results and ease of transition.

Mane says the ESCO relationships enable GE to go beyond the circuit breaker, switch, and lamp. “We want to help customers meet and exceed their energy goals, specifically in commercial, property management, government, institutional, retail, healthcare, and industrial settings where energy savings can provide a strategic advantage.”

Facility managers can learn more by writing to: ESCOsolutions@ge.com

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA)’s BetterBricks Initiative and the IFMA (International Facility Management Association) Foundation have joined forces to produce a practical guide for facility managers. This guide provides facility managers with a roadmap of how to initiate no-cost or low-cost energy efficiency strategies at their facility sites to reap immediate savings.

The “No-Cost/Low-Cost Guide” is the fifth in a sustainability series produced by the IFMA Foundation. The goal of the manual is to provide facility personnel with the tools to get started identifying problem areas and implement no/low-cost solutions to see immediate benefits. These tools have been principally derived from the article, “Common Opportunities: The Top Four.”

The guide offers several checklists that can be translated into spreadsheet templates to be used by facility managers when assessing their facilities. These are easily tailored to reflect various facility types, allowing for customization for a manager’s specific building.

The top four energy saving opportunities include:

1. Equipment Scheduling: The first step of a no/low-cost strategy is to determine where energy is being wasted. Unoccupied areas should not have chillers and coolers running. Establishing where this waste takes place is step one.
2. Sensor Error: Sensor settings are often out of sync and this section of the guide demonstrates what to look for, how to make changes and how to regularly schedule updates to monitor settings.
3. Simultaneous Heating and Cooling: Excessive reheating uses unnecessary energy and if an HVAC system’s settings are out of sync, it forces the air handler to work harder. The guide provides information on how to tune-up these systems.
4. Outside Air Usage: Optimum indoor air quality requires efficient ventilation and this can’t take place if dampers are stuck open or improperly calibrated. In the No-Cost/Low-Cost Energy Savings Guide, facility managers will find ways to cut energy costs just by maintaining this system.