(Night’s Rest) from the Times of Day series. (1889) Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) pic.twitter.com/FWv0zVmRqN
— Filipe Floyd (@FloydFilipe) September 12, 2023
(Night’s Rest) from the Times of Day series. (1889) Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) pic.twitter.com/FWv0zVmRqN
— Filipe Floyd (@FloydFilipe) September 12, 2023
“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
— Louis Pasteur
Agenda
Technical:
Respond to client queries and retainers
Prepare new proposals for the NFPA 2029 National Electrical Code
Prepare comments on the IEEE 2028 National Electrical Safety Code
Recap of activity in the ISO and IEC catalogs. We are members of Healthcare Management. We coordinate our responses to IEC CDV’s with IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee.
2025 “Wins” and “Losses”
“Wins”: All of the references to IEEE research and recommended practices that appear in electrical related titles in the NFPA catalog are the result of Standards Michigan advocacy in collaboration with the IEEE
“Losses”: Persist in getting Article 210 (Soon to be in Chapter 1) 180 VA per outlet requirement down to 150 VA instead of 120 VA in the ASHRAE suite from an energy conservation perspective. This will be the most meaningful and transformative code “win” since our 2014 code “win” in 2014 NEC Section 220.12.
Expansion of user-interest advocacy for the 2028 IEEE National Electrical Safety Code.
Follow up driving electrical safety concepts into the ASHRAE and ICC catalog that cannot, or will not, be incorporated into the NFPA catalog
Continue driving IEEE best practice literature into the NFPA, ASHRAE and IEEE catalog
Electric service reliability data gathering for point of common coupling of merchant utilities and schools, colleges, universities with emphasis on large health care systems. (Bob Arno’s IEEE 493 Gold Book update)
Break out coverage of ASHRAE 90.1 in its entirety in a dedicated content management system now that its scope includes outside/between buildings.
Break out coverage of Chapter 27 (Electrical) of the International Building Code as a “pivot” or “anchor” post for other relevant titles in the ICC catalog.
10-year retrospective on the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee at the May Technical Conference in Montreal
Administrative:
Expansion of our unaccredited for-profit educational mission to Michigan school districts, colleges, universities, trade schools. In the normal course of business we present educational opportunities to faculty and students administered by ANSI, ASME, AWS, ACI, ICC, IEC, IEEE, IEEE, NIST, SAE and others. List of Faculty & Student Standards Education Resources
New signage at our State Street office
Rollout the platform to at least two more states — we have only one now.
Re-organize web pages to track IEEE, NFPA, ASHRAE, ICC, CSA Group and TIA catalog action more effectively. ASTM and UL catalogs remain “problematic” because their titles are so deeply embedded in products and less so in systems.
List of ANSI Accredited Standards Developers
Other:
Our thanks for the collegiality and wisdom of Larry Spielvogel as he enters retirement
Continued mentorship of electrical engineering students in the IEEE Southeastern Michigan Section. Introduction to mentorship partner Nathan from private industry.
Social Page Rollout: Engagements, Weddings & Births
Washington State University Net Position Increase of $162M | $1.452B revenue over $1.290B expenses
Dinner recipe for Advent Sundays from the School of Hospitality Business Management at WSU’s Carson College of Business. Executive Chef Jamie Callison developed the recipe for Washington State Magazine’s November 2019 issue. He was assisted by Chef de Cuisine Jason Butcherite and Student Culinary Lead Justin Walker. Recipe features local honey and seasoning.
It’s #FeatureFriday with @WSUPullman! The flagship campus was founded in 1890, and is nestled in the rolling hills of the Palouse. #WSUPullman offers more than 200 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs. ➡️https://t.co/KGU4RYcRiR #WSU #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/U68puWvO1M
— WSU System (@wsu) September 20, 2024
December is National Eggnog Month
Historians’ best guess as to the origin of eggnog dates back to the English Middle Ages, where a warm, milky ale called ‘posset’, was consumed. Posset was often consumed with eggs and figs; eggs, figs, dairy, and sherry were products that only the wealthy could afford to enjoy at the time. Eggnog was thought to have arrived in the U.S. prior to the revolutionary war. Whereas most of the eggnog consumed in Britain was by the upper class (with sherry), as eggnog advanced throughout the U.S. like a milky river of frothy delight, it was generally consumed with rum or bourbon.
Because the agricultural-based colonies were flush with chickens and cows, the consumption of eggnog was not limited to crusty upper class Brits, but rather a drink that most people throughout the American colonies could enjoy. In fact, food historian, Emelyn Rude (2015), author of “How Eggnog (Almost) Changed the World”, explains that consumption of eggnog was a popular holiday pastime of many, even including West Point cadets, such as Edgar Allen Poe and Jefferson Davis.
“No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.”
— Winston Churchill

…”The curiosity and impatience of my master were so great, that he spent many hours of his leisure to instruct me. He was convinced (as he afterwards told me) that I must be a Yahoo, but my teachableness, civility and cleanliness, astonished him; which were qualities altogether opposite to those animals…”
That’s great!
The horse lies down with its owner. pic.twitter.com/lCB85DSkAl
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) February 10, 2025
Makowiec is a poppy seed roll evolving from East European baking tradition that is commonly served during the Christmas season. It is a sweet pastry filled with a mixture of ground poppy seeds, honey, nuts, and sometimes raisins. The roll is often braided or shaped into a log and can be dusted with powdered sugar.
University of Michigan Slavic Languages and Literatures: Polish
Anna’s Food Blog: Polish Your Kitchen
Related:
Two square miles: The Evolution of Hamtramck as “Little Poland”
Womb Army: “How Hamtramck, a small town within Detroit, became America’s first Muslim-majority city”
How Hamtramck, a small town within Detroit, became America’s first Muslim-majority city https://t.co/62HOvETkUd
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) May 27, 2025
All That Remains:
Brown University Electrical Design Criteria | Information Technology Resources Policy
The University of Michigan has supported the voice of the United States education facility industry since 1993 — the second longest tenure of any voice in the United States. That voice has survived several organizational changes but remains intact and will continue its Safer-Simpler-Lower Cost-Longer Lasting priorities on Code Panel 3 in the 2029 Edition.
Today, during our customary “Open Door” teleconference we will examine the technical concepts under the purview of Code Panel 3; among them:
Article 206 Signaling Circuits
Article 300 General Requirements for Wiring Methods and Materials
Article 335 Instrumentation Tray Cable
Article 590 Temporary Installations
Chapter 7 Large sections of limited energy cabling for signaling and information technology
Chapter 9 Conductor Properties Tables 11A & B, Tables 12A&B
Public Input on the 2029 Edition will be received until April 9, 2026.
2024 Update to ASHRAE Position Statements
List of Titles, Scopes and Purposes of the ASHRAE Catalog
The parent title of this standard is ASHRAE Standard 90.1: Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings and is continually under revision; frequently appearing in electrical engineering design guidelines, construction specifications, commissioning and O&M titles in our industry and others.
ASHRAE 90.4 defines an alternate compliance path, specific to data centers, while the compliance requirements for “non-data center” components are contained in ASHRAE 90.1 . The 90.4 structure also streamlines the ongoing maintenance process as well ensures that Standards 90.1 and 90.4 stay in their respective lanes to avoid any overlap and redundancies relating to the technical and administrative boundaries. Updates to ASHRAE 90.1 will still include the alternate compliance path defined in ASHRAE 90.4. Conversely the 2022 Edition of 90.4-2022 refers to ASHRAE 90.1-2022; cross-referencing one another synchronously
Links to noteworthy coverage from expert agencies on the 2022 revisions:
HPC Data Center Cooling Design Considerations
ASHRAE standard 90.4 updates emphasize green energy
ASHRAE updated its standard for data centers
How to Design a Data Center Cooling System for ASHRAE 90.4
Designing a Data Center with Computer Software Modeling
This title resides on the standing agenda of our Infotech 400 colloquium; hosted several times per year and as close coupled with the annual meetings of ASHRAE International as possible. Technical committees generally meet during these meetings make decisions about the ASHRAE catalog. The next all committee conference will be hosted January 20-24, 2024 in Chicago. As always we encourage education industry facility managers, energy conservation workgroups and sustainability professionals to participate directly in the ASHRAE consensus standard development process. It is one of the better facilities out there.
Start at ASHRAE’s public commenting facility:
Online Standards Actions & Public Review Drafts
Update: May 30, 2023
Proposed Addendum g makes changes to definitions were modified in section 3 and mandatory language in Section 6 to support the regulation of process heat and process ventilation was moved in the section for clarity. Other changes are added based on comments from the first public review including changes to informative notes.
Consultation closes June 4th
Update: February 10, 2023
The most actively managed consensus standard for data center energy supply operating in education communities (and most others) is not published by the IEEE but rather by ASHRAE International — ASHRAE 90.4 Energy Standard for Data Centers (2019). It is not required to be a free access title although anyone may participate in its development. It is copyrighted and ready for purchase but, for our purpose here, we need only examine its scope and purpose. A superceded version of 90.4 is available in the link below:
Third ISC Public Review Draft (January 2016)
Noteworthy: The heavy dependence on IEEE power chain standards as seen in the Appendix and Chapter 8. Recent errata are linked below:
We provide the foregoing links for a deeper dive “into the weeds”. Another addendum has been released for consultation; largely administrative:
ASHRAE 90.4 | Pages 60-61 | Consultation closes January 15, 2023.
It is likely that the technical committee charged with updating this standard are already at work preparing an updated version that will supercede the 2019 Edition. CLICK HERE for a listing of Project Committee Interim Meetings.
We maintain many titles from the ASHRAE catalog on the standing agenda of our Mechanical, Energy 200/400, Data and Cloud teleconferences. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Originally posted Summer 2020.
ASHRAE International has released four new addenda to its energy conservation consensus document ASHRAE 90.4-2016 Energy Standard for Data Centers. This document establishes the minimum energy efficiency requirements of data centers for design and construction, for the creation of a plan for operation and maintenance and for utilization of on-site or off-site renewable energy resources.
It is a relatively new document more fully explained in an article published by ASHRAE in 2016 (Click here). The addenda described briefly:
Addendum a – clarifies existing requirements in Section 6.5 as well as introduce new provisions to encourage heat recovery within data centers.
Addendum b – clarifies existing requirements in Sections 6 and 11 and to provide guidance for taking credit for renewable energy systems.
Addendum d – a response to a Request for Interpretation on the 90.4 consideration of DieselRotary UPS Systems (DRUPS) and the corresponding accounting of these systems in the Electrical Loss Component (ELC). In crafting the IC, the committee also identified several marginal changes to 90.4 definitions and passages in Section 8 that would add further clarity to the issue. This addendum contains the proposed changes for that aim as well as other minor changes to correct spelling or text errors, incorporate the latest ELC values into Section 11, and to refresh information in the Normative Reference.
Addendum e adds language to Section 11 intended to clarify how compliance with Standard 90.4 can be achieved through the use of shared systems.
Comments are due September 6th. Until this deadline you may review the changes and comment upon them by by CLICKING HERE
Education facility managers, energy conservation workgroups and sustainability professionals are encouraged to participate directly in the ASHRAE standard development process. Start at ASHRAE’s public commenting facility:
Online Standards Actions & Public Review Drafts
The ASHRAE catalog is a priority title in our practice. This title appears on the standing agenda of our Infotech sessions. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.







Issue: [12-54]
Category: Telecommunications, Infotech, Energy
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Robert G. Arno, Neal Dowling, Jim Harvey, Mike Hiler, Robert Schuerger, Larry Spielvogel
“Having visited my great grandmother, Omi, in Germany multiple times growing up, I’ve always had a special connection to German baked goods. While I have yet to find the perfect German pretzel in the U.S. or a recipe that yields a decent replica, I have discovered that stollen — a traditional German Christmas bread — is relatively easy to recreate in my own kitchen.” — Alison Tashima, Class of 2024
More:
Thomas Jefferson’s Masterpiece
Thomas Jefferson & the University of Virginia
University of Virginia Financial Report: 2023 Net Position $12.580B
University of Virginia Capital Construction & Renovations
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
Standards Michigan Group, LLC
2723 South State Street | Suite 150
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA
888-746-3670