The First Facility Management Blog

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded contracts with a shared capacity of $650 million to eight contractors who will perform utility monitoring and control systems work in federal facilities throughout the continental U.S. and overseas. These contracts are for the procurement and installation of utility monitoring and control systems; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to include chiller/boiler systems installation and/or integration, supervisory control and data acquisition systems; and other automated control systems including fire alarm and life safety systems, chemical/biological/radiological contaminant detection/filtration/response, utilities (electric/gas/water/steam) metering; Electronic Security Systems; and security and/or force protection measures worldwide.

The USACE has contracted with eight service providers for energy and technology upgrades.

The total capacity of these contracts is $650 million, with shared capacity among eight contractors:

Ameresco, Inc., Framingham, MA

Honeywell Products, Inc., Austin, TX

Johnson Controls Building Automation, Huntsville, AL

Siemens Government Services, Inc., Reston, VA

TAC Americas, Carrollton, TX

Teng & Associates, Inc., Chicago, IL

Trane U.S. Inc., La Crosse, WI

Williams Electric Company, Inc., Fort Walton Beach, FL.

The multiple award task order indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity service contracts have a three-year base period and one optional two-year period for a total of five years. The Huntsville Center solicited this acquisition on a competitive basis.

“The Army Corps of Engineers is focused on continuous process improvement, and this program creates a standard procurement vehicle for boosting safety and comfort for employees and citizens, and reducing operating costs at facilities,” said Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions of his company’s part in the project. “We have the technology, experience and footprint to help meet these goals.”

Honeywell also recently received similar contracts from the DOE and Army Corps of Engineers for programs that could provide nearly $6 billion of energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation improvements in government buildings combined.

The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) will begin using a new unified mark to identify heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and commercial refrigeration (HVAC/R) products that have achieved third-party certification of their performance ratings. The new mark will replace the ARI Performance Certified, GAMA Efficiency Rating Certified, and I=B=R marks. The changes will be implemented according to a schedule that provides time to bring all certification programs into compliance with internationally recognized accreditations.

New unified certification mark from AHRI

In January 2008, the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) and the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (GAMA) merged to form the current AHRI. Since then, discussions among its 42 product sections have focused on the value of moving toward unifying the association’s three certification marks. After months of discussion, AHRI’s executive committee recently approved use of a new phrase, AHRI Certified™, and a new unified mark (seen here).

While the new mark and brand usage guidelines became available to manufacturers participating in AHRI’s certification programs on April 20, not all participants will be able to apply the new mark immediately. I=B=R and GAMA Efficiency Rating Certified program participants will have to wait until their programs enter the scope of AHRI’s accreditation by the Standards Council of Canada. Every year, the SCC audits several AHRI programs to ensure that they comply with International Organization for Standardization Guide 65 (ISO-65), which is the internationally accepted quality standard for organizations managing certification programs. Earning SCC accreditation allows certified equipment bearing the new AHRI Certified™ mark to be imported to Canada.

“This audit is important because it recognizes changes have been made to the certification programs to bring them into compliance with ISO-65,” said AHRI President, Stephen Yurek. “The former ARI Performance Certified programs already meet ISO-65 guidelines and are SCC Accredited.”

For this reason, ARI Performance Certified program participants can begin applying the new logo immediately, although they have until January 1, 2011 to transition to the new mark.

Implementation Schedule

April 20, 2009: New certification mark and brand usage manual available for use by the former ARI Performance Certified program participants.

November 2009 to December 2009: Standards Council of Canada audits AHRI annually to confirm its compliance with ISO-65. In 2009, SCC also will be considering whether to extend the scope of AHRI’s SCC accreditation to include the furnace and boiler certification programs. Upon successful completion of this audit, equipment certified under these programs can bear the AHRI Certified mark; however, the certification marks for these programs must still be registered with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The average registration process can take 18 to 24 months from filing to registration, assuming no significant obstacles are encountered during the process.

January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2012: Transition period for harmonizing the governing documents for former I=B=R and GAMA certification programs to meet  AHRI’s ISO-65 quality system requirements.
January 1, 2011 Former ARI Performance Certified program participants must apply the new mark by this date.

January 1, 2012: Former I=B=R and GAMA Efficiency Rating Certified program participants must apply the new mark by this date.

Consistent with the new certification mark, AHRI also will be modifying the name of the programs’ certificates to the “AHRI Certificate of Product Ratings” and the certified product identifier number to the “AHRI Certified Reference Number.” For products listed in gamapower.org that identification number was called the “GAMA Model ID” and for those products listed in the ARI directory, it was called the “ARI Reference Number.”

In addition, the name of ARI’s standards changed earlier this year to AHRI Standards. Standards will reflect the new name as they are revised or updated over the next three years.

The company has secured global rights from DuPont allowing it to sell R-422D, a replacement for R-22 in refrigeration and air conditioning systems. R-422D is a non-ozone-depleting hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant that is a retrofit solution for replacing ozone-depleting R-22 in existing systems. Honeywell will sell R-422D under the Genetron® refrigerants brand name.

“This global agreement allows Honeywell to provide additional solutions for its customers all over the world who must meet regulatory requirements to phase-out ozone-deplete substances,” said David Diggs, global business director for the refrigerants business of Honeywell Fluorine Products.

Under the Montreal Protocol, all signatory nations have agreed to phase-out the use of ozone-depleting substances, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). The European Union has aggressively implemented this change. In 2003, it banned new systems from using R-22, a HCFC refrigerant. Additionally, in 2010 the production of R-22 for refrigeration and air-conditioning applications for service of existing equipment will also be prohibited. Owners of R-22 based equipment will either need to service the equipment with recycled/reclaimed R-22, use a retro-fit fluid such as R-422D or replace the equipment.  Other countries are also implementing the phase-out of R-22.