Technologies to monitor emergency lighting systems throughout buildings or campuses have increased in popularity across Australia over the last decade. During the last six years, emergency lighting monitoring systems have also become more popular in North America. The idea behind these systems is to connect all exit signs and emergency (battery-powered) lighting devices to a central computer station so that they can individually report their functional status when tested, offering significant time and cost benefits to facility managers.

Bird control is a method of deterring birds from landing, roosting, and nesting in and around a building. In less extreme examples, birds in buildings can impede the productivity of workers and create additional building maintenance and cleaning challenges. In more extreme cases, they can damage capital equipment and create significant safety hazards. Fortunately, there is an entire industry in existence which offers various products and techniques for the control of birds, including bird spikes, bird shock tracks, netting, fragrances, wire arrays, and bundled wire stands, among others.

Sound masking technologies broadcast a consistent, comfortable, and unobtrusive background sound within a work space for the purpose of facilitating speech privacy. They prevent the transmission of speech beyond its intended local audience by carefully raising the level of ambient background noise within a building; often sound masking equipment is installed in an office, classroom, or meeting area.

I had the pleasure of attending the 10^th annual National Facilities Management & Technology (NFMT) conference in Baltimore, Md. on March 16^th and 17^th. It was a great experience to reconnect with colleagues and get a sense for what Facilities Management consultants and professionals are offering and focused on these days. A few topics that grabbed my interest and which I plan to write about are centralized management of emergency egress lighting, bird control, water storage tanks, new technologies in the pavement industry, coordinated campus-wide synchronizing of clocks, diagnostic air metering, variable load air-conditioning systems, and sound-masking.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a by-product of human respiration. Each time we exhale, CO₂ is released into the atmosphere around us.  Currently, CO₂ sensors can be used to automatically control ventilation systems in buildings equipped with Building Automation Systems (BAS). This is referred to as Demand Control Ventilation (DCV).

One Step Closer to the Jetsons

In the news this week there has been talk of inanimate objects that can Tweet their status to humans via their Twitter accounts.  Included in this array were a house plant that can complain about being under- or over-watered and a pair of shoes that can advertise when they take steps.  Entertaining, for sure, but the one category that caught my attention was electric meters that can Tweet data.

On Tuesday of this week, President Obama announced construction plans for the first new U.S. nuclear power plant (actually two new reactors at an existing plant) in almost three decades.  Touting the benefits that nuclear power offers to the environment (in particular, fewer carbon emissions as compared to similar-sized coal burning plants), the U.S. government will back $8.33 billion in loans for the reactor additions to the Alvin Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke, Georgia.  The loans program is run by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and has previously sponsored infrastructure projects concerning wind turbines and cleaner coal burning power plants.

The tragic explosion at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, CT on February 7^th reminds us that construction is dangerous work.  Our sympathies go out to the families of those impacted by this recent accident.  The explosion apparently occurred while the crew was purging natural gas lines.  A nuance of this story is that this power plant was still under construction and not yet operational.  Also, there’s been debate in various blogs and news articles about potential fatigue among the construction crew.  Were they under too much pressure to get too much done too quickly?

The various blogs I follow send me newsletters, and one article regarding new smart bridge technology caught my attention last Friday. A “smart bridge” is probably better labeled as a talking bridge – one that communicates its status to those who are listening for follow-on interpretation. Baseline measurements of critical strain, deflection, and corrosive conditions can be established with the structure following project completion, then monitored throughout the bridge’s service life.

I’d like to pass along my thoughts for our upcoming articles and video shoots, and put in a shameless plug for our new Buildipedia.com newsletter at the same time.

We’re in the process of creating a more deliberate editorial calendar for our upcoming features.  February’s focus areas will be “Electrical” and “Insulation” across all five channels on Buildipedia.com.  March’s focus areas will be “Rooftops” and “Concrete."

As the world’s most populated nation, leave it to the Chinese to do things on a massive scale.  Apparently not lacking in construction dollars, they are in the process of constructing what’s been labeled as the modern world’s most expensive construction project ever.  They are part-way through an effort to divert the Yangtze River, the world’s third longest river, from three locations in China’s southern provinces to their industrial northern regions where water is becoming very scarce, and pollution and conflicts over water access are rampant.  Various articles on this topic estimate a potential cost around $60 billion (U.S.) across the three phases, and a completion time varying in several decades, potentially up to 50 years.

I’d like to kick off my self-labeled “Water Week” with a historical tale about the potential hazards of allowing civil engineers to move rivers around.  In grade school, I remember hearing about a big sea in Southern California, the Salton Sea.  Its name sounded distinguished and venerable.  I always thought it held the non-evaporated water and denizens of some ancient body of ocean water.   However, up until 1905, it was a dry depression, an ancient sea bed in the stark desert of southern California between Palm Springs and Yuma, AZ.