Maintenance « Askthefm’s Weblog

Posts filed under 'Maintenance'

Follow up to Compact Fluorescents – Making the right choice

It seems that sometimes the information on a particular subject comes in streams over several days instead all at once and it is certainly the case about CFL’s.

Ecogeek.org has a great article (http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2509/) on how to convince your friends to take the plunge into the world of more efficient lighting choices.

Excerpt: “In the fourth quarter of 2008, one out of every four bulbs sold in the U.S. were compact fluorescents. For the last five years, one out of every one bulbs I’ve bought have been compact fluorescents. What is up?

How have incandescent lights managed to hold on for so long? I’m going to do a little bit of guessing here, but this article, I hope, will help explain the resistance.“

Also on Ecogeek.org another report is brought forward giving the good, the bad and the ugly about CFL’s. (http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2507/) The report mentioned in the article is also found here: http://www.ewg.org/node/27399 It’s a great shopper’s guide to help us all get the best product and value when making greener lighting choices!

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, Stumble Upon or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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Add comment January 26, 2009

Compact Fluorescents – Making the right choice

I found a great article about choosing the right one of these bulbs for your use taking into account location and application.

There is a summary at SuperEco (http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/01/26/which-compact-fluorescent-bulb-is-right-for-you/) and the main article is at the Energy Star website: (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls_shapes).

However as the article mentions you should really consider the location of these bulbs before installing. I have several location in my house where a spiral bulb would be a mistake, such as track lighting in my stairway.

Also in outdoor locations it is better to buy the CFL’s that look like a conventional bulb in that they are enclosed. The main reason, at least for me is that the regular bulbs always become spider or other vermin nests, bu the additional protections seems to allow for a slightly longer life.

Lastly keep in mind that a CFL may not be the best application and you may want to spend some extra money on a LED bulb or a CFL that can be dimmed. All in all I can see that when the mandates to eliminate the incandescent bulbs become law I am sure I won’t have a single one left and so won’t care except from a historical viewpoint.

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Add comment January 26, 2009

October – National Toilet Repair Month!

Although this is one of those sponsored “official” celebrations, this time by Fluidmaster (http://www.fluidmaster.com/html/index.html), it is still good advice to actually take a good look at a household fixture that is very important to our everyday lives.

Excerpt from the Fluidmaster Site: “Fluidmaster Sponsors “National Toilet Repair Month” in October.

Fluidmaster, the world’s largest manufacturer of toilet replacement parts, has officially designated October as National Toilet Repair Month.

“We want to take the mystery out of toilet repair and care,” says Gary Harris, Vice President of Sales. “A well-tuned toilet is actually a very easy D-I-Y project . It provides long-term satisfaction for homeowner’s and consistent profit for our retailers. That’s why Fluidmaster created and continues to sponsor National Toilet Repair Month.”

The month will kick off with the finals competition for the Fluidmaster Flush-Off- a truly zany talent contest where contestants perform their best vocal impression of a toilet flush for an audience that includes nationwide media. This year’s Flush-Off will take place at Fluidmaster headquarters in San Juan Capistrano on Wednesday, October 6. Winners will take trophies home cash prizes of $250 to $1,000.

Fluidmaster will also promote Toilet Repair Month nationally with consumer publicity that spotlights America’s #1 D-I-Y plumbing project. D-I-Yers will learn of toilet trends, trivia and most important, the steps and components of a Toilet Tune-Up™.

October was selected as National Toilet Repair Month as it is historically a strong sales period for toilet repair products since many home repairs are tackled prior to holiday events and the arrival of house guests. “

The lowely toilet, one of the marvels of indoor plumbing, can be a large waster of water. If you live like I do in the desert southwest wasting water is a really big problem. Routinely the Metropolitan Water District gives away free low flow toilets to help cut down on our use.

Here is an older but still very valid page with some interesting toilet facts and a good simple process to insure your toilet is in proper working order: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Fluidmaster+Celebrates+October+as+National+Toilet+Repair+Month-a019799813

Perhaps if NASA had heeded the sponsor’s advice we wouldn’t have had such a problem earlier this year at the international space station…In any event here is also a link talking about that little problem and for those of you who have to know and explainer about how you do the toilet thing in space: http://space.about.com/b/2008/05/28/space-station-toilet-broken.htm

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Add comment October 12, 2008

Time to check your roof, winter is coming!

One of the least maintained parts of any building is the roof. This is true for many reasons but certainly the most obvious is that it is often hard to get to safely. None the less periodic inspections and simple maintenance can lengthen the life and keep you dry this winter.

All good maintenance programs start with an inspection. Now I certainly don’t expect you to become a roofing expert by reading my post, but there are simple steps anyone can take.

First take a look at all of the parts that are easily visible from the ground and this includes all gutters and down spouts. You are looking for obvious parts that are broken, disconnected in the case of the gutter or discolored.

Now if you can actually safely get up on the roof you should do a physical survey of the surface noting equipment, deficiencies and areas of future concern. If possible a drawing should be made and phtographs should be taken to document the existing condition for use as a comparison in future years.

There are loads of offers on the web or in your mailbox for roof inspectors, often offering free inspections. Be very careful as this is of course a way for roofing companies to drum up business and you may get a proposal for a complete new roof when yours is actually fine.

That being said let me offer you a few resources to help you at this point. The first is a good checklist to aid you in being thorough in your inspection: http://www.pws.gov.nt.ca/pdf/publications/Roof-Inspection-Checklist.pdf Next are a couple of sites that give definitions of roofing terms and even a video of someone actually doing an inspectionand talking about the process (http://www.buyerschoiceinspections.com/Roofs). There is also a Frequently Asked Questions section from the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (http://www.asphaltroofing.org/resources_faq.html).

Here are also a couple of articles that cover this topic in more detail: http://www.facilitiesnet.com/ms/article.asp?id=5441&keywords=roof,%20roofing,%20ro%20ofs,%20roof%20inspection and http://www.inspect-ny.com/roof/roofing.htm

Lastly there is new technology that will help you understand the current condition as well as help you find that elusive leak, it is thermal imaging. It is still fairly new and hence somewhat expensive however it is certainly useful when you can’t figure out where your building is leaking from. Here is a good introduction ot the technology from Maintenance Solution Magazine: http://www.facilitiesnet.com/ms/article.asp?id=8595

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2 comments September 29, 2008

Indoor Air Quality – Don’t let your building become sick!

One of the hardest calls to get as a facility or property manager is when someone claims that the building is making them sick. It is hard especially because it may actually be true and because of that it must be treated most seriously. On the other hand with our society so in love with lawsuits it is something that is also very dangerous to your professional reputation.

There are many processes, chemicals allergens and building materials that can adversely affect you buildings indoor air quality (IAQ). A great explainer is listed here as part of an opinion of the European Commission Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER). : http://copublications.greenfacts.org/en/indoor-air-pollution/index.htm

Excerpt for the site: “Brussels, 24 June 2008. Indoor air may contain over 900 chemicals, particles and biological materials with potential health effects. When assessing the health risks to the general population and particular vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women and elderly people, the principles used in the EU for risk assessment of chemicals should also be applied to indoor air. This is one of the conclusions of a recent opinion by the European Commission Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER).”

There is also guidance from our own EPA: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/ia-intro.html However the main tenents are these:

1. Maximize the introduction of fresh air into the space and filter this air for the elimination of outside irritants.

2. Minimize the use of caustic chemicals in the space. this also includes the off gassing common to some building materials and finishes.

3. Be very diligent about handling water intrusion into the building to minimize the chances of mold growing out of control in any of the interior space. Mold growth requires three things to grow, cellulose, darkness and water.

4. Create and diligently manage a complete janitorial plan for the building to lessen the effects of a build up of dust and dirt.

5. Comprehensive pest control using green techniques.

Now I have posted previously on all of these seperate issues and will add to those as I find additional supporting articles and evidence. These are liste under the maintenance catagory in the side bar.

The other pitfall to be aware of is the legal ramifications of the situation. If someone is claiming illness then this becomes a workplace injury and all of the OSHA and worker’s compensation rules apply. The OSHA rules can be found here: http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/index.html

The good news is that this also provides additional resources and expertise you can call on to resolve the problem. You should absolutely involve your superiors and your Human Resources department and potentially your insurance company that provides the worker’s compensation coverage. This frees you up to worry about the building problems and leaves the legal and medical issues to those whose job it is. By involving your superiors at the beginning you can educate them about the problem, gaining by in and streamlining getting the problem resolved.

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Add comment July 17, 2008

How unhealthy is your building and its neighborhood?

One of the things that facility managers have to worry about is the overall health effects of the work place they are maintaining. This is usually considered monitoring the indoor air quality and checking to make sure there isn’t any mold contamination.

However try as hard as you can it is generally fiscally impossible to raise the air quality greatly above the levels found in the outside air. I am sure that it can be done but I am not suggesting that we treat commercial office space like we would a clean room. The trend is to use more outside air as part of the air conditioning system rather than less, so monitoring or at least investigating what is going on outside your building is important.

Of course the local weather forecasting sites often include the local air quality. The one I like best is:

Weather Underground:http://www.wunderground.com/

and they have a great explainer on air pollution: http://www.wunderground.com/health/airpollution.asp

Now in your general neighborhood there may be specific and somewhat localized sources of pollution and irritants. I once was responsible for a building that had an asphalt plant and a concrete mixing facility within 2 blocks. This contributed quite a lot of dust that had to be taken care of by the janitorial contractor as well as potential other issues like the one in Riverside County, California: http://www.pe.com/localnews/environment/stories/PE_News_Local_R_cement18.3e6e09f.html In this case potentially hazardous levels of a cancer causing substance into the surrounding areas.

Now you could go drive around the local area and try to map out the potential hazards and I would encourage you to do this for this and other reasons. It is always good to have an idea of what is going on around you from a emergency standpoint and from an availability of vendors local to you. However the USEPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has an excellent overlay file generator for Google Earth which can show you most of the items of concern. The file creator and instructions are here: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/where.htm#tfmt and Google Earth can be found here: http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/

Lastly we could all ask our elected officials for a system similar to that found in a part of Paris France where there is a large helium filled balloon that changes colors in response to changes in air quality. The article on this can be found at Ecogeek.org: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1879/79/

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2 comments July 15, 2008

Taking Care of St. Peter’s Basilica – Job or Nightmare?

I read an article today in my local paper about the folks whose job it is to take care of Roman Catholicism’s greatest shrine. St. Peter’s is 600 feet long and at its highest point 450 feet above ground level. It covers roughly the same area as an American football field.

A building this large would be a difficult task for any facilities team even under normal circumstances. However when you add in the priceless works of art under their care and the fact that on an average day the building receives 20,000 visitors each and every day on average this adds up to a monumental task. So how many hundreds of people are on staff for this task you might ask? Just 75 and they even take acre of some of the escort duties for the visitors as well.

These Sapietrini (St. Peter’s workmen) who in the past were literally the descendants of the original builders of the church take care of all of the maintenance tasks that are a part of keeping this place neat, tidy and well maintained. The article I read is here: http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=d8e386fb-29ed-496f-b0fa-b038f69b8613&p=1

However maintenance is not all they do. The are also the watchmen for the building while it is receiving vistors. They have overseen archaeological digs, the most famous being that surrounding the locating of St. Peter’s burial site. (http://books.google.com/books?id=fjU3mJ7BJggC&pg=PA323&lpg=PA323&dq=sanpietrini+%2B+St.+Peter&source=web&ots=83mKEN5rqU&sig=FNzVQm4AdgTFiuBPR0BwzPTT0Go&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result).

Lastly they are responsible for burying the pope in his chosen resting place under the basilica. (http://www.catholic-pages.com/pope/papal-funeral.asp)

On another note apparently the orginal members of this group included several famous mosaicists (artists specializing in mosaics) that spread throughout Europe on the 18th century. (http://books.google.com/books?id=7VDcmDeLuV4C&pg=PA1021&lpg=PA1021&dq=sanpietrini+%2B+St.+Peter&source=web&ots=diIebbm_xT&sig=_V_M2HGTWI3bM2nD5USHzkwSkGU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result)

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Add comment July 6, 2008

Bedbugs – Coming to an Apartment building you’re responsible for!

The newest vermin problem is an old one, bedbugs. I am not even sure how old the saying “sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite” is. If you manage apartment buildings, hotels or other multifamily buildings this is a problem you will have to soon deal with.

It has always been my understanding that we owe this country’s respite from these bugs to the use of DDT. According to the exterminators I have spoken to, bedbugs are hard to kill and only really diligent methods or really strong poison will do the trick. Since DDT is no longer an option we are left with hard work and diligence and attention to detail.

From the Mayo Clinic website: (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bedbugs/DS00663)

“Bedbugs will feed on any mammal, including cows and dogs. In North America, migratory birds and bats have been sources of infestation. More recently, as world travel has increased, bedbugs are finding their way into the home through luggage and clothing worn abroad. Another contributor to the resurgence of bedbugs in the West is changing pest-control practices. Sixty years ago the common use of DDT — which kills most insects — nearly eliminated bedbugs in the United States. Today the use of DDT is being phased out due to human toxicity concerns. Further, current extermination practices are more insect-specific — what’s toxic to a cockroach may not kill a bedbug.”

So how do we counter this problem? Isolating the bed since bedbugs can’t fly is one way, but you have to be sure the bed is clean of the infestation first. A good beginning primer is from the University of California’s, Davis site: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html

Another site, which unfortunately is trying to sell you there solutions is polite enough and thorough enought that I am going to list it here: http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/bed-bugs.htm It lays out the steps that I have gotten from several extermination firms in striaght forward languages and steps ao that you can atleast not be taken advantage of by an outside firm if you don’t want to try and solve the problem your self.

Finally here is a video courtesy of National Geographic on bed bugs. It is short and may gross out some folks, fair warning…..

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2 comments July 4, 2008

Green Cleaning Products – Truth or Fiction?

What with all of the attention being paid to all things “green” these days, one of the items I see most frequently mentioned are cleaning supplies. I am not sure if this is because these chemicals have gotten such bad press in the past that they are trying real hard to seem safe and relevant.

Now if you put the words “green cleaning products” into your search engine of choice you will get back a great many sources for these items ranging from Simple Green (http://www.simplegreen.com/), which I recommend by the way, to articles on how to make your own cleaning supplies.

The main reason to even think about this for commercial buildings has to do with indoor air quality and minimizing the residents of a buildings exposure to toxic chemicals and fumes. Previously the focus was on changing your chemicals out to supposedly safer alternatives.There is however some discussion about the value of making this change as is covered in this Live Science article: (http://www.livescience.com/environment/070806_green_cleaners.html).

The LEED certification guidelines coming out this month steers away from just substituting chemicals to get your credits but is emphasizing a complete approach to green cleaning. On ENN.com (http://www.enn.com/business/article/37513) there is an article that covers this change. There is also another article on Cleanlink.com that go even more in depth on this issue: (http://www.cleanlink.com/hs/article.asp?id=5609&keywords=green,%20leed).

The current thinking is that you should develop a complete janitorial program with environmentally sensitive cleaning agents, best practices to insure a clean building and energy efficient equipment. The main difference I have found is that with the “green” alternatives in chemicals you have to take a little more time and use a little more elbow grease. Although “Seventh Generation” (http://www.seventhgeneration.com/) is working to make their products the equivalent in effectiveness .

Lastly as a general rule chemicals that are rated by Green Seal (http://www.greenseal.org/) qualify under the LEED and most other rating services guidelines and generally are of good quality and good value.

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Add comment June 30, 2008

Basic Energy Efficency Choices – Let do the basics first!

I know that there has been a lot of coverage in the news and on various blogs including my own about all of the new and wiz bang new things you can get for your building to make it more energy efficient. However with all of this concentration on the newest and most high tech a lot of buildings aren’t taking care of the basics to save energy and money!

These basic items are truly low hanging fruit not only easy to do but with return on investment times calculated in months if not days in some cases.

First let’s talk about lighting, plain old fluorescent tubes. It is estimated that and very large percentage of the total electric load of a commercial building is found in the lighting. If you haven’t changed out those old T-12 light fixtures or at least modified them to use T-8 bulbs with electronic ballasts, do this first and do it now! The cost to upgrade is around $100 a fixture which can be recovered in as little as 12 months.

Next on the lighting hit parade is parking lot lighting. These fixtures tend to be big and expensive to run if you are in retail environment. It is common for these fixtures to be left on all night and for them to be run by a simple time clock. There are several suggestions I can offer here.

First is to add to the time clock circuit a photocell. It works like this. In the circuit the photo cell is inserted between the time clock and the activation relays. This dynamically adjusts the on and off times of the system to the ever changing sunst and sunrise times. Estimated cost $200, ROI 30days.

Also you should look at your lighting plan and see if there are lights that can safely be turned off at closing time. A photometric analysis may be required for a good set of data to make this decision. However the savings here could be pretty large as sometimes these light may be up to a 1000 watts each. After you have determined if any can safely be turned off you will have to do some rewiring of the lighting array, perhaps adding another time clock and photocell. Estimated Cost $1000 ROI 3- 6 months.

Now with all the publicity I hope that you have changed out all of those incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents or even LED bulbs. However if you haven’t get started!

Another often overlooked task that helps with the electric bill is air conditioning and heater maintenance. Changing filters and cleaning condenser fins can net as much a 20% efficiency boost for the system. Also if it is in your capital budget look into changing out your oldest unit with a new higher SEER rated unit.

Lastly tonight I would suggest considering and old solution that hasn’t gotten much good press lately, window tinting. At least in California you get no credit under Title 24, our energy efficiency code, but that doesn’t mean that if won’t do you some good. Window tinting has several advantages including lessening heat load on your building by 1-2%, lengthening the life of the textiles in the office spaces and in earthquake prone areas providing some extra security against flying glass.

I hope that these suggestions help you and if you have any questions specifically about the calculations on the ROI or other related questions please drop me a line at the email address below!

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1 comment June 23, 2008

Askthefm’s Weblog

Posts filed under 'Maintenance'

Follow up to Compact Fluorescents – Making the right choice

Compact Fluorescents – Making the right choice

October – National Toilet Repair Month!

Time to check your roof, winter is coming!

Indoor Air Quality – Don’t let your building become sick!

How unhealthy is your building and its neighborhood?

Taking Care of St. Peter’s Basilica – Job or Nightmare?

Bedbugs – Coming to an Apartment building you’re responsible for!

Green Cleaning Products – Truth or Fiction?

Basic Energy Efficency Choices – Let do the basics first!

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