One of the easy ways to understand how your facilities are operating is to know a few key facilities benchmarks.  The first ingredient in the analysis is utilized in all of these calculations, how many gross square feet are your buildings or campus.   How do you figure this out if you do not know it off the top of your head?  Gross square feet (GSF) is defined as the sum of all areas on all floors of a building included within the outside faces of its exterior walls, including all vertical penetration areas, for circulation and shaft areas that connect one floor to another. 

With the building industry moving more toward light colored roofing it has become increasingly important to consider the application of an air and vapor barrier (AVB) in the roof assembly.  It is a false assumption to consider that the roofing membrane acts as an AVB in the roof application.  The reason is that moisture is a nasty little bugger that can get into most any assembly.  The goal is not to just prevent moisture from entering the assembly but to get it out when it does get into the assembly.

When my kids were younger, they seemed to pick up a cold almost weekly, most of the time catching it from their schoolmates, nothing major. We’d see it coming from the obvious signs: sniffles, feeling achy, acting sluggish. Sometimes we’d call the pediatrician, who would immediately ask us, “What’s your son’s temperature?”, which was a friendly reminder to just take out the thermometer and keep track of their temperatures, as their temperature would usually tell us how they were holding up and what care was appropriate.  

How an FCA laid the foundation for Energy Savings and a Network of System Performance

Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls independent school located in Princeton, New Jersey, recently released an article published within NBOA’s NetAssets magazine that discusses the School’s path to a fully integrated, connected campus through a sophisticated building management system, powered by the Internet of Things (IoT). You can read the full article here.

Fall has arrived, and along with it, more temperate weather across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The shoulder season, as we call it in facilities operations, exists between peak cooling season (late May through mid-September) and peak heating season (mid-October through March). With decreased demand for cooling, and only mild heating demand, the forthcoming weeks bring an opportunity to curb energy consumption by taking advantage of favorable outside air temperatures. 

What comes to mind when you hear the term "energy audit"? If you're like most facilities managers, nothing good. The idea of closely examining your building's energy needs and operating efficiency seems bound to stir up trouble, especially if things are going smoothly as-is.