BuiltSpace Blog
Best Practices
How will we secure Things in the IoT? In Virtual Rooms & Buildings of course!
Connecting Things to the Internet of Things (IoT) is easy. Controlling access and securing them is more difficult. Gartner expects 25 Billion Things connected by 2020. Does that mean 25 Billion passwords to remember? Of course Thing level security will be aggregated through gateways and firewalls that isolate segments and limit access, but … Continue reading
You Can’t Email Knowledge: Transforming Your Mechanical Sevices Practices.
Many mechanical service contractors operate on a transactional services model. The final service product is often a document summarizing service hours and cost for the transaction, delivered to the customer by email. Mechanical services become a commodity, easily replaced by a lower cost offer. Leading mechanical services firms are becoming more knowledge intensive, and knowledge intensity changes … Continue reading
The Economics of RTUs. What is Least Cost Maintenance?
My previous post, Best Practices in Building Maintenance. Reactive, Preventative or Predictive?, summarized a DOE study, which described the costs of reactive ( or “run to fail”), preventative, predictive and even reliability centred maintenance, to maintain existing building assets. With each improved level of maintenance, the study authors found significant maintenance cost reductions. I believe that there … Continue reading
Run to Complaint. When a tenant complains, the damage is long done.
Response time, to tenant complaints, is one of the primary key performance indicators (KPI) reported by a well known maintenance management software platform. On first look, this measure of service quality is a reasonable metric, but not as a performance indicator for maintenance management. Waiting for a complaint before initiating maintenance actions takes reactive, or … Continue reading
The Economics of RTUs: The R-22 Refrigerant Problem
There could be as many as 17 million rooftop units (RTUs) running banned R-22 refrigerant just servicing our commercial buildings. This creates a huge problem. As of January 1, 2020 the only available source of R-22 will be recycled refrigerant from units that you already own, or reclaimed R-22, processed by an EPA certified reclaimer. … Continue reading
The economics of Rooftop Units (RTU). Energy efficiency depends on your choices.
Rooftop Units (RTUs) are everywhere. Over 45 percent of the commercial real estate space in the US is cooled, and/or heated by packaged units. This equipment is usually exposed to the elements, on a rooftop or outdoor space. Exposure shortens equipment life, so well cared for RTUs have a life expectancy of about 15 years. … Continue reading
Why 57% of Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) fail (and how to fix them)
Many facilities managers have implemented Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) tools to help track building operations and maintenance, yet according to CMMSCity , 57% of facilities managers surveyed reported that these systems have not delivered the desired ROI. A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) System … Continue reading
Operational Transformation: Managing Outsourced Facility Services
Outsourcing of facilities services, including preventative and emergency maintenance of mechanical and electrical systems, cleaning, landscaping security and other services, is a fact of life for most commercial and institutional property owners. When dealing with maintenance and asset management processes, outsourcing becomes a sticky problem; outsourced service providers must be managed, just like internal staff, … Continue reading
Is energy data the missing piece of the energy efficiency puzzle?
This week I was invited by the White House to attend the 2014 Energy Datapalooza in Washington DC. Approximately 160 private and public sector guests, came together to connect, collaborate, and converse about how we can reduce costs, save energy and protect the environment. The session opened with comments from Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology … Continue reading
Guaranteed sticky! Capture every HVAC service call with dynamic stickers
It’s all but guaranteed that every boiler, chiller, AHU (air handling unit) or pump is plastered with someone’s sticker. Most HVAC service contractors put some sort of sticker on the equipment that they maintain. You’ll probably find their branding and a phone number. On the rarest of occasion there might actually be some helpful information attached, like a written log … Continue reading
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