BOMI International Boost
OUT WITH THE OLD
In With The New
As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 begins, this is the perfect time of the year to reflect upon the past 12 months. Take the opportunity to assess your personal and professional progress and determine whether or not you accomplished all you set out to do, and where you want to go from here.
This issue of the Boost provides you with articles of interest that may spark motivation for setting new goals as the new year approaches. Also check out BOMI International's 2012 educational offerings and make yourself indispensable by continuing with your education or by adding new competencies through a new certificate or additional designation.
Happy Holidays!
SPOTLIGHT
The Better Building Challenge.
The Better Buildings Challenge was launched in an effort to make America’s buildings 20% more efficient over the next decade, resulting in reduced energy costs for American businesses, a decreased dependence on foreign oil, and billions of dollars saved that can be used toward rebuilding and growing the United States’ economy.
The initiative encourages commercial and industrial building owners to commit to enhancing energy efficiency by determining an organization-wide goal to be reached over the next two to five years. Recently, multiple organizations joined President Obama and former president Bill Clinton in proclaiming a $4 billion investment in federal and private sector energy upgrades as part of the Better Building Challenge and the Clinton Global Initiative. Education, healthcare, and office industries are a part of the private sector that plan to commit $2 billion toward increasing building performance by at least 20% over the next few years. Organizations who have committed to the Better Buildings Challenge include: 3M, CBRE, HEI Hotels & Resorts, Jones Lang LaSalle, Kohl’s Department Stores, The PNC Financial Services Group, RREEF Real Estate, Shorenstein Properties LLC, TIAA-CREF, and Wyndham Worldwide. A complete list of participants may be found on the Better Building Challenge website.
Additionally, President Obama is requiring $2 billion to be spent by the federal government to upgrade its own buildings. The government has been instructed to use Energy Savings Performance Contracts to reduce energy consumption. Rather than an up-front cost to the building owner, these improvements are paid for over time through savings on utility bills.
How do you or your company plan to make your properties/buildings 20% more efficient over the next decade?
BOMI International offers courses that have been approved by the USGBC that can help you learn more about building efficiency. Click here to view an interactive chart that specifies which courses are applicable.
Functionality in emergency situations.
You probably know that a good Building Automation System (BAS) can help reduce your operating costs. But in addition to energy management, a BAS adds automated control and management to other building operations, such as fire and safety, security, and elevators.
General features applicable to the BAS as a whole include:
- trend monitoring
- maintenance reminders
- security access
- protection during and after power failures
- lighting control systems
- automated fire and life safety security systems
- security systems
- elevator control systems
Let’s focus on two of these: power failures and fire/life safety.
Protection During and After a Power Failure
If power is temporarily interrupted, a good building automation system can review and restore the operation of fans, motors, pumps, chillers, and other points in sequence in order to prevent power surges. The system restores critical items first, in case power is limited. During a power failure, most intelligent units rely on battery backup to retain program memory and time-clock information. Older systems may not have this feature and may require reprogramming once power is restored.
It is essential that the BAS and critical field panels are powered from both a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and the emergency generator, so that power is never lost to the system. It is important to note that most power failures are internal and not a result of a power company failure. If one area of a facility loses power while the rest of the facility operates normally, it is possible that critical equipment could be down without an alarm being initiated.
Automated Fire and Life Safety Systems
These systems protect people, equipment, and building assets by detecting fire, smoke, and heat and activating equipment in response. The key features of these systems are:
- Alarms and voice commands. Systems will activate audible alarms or signals, or they will broadcast prerecorded messages that direct occupants to smoke-free areas or escape routes. Highly sophisticated systems have the capability to control individual or select groups of audible devices. Most systems are equipped with microphones for live announcements as well. A good system will also inform the operator, from the console, of the exact location of the alarm. The screen should display alarms in order of priority.
- Smoke control. In each fire zone, the fire management system can be programmed to open exhaust dampers and close supply and return-air dampers. Simultaneously, in adjacent areas, it can open fresh-air dampers. The program should be flexible enough to accommodate specific procedures dictated by local building codes. When a fire alarm is activated, the system should positively pressurize stairwells, elevator shafts, and areas around the fire to keep smoke from entering these spaces. The program can also introduce fresh air to occupant refuge areas.
- Elevator control. The building automation system should be interconnected with elevator controls so that it can close elevator doors and return cars to the lobby for use by firefighters. Smoke detectors activated in upper-floor elevator lobbies can signal elevators not to stop there. The system should automatically close fire doors to contain smoke and flame, and unlock building exits for occupants and firefighters.
- Firefighter control and communication. Most often located in the front lobby, annunciator panels provide start/stop control over a combination of fire, security, and HVAC points. During a fire, the main console should allow building personnel and firefighters to easily interpret alarm data and offer sufficient control over critical building systems. It should provide information about the source and spread of the fire, both on the terminal screen and in hard copy. A hard copy provides a permanent record of the time, date, and description of each alarm sensed by the system for use by firefighters, building officials, and insurance carriers.
In large buildings, communication between floors or remote building areas may be necessary for efficient firefighting. Comprehensive fire management systems offer two-way communication between stations on each floor, mechanical equipment rooms, elevator machine rooms, and air-handling rooms.
Some systems have intelligent field units that allow local operation of critical fire management functions. This capability provides the facility with reliable, uninterrupted fire protection even when major systems are disabled.
Fire management systems can be separate from the energy and climate control systems, or they can interface through a shared CPU. The latter configuration is preferable, since the interconnection between fire and HVAC systems makes it possible to pre-establish interactions between smoke detection and HVAC components in each building zone.
A note of caution is in order. Some facility managers have found that local fire departments may prefer traditional annunciator panels to computer screens because their personnel are not always computer literate. In addition, early systems crashed when all fire detection equipment was wired to a head-end unit. Newer systems have taken advantage of LANs (local area networks) to permit intelligent field panels to communicate with the head-end unit without depending on it. This configuration provides some system redundancy and reduces the likelihood of crashes.
NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standards require that, when a fire alarm system is connected to anything else, the combination must not adversely affect the fire alarm system. This issue becomes real when systems are integrated and open protocols are used.
In all cases, it is the local authority having jurisdiction who ultimately decides what can be integrated into the building automation system. By including the fire marshal, fire chief, or fire inspector in the planning of this part of the system, you will ensure acceptance of the system in the form of an occupancy certificate.
This article is adapted from the BOMI International course Technologies for Facilities Management. More information regarding this course is available by calling 1-800-235-BOMI (2664).
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EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS
Managing the Organization begins this January.
Your role will take on new meaning as you learn about and understand the impact that you can have on your organization and on the individuals who work for you. This newly designed, tested, and approved course will teach you how to become an effective manager and provide you with:
- Lessons on implementing change successfully
- Enhanced skills that will add value to your role and organization
- Approaches for effective group/team management and communication
- Decision-making, controlling and problem-solving strategies
- Environmentally sustainable approaches for peak operating efficiency
- Recognition/reward strategies to increase employee productivity
Study Method Options
Classroom, Self-Study, and Accelerated Review will be available beginning this January, and Instructor-Led Online will be available beginning in the summer of 2012. Click here to check availability or to register for this course.
Apply this Course
Managing the Organization replaces Administration as a required course for the Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA®) designation, and is an elective course for the Real Property Administrator (RPA®) and Facilities Management Administrator (FMA®) designations.
Still time to register and save.
This study method is highly recommended for business professionals needing the flexibility to learn conveniently when and where they want. Courses are accessible 24/7, including mobile connectivity. Online courses allow for daily interaction with expert instructors and the sharing of professional knowledge and experiences with peers on a national level.
The next set of Instructor-led Online courses begin January 24, 2012.
Register before December 24 and save $100!
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UPDATES AND MORE
Upcoming changes and events.
Boost Announcement
The Boost will be distributed quarterly beginning in 2012, rather than bimonthly. You can expect to receive the newsletter at the end of the following months:
March 2012
June 2012
September 2012
December 2012
Tradeshow Announcements
BOMI International will be exhibiting at the following upcoming tradeshow.
National Facilities Management and Technology Conference & Exposition
March 13 - 15, 2012: Baltimore, MD. Visit us at booth #2568. We hope to see you there!
Active graduate discount reminder.
Remember that as a BOMI International designation holder, you have an advantage over those who do not hold a BOMI International designation. However, in order to maintain this status, you must ensure your designation remains active. Active graduates receive 10% off all of BOMI International-sponsored courses—and these courses also satisfy your entire Continuing Professional Development (CPD) point requirement* for your three-year cycle!
Visit www.bomiproducts.org/graduatediscount.aspx to register today!
*with the exception of Ethics is Good Business® ShortCourse™
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