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Risk Management of Public Health & Safety in Buildings

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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The American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers (ASHRAE) has released for public review a draft of a new consensus product for the practical evaluation, design, and implementation of measures to reduce multiple risks in new and existing buildings:

Guideline for the Risk Management of Public Health and Safety in Buildings

From the project scope:

This guideline contains qualitative and quantitative methods for management of the risk of extraordinary incidents in buildings. Specific subject areas of concern include air, food, and water.  The extraordinary events addressed in this guideline include fire, seismic events, chemical and biological releases, blast, and other extraordinary hazards. The guideline will address extraordinary incidents from a multihazard perspective and will cover both intentional and accidental occurrences. The guideline addresses aspects of building performance that affect occupant health and safety, including egress; chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) protection; fire protection; smoke removal or purging; filtration; air quality; entrance paths for contaminants; and building envelopes.

Comments are due April 23rd.

You may key in your own comments at the link below:

Public Review Draft Standards / Online Comment Database

This standardization project joins a growing constellation of consensus projects directed at the public safety market.   We are happy to discuss any day during our daily 11 AM teleconferences.  We also meet online once per month to walk through the status of public safety standards.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [19-106]

Category: Public Safety

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Richard Robben

#StandardsGeorgia #StandardsKansas

 

 

 

Happening Soon: Building Code Public Hearings

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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The International Code Council (ICC) Group B Committee Action Hearings — soon to take place in Albuquerque New Mexico, April 28 through May 8 —  signals the beginning of a new (every three year) revision cycle for its Group B suite of consensus products detailed in the link below:

ICC Group B Code Development Schedule

The Group B suite now under consideration is listed below: .

  • International Energy Conservation Code
  • International Building Code – Structural Only
  • International Existing Building Code
  • International Green Construction Code
  • International Residential Code

We have covered noteworthy concepts  in all of the foregoing codes and standards in previous posts and during our daily and monthly coverage of commenting opportunities the ICC makes available to its stakeholders.  Today we are simply providing a link to the webcast of the hearings that will take place for the better part of 10 days for about 10 hours per day.   The webcasts proceed on two tracks and may be accessing by clicking on the image below:

The agenda of the hearings generally proceeds according to the core document for this phase of the Group B consensus product development; linked below:

2019 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS

We encourage education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process.   The business models of education industry trade associations as “opinion aggregators” is limited by many factors so we encourage direct participation by workpoint experts involved with individual school districts, colleges, universities, university-affiliated healthcare systems and trade schools.

“Efeito de Sol” | Lucílio de Albuquerque (1877-1939)

Issue: [19-Various]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

#StandardsNewMexico #StandardsVirginia #StandardsMaryland

LEARN MORE:

 

 

 

 

High-Performance Green Buildings

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“Hudson River Waterfront” | Colin Campbell Cooper (1913)

TO BE UPDATED WITH CONTENT LINKED HERE: ANSI STANDARDS ACTION PAGES 65-95

With about one hundred technical committees administered by accredited standards developers globally, the stream of standards action in the building energy conservation space is one of the fastest-moving; and a space that demonstrates remarkable adaption.  As the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States the education facility industry is on the receiving end of prescriptive and performance requirements produced by these technical committees that are enforced by state agencies and/or sustainability consortia.

Now comes several more candidate revisions to another fast-moving standard — ASHRAE/ICC/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings — co-developed (and significantly re-branded recently) by four different organizations that are accessible at the link below:

Public Review Draft Standards / Online Comment Database

This new batch of addenda have a comment period that runs through April 22nd.  

We welcome real-time discussion on these and other energy conservation proposals any day at 11 AM Eastern time.   Our next Mechanical Engineering monthly teleconference is indicated on our CALENDAR.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our homepage.

 

Issue: [Various]

Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy, Facility Asset Management, US Department of Energy

Colleagues:  Eric Albert, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Standards Georgia

Yale University Art Museum

Posted December 26, 2018

 

With about one hundred technical committees administered by accredited standards developers globally, the stream of standards action in the building energy conservation space is one of the fastest-moving; and a space that demonstrates remarkable adaption.  As the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States the education facility industry is on the receiving end of prescriptive and performance requirements produced by these technical committees that are enforced by state agencies and/or sustainability consortia.

Now comes three more candidate revisions to another fast-moving standard — ASHRAE/ICC/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings — co-developed (and significantly re-branded recently) by four different organizations that are accessible at the link below:

Public Review Draft Standards / Online Comment Database

To paraphrase some of the issues in play:

Addendum a: The first public review draft added Climate Zones 4A and 4B to those required to meet heat island mitigation criteria in Section 5.3.5.3 for roofs. In response to the first public review, two additional exceptions were added.

Addendum m: This addendum adds new provisions to enable right-sized tubing for efficient delivery of water through hot water distribution systems. The new requirement balances health, energy and plumbing code intents with energy and water efficiency strategies. The addendum is based in part on research by the California Energy Commission on the energy implications of hot water supply. The volume of water in a pipe is the primary determinant of how long a user must wait for hot water to be delivered at a fixture. This has significant implications for both energy use to heat the water and the volume of water wasted before delivery. Similar provisions are currently included in the IECC and the IgCC.

[Comment: This addendum for “right-sized” piping resembles proposals we have made in previous revisions of ASHRAE 90.1; though there are counter-arguments that involve Legionella mitigation]

Addendum n: This addendum clarifies the indoor environmental quality requirements for composite wood and related materials, by adding the recent USEPA’s regulation on composite wood products, requiring that products be certified as meeting the requirements of CARB or USEPA as being manufactured either with ultra-lowemitting formaldehyde resins or no added formaldehyde resins and updating the language on lab certification to make it consistent with the language already in the 189.1-2017 for the other building material categories in Section 8.4.2.

Comments are due January 20th.

We welcome real-time discussion on these and other energy conservation proposals any day at 11 AM Eastern time.   Our next Mechanical Engineering monthly teleconference is scheduled for February 19th, 11 AM.   Use the login credentials at the upper right of our homepage.

St. Norbert College

Issue: [Various]

Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy, Facility Asset Management, US Department of Energy

Colleagues:  Eric Albert, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Standards Georgia

 

Posted October 8, 2018

“New York from Brooklyn” | Colin Campbell Cooper (1910)

With about one hundred technical committees administered by accredited standards developers globally, the stream of standards action in the building energy conservation space is one of the fastest-moving.  As the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States the education facility industry is on the receiving end of prescriptive and performance requirements produced by these technical committees that are enforced by state agencies or sustainability consortia.

At the moment, the four-partner collaboration of the American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers (ASHRAE), the International Code Council (ICC). the United States Green Building  Council (USGBC) and the Illumination Engineering Society (IES) opens the proposals of its technical committees to public review in 30 to 90 day intervals according to ANSI’s Continuous Maintenance process.  Keep in mind that ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES/ICC Standard 189.1-2017 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings is not necessarily a safety document but it deserves our attention because it is referenced into ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2016 — Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings which is incorporated by reference into many local, state and national energy conservation laws.

Little Big Horn College

Now comes two more candidate revisions that are accessible at the link below:

Public Review Draft Standards / Online Comment Database

Note that Addendum j and Addendum k are the First Public Review of candidate changes that are significant renewable energy concepts.

Comments are due October 22nd.

We welcome real-time discussion on these and other energy conservation proposals any day at 11 AM Eastern time.   Our next Mechanical Engineering monthly teleconference is scheduled for November 19th, 11 AM.  Even though the deadline for commenting on the proposals listed here will have passed, there is another batch of addenda open for public comment right behind it which we will identify in separate posts.

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our homepage.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy, Facility Asset Management, US Department of Energy

Colleagues:  Eric Albert, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Posted August 1, 2018

Grand Valley State University

ASHRAE is an ANSI-accredited continuous-maintenance standards developer (a significant tributary in what we call the regulatory product development “stream”).   Technical committees developing continuous maintenance regulatory products release public review documents in 30-to-90 day intervals.  The technical committee writing ASHRAE 189.1 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings has released the following redlines for public review:

Addendum f

This addendum replaces the current definition of “construction documents,” which references Standard 90.1, with a definition that is consistent with the 2015 International Green Construction Code. The Standard 90.1 definition does not address building sites or land development which are included in the scope of Standard 189.1.

Addendum g

This addendum replaces the current defined term of “design professional” from Standard 90.1 with “registered design professional,” which is consistent with the terms used in the 2015 International Green Construction Code. Standard 189.1 addresses subject matter for which the traditional titles of architect and engineer, used in the Standard 90.1 definition) do not necessarily align with typical requirements of authorities having jurisdiction. For example, it is common for jurisdictions to have tiered requirements for designer qualifications, often permitting licensed master tradespeople to design certain projects within their respective discipline. The proposed definition also better accommodates specialty design categories such as onsite wastewater system designer, irrigation system designer, landscape designer and soil scientist.

Addendum h

This addendum clarifies that it is the alternate on-site sources of water or municipally reclaimed water are not required to be “acceptable” because it is given that anything not disallowed by an AHJ is acceptable.

All addenda may be found in their entirety at the link below:

ASHRAE Online Standards Actions & Public Review Drafts

Comments are due August 8th.

Technical committees developing ASHRAE codes and standards typically meet face-to-face twice a year at ASHRAE Conferences; the next one in Atlanta, Georgia January 14-16 2019.   We encourage education facility professionals in within driving distance of this conference to attend the ASHRAE technical standards meetings.   Ahead of these conferences we will also host a dedicated markup session for mechanical engineering standards on July 24th, 11:00 AM during which time we will examine and markup documents released for public review by ASHRAE, ASME, AWWA, IAMPO and other organizations developing documents that determine #TotalCostofOwnership of education facilities.

Issue: [Various], ASHRAE

Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy, Facility Asset Management, US Department of Energy

Colleagues: Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Link to ANSI Announcement:  ANSI Standards Action (PDF Pages 42-24).

Somerset Community College

International Green Construction Code

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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The International Code Council (ICC) Group B Committee Action Hearings — soon to take place in Albuquerque New Mexico, April 28 through May 8 —  signals the beginning of a new (every three year) revision cycle for its Group B suite of consensus products — one of which should interest the so-called “green” and “sustainability” community in the education industry academic and business units.

Many of the technical specifics we find in the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) are closely coordinated with products of other consensus product developers; in this case the American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers, the US Green Building Council, the Illumination Engineering Society, and the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

To paraphrase its Title, Scope and Purpose of the IgCC:

“…The purpose of this code is to provide minimum requirements for the siting, design, construction, and plans for operation of high-performance green buildings
to: reduce emissions from buildings and building systems; enhance building occupant health and comfort; conserve water resources; protect local biodiversity and ecosystem services; promote sustainable and regenerative materials cycles; enhance building quality; enhance resilience to natural, technological, and human-caused hazards; and support the goal of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

…This code is intended to provide the technical basis of mandatory building codes and regulations for high-performance green buildings that are broadly adoptable by national and local jurisdictions.

…This code contains requirements that address site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), materials and resources, and construction and plans for operation. This code applies only to the following building projects:

1. New buildings and their systems.
2. New portions of buildings and their systems.
3. New systems and equipment in existing buildings.
4. Relocated existing buildings and temporary structures where specified in this code….”

For an expanded preview of its contents CLICK HERE.

Only the front end of the IgCC will be discussed during the ICC Group B Committee Action Hearings — Chapter 1, Administration — and it is not an easy read.   The core material appears on Pages GG-1 through GG-11 in the 2911 page document linked below:

ICC Group B Code Development Schedule

By loading the 2911 page document linked below, and simply searching on the term “IgCC”,  you will find 100+ hits.  You will find administrative parts of the IgCC throughout the entire Group B Committee Action Hearing agenda.

http://media.iccsafe.org/2019_CAH/index.html

It is best to leave the administrative details to ICC staff where, in our experience, it lies in good hands.   We identify IgCC Administration as a priority because it provides a clear path for incorporation by reference into federal, state and local energy conservation legislation.  That means the IgCC will show up in education facility design guidelines, construction contracts and facility management best practices.

 

We have covered noteworthy concepts  in all of the foregoing codes and standards in previous posts and during our daily and monthly coverage of commenting opportunities the ICC makes available to its stakeholders.  Today we are simply providing a link to the webcast of the hearings that will take place for the better part of 10 days for about 10 hours per day.   The webcasts proceed on two tracks and may be accessing by clicking on the image below:

The agenda of the hearings generally proceeds according to the core document for this phase of the Group B consensus product development; linked below:

2019 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS

We encourage education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process.   The business models of education industry trade associations as “opinion aggregators” is limited by many factors so we encourage direct participation by workpoint experts involved with individual school districts, colleges, universities, university-affiliated healthcare systems and trade schools.

“Efeito de Sol” | Lucílio de Albuquerque (1877-1939)

Issue: [19-Various]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

#StandardsNewMexico #StandardsVirginia #StandardsMaryland

LEARN MORE:

 

 

 

 

Standards Idaho

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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As we explain in our ABOUT, we are continuing the development of the cadre of “code writers and vote-getters” begun at the University of Michigan in 1993.  We are now drilling down into state and local adaptations of nationally developed codes and standards that are incorporated by reference into public safety and sustainability legislation.

This post is a “test pancake” for generating discussion, and for developing a way forward for crafting state exceptions to nationally developed codes and standards.  Every state will have to be managed according to its history, culture, governance regime, asset-base and network of expertise.

Standards Michigan will remain the “free” home site but state-specific sites such as Standards Idaho will be accessible to user-interest code-writers and vote-getters.   Please send bella@standardsmichigan.com a request to join one of our mailing lists appropriate to your interest for #SmartCampus standards action in the State of Idaho. #StandardsIdaho

 

Uniform Plumbing Code

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Waterfall on Mont-Morency, by Robert Scott Duncanson, 1864. © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC / Art Resource, NY.

As reported in previous posts below, the next edition of the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC), incorporated by reference into many state water safety regulations, is in the middle of its 3-year revision cycle.  The current edition is the 2018 UPC.   The landing page for IAPMO standards action is linked below:

IAPMO Code Development

IAPMO Group should be posting the public input monograph for the 2021 edition of the IPC any day now; as indicated on the technical committee guidance document for the code development meetings to take place April 29 – May 2 in Denver, Colorado.  Information about those meetings are available at the link below:

IAPMO Technical Committee Newsletter March 2019

We encourage our colleagues in the Denver region to attend.

We have been tracking several proposals that deal with the nature and number of water closets and venting systems in education facilities; school food preparation and sewage systems; and piping materials for all occupancy classifications.    The original proposals appear in the 854-page document linked below:

Uniform Plumbing Code Report on Proposals | 854 pages

We encourage academic unit facility managers, front line plumbing tradespersons, their shop foremen and others who have “nuts and bolts” experience with plumbing systems in education facilities to become engaged in the IAPMO code development process.   War stories, operating data and solutions that reduce #TotalCostofOwnership always welcomed by ANSI accredited standards developers.

SOURCE: CLICK ON IMAGE (Contact IAPMO for the most up to date IPC adoption map)

You may communicate directly with IAPMO’s standards staff here: IAPMO (International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials) 4755 E. Philadelphia Street Ontario, CA 91761 Office: (909) 472-4241 Gabriella Davis gaby.davis@iapmo.org.  We will also place this standard, and all other water safety and sustainability standards on the agenda of our monthly Water Safety and Sustainability teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconference.  Use the login credentials at the top of our home page to join.

Issue: [12-59] and [17-299]

Category: Water

Colleagues: Eric Albert, Ron George, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Standards California, Standards Colorado

LINK TO OUR ARCHIVE (Send bella@standardsmichigan.com an email requesting access):

IAPMO IPC Archive

 

LEARN MORE:

 

 

Emergency and Standby Power Systems

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Electrical building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1892)

Recent disasters in the United States inspires a revisit of our advocacy agenda in power system reliability. The effective cost of forced outages run about $100,000 to $1,000,000 PER MINUTE on a large research university, for example. We collaborate closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which tracks campus power outages and is tooling up for the 2022 revision. [Public input is due June 26, 2019]

The 2019 edition of  NFPA 110 Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems and related document NFPA 111 Stored Electrical Energy for Emergency and Standby Power Systems was released for use by regulating agencies earlier this fall.   Some states incorporate it by reference “automatically” when the National Electrical Code becomes public safety law.   As a heavily referenced document it is essential to understand the context in which it appears in other consensus documents developed by the International Code Council, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, for example

Common mode failures for this classification of power system — when they are designed according to the NEC and IEEE standards — are statistically associated with inspection, testing and maintenance.   This makes Chapter 8 — Routine Maintenance and Operational Testing — a chapter with elevated debate.  Good minds disagree on how much maintenance and operational testing is too much.[1]

Another area of elevated debate resides in Section 5.1.3:

[5.1.3* A public electric utility that has demonstrated reliability shall be permitted to be used as the EPS where the primary source is by means of on-site energy conversion.]

[A.5.1.3 On-site energy conversion is not restricted to rotating-type generating systems.  Other types of continuous energy conversion systms can be used, including fuel-cell systems]

This means that if a large research university with its own, reliable district energy plant that is recognized by the Authority Having Jurisdiction as the primary source of power to the campus; then power available from a public utility may be used as an emergency power source for a facility located on the perimeter of the campus; contingent upon the occupancy classification.  Tapping a power source available from a utility on the perimeter of a campus, contributes significantly to lower #TotalCostofOnwership in the most common occupancy classifications in higher education facilities.  It also reduces the number of on-site generators and greenhouse has emissions.[2]

Click on image for more information

Public input on the 2022 revision is due June 26, 2019.  We collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee on electrotechnology consensus documents that contribute to the safety, sustainability and #TotalCostofOwnership goals of the education industry.  This committee meets online 4 times monthly in Europe and the Americas.

As with all codes and standards we are happy to discuss them any day at 11 AM Eastern time.   Hard data, war stories and anecdotes are always gratefully received and, perhaps a proposal or two might come of it.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.  We also have an NFPA 110/111 Workspace set aside for gathering data and developing public input.  CLICK HERE for free access to the workspace  (Send bella@standardsmichigan.com a password request)


Issue: [16-25]

Category: Electrical, Facility Asset Management

Contact: Mike Anthony, Robert Arno, Neal Dowling, Jim Harvey, Joe Weber

Standards Massachusetts

[1]   ITM of Emergency Power Systems

[2]  Planning for Higher Education Journal: Revisiting the Campus Power Dilemma: A Case Study

 

LEARN MORE:

IEEE Power System Reliability Recommended Practice

NEMA Evaluating Water Damaged Electrical Equipment

 

Posted September 1, 2019

The 2019 edition of  NFPA 110 Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems and related document NFPA 111 Stored Electrical Energy for Emergency and Standby Power Systems will be released for use by regulating agencies any day now.  There is a Tentative Interim Amendment regarding emergency fuel testing that is now open for public review:

NFPA 110-Proposed 2019 Edition Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems | TIA Log No.: 1388

Comments on the TIA are due September 20th.

Many college and universities have hundreds of free-standing emergency generators which use diesel fuel so this TIA may be of interest to personnel who are charged with budgeting, operating and maintaining emergency generators.  These experts are welcomed to “click in” any day at 11 AM to formulate a response to the TIA.   In any case, we will refer this commenting opportunity to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (E&H) maintains a database of campus power outages and meets online 4 times per month.

One of the standing study questions on the technical agenda of the E&H Committee is the following:

Given that the size of many campus power systems is larger than many municipal and cooperative power grids, how much of the technical discipline in IEEE 1366 – Guide for Electric Power Distribution Reliability Indices — which is incorporated by reference into many state utility regulations — be conveyed into the planning, design operation and maintenance of campus power systems?  Should it, or should it not be?  Given that losses on large campus power distribution systems run on the order of $100,000 to $1,000,000 per minute, can parts of IEEE 1366 be or should another IEEE standard be developed?

 

Issue: [Various]

Category: Electrical, Facility Asset Management

Contact: Mike Anthony, Robert Arno, Neal Dowling, Jim Harvey

*LEARN MORE:

Who are “incumbent stakeholders”?

 

Indiana University Data Center

Posted May 5, 2018

We are now reviewing public input for the 2019 revision to NFPA 110 Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems and related document NFPA 111 Stored Electrical Energy for Emergency and Standby Power Systems through various Task Groups set up by the NFPA ahead of its Annual Meeting in June 2018 in Las Vegas.  These documents are generally developed together by most of the same committee members.

In previous public input, we have advanced the following concepts:

• Identify the concept of “ingress illumination” which would provide an illuminated ingress path for first responders traveling toward a hazard or accident

•  Clarify that in district energy systems — common in large research university campuses — that a utility source of power that is identified as independent by the Authority Having Jurisdiction — may be used to supply power to emergency and standby systems supplying illumination, fire pumps, critical operations power systems and the like.  The use of utility source of power for such use is already permitted; we only recommended wordsmithing the paragraph in Section A.5.1.3 for additional clarity.

Both public inputs were rejected in the 2016 revision (NFPA 110 2016 Public Input Issue 13-12).  Although we missed the leading edge of the 2019 revision cycle for NFPA 110 and NFPA 111, we intend to continue advocating for these concepts — and other concepts essential for the power reliability of the emergent #SmartCampus —  in other related NFPA documents and in the IEEE suite of consensus standards for electrical power systems.

The conceptual framework for how fire safety documents (developed by the NFPA) and electrical power engineering documents (developed by the IEEE) is on the standing agenda of the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (IEEE E&H) which meets online 4 times monthly.   Anyone is welcomed to join these teleconferences to prepare original public input or to comment upon the public input of others with the login information available on the top menu tab of the IEEE E&H website.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Electrical, Facility Asset Management

Contact: Mike Anthony, Robert Arno, Neal Dowling, Jim Harvey

 

Safeguarding Construction, Alteration & Demolition Operations

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
No Comments

Sacre de l’empereur Napoléon Ier et couronnement de l’impératrice Joséphine dans la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, le 2 décembre 1804

The National Fire Protection Association has a launched a new revision cycle for a consensus product begun in 1968 — Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations.    From the project prospectus: 

This standard shall apply to structures in the course of construction, alteration, or demolition, including those in underground locations. A.1.1 General requirements applying to construction and demolition are contained in Chapter 1 and Chapters 3 through 7; specific requirements for construction and alteration activities are found in Chapter 8; those requirements specific to roofing operations are covered in Chapter 9; those requirements specific to demolition activities are covered in Chapter 10; and specific requirements for activities in underground locations are contained in Chapter 11.

Public input is due June 26, 2019.

We encourage you to submit public input to NFPA directly.  You will need to set up a (free) NFPA TerraView account (CLICK HERE).   We are happy to discuss this standard any day during our 11 AM Eastern time teleconference.   We also host a monthly teleconference covering the parts of fire safety documents of all consensus product developers that determine the safety and sustainability of education facilities .   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.   Finally, we encourage our colleagues — especially those in the San Antonio Texas region — to attend the NFPA Conference & Expo, June 17-20.  CLICK HERE for registration guidance.

 

Issue: [13-151]

Category: Fire Safety, Fire Protection

Colleagues:  Mike Anthony, Joe DeRosier, Josh Elvove

University of Michigan Legacy Workspace: Fire Protection for Education Facilities

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Electrical Inspection & Inspector Qualifications

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory (Click on image for more information)

The National Fire Protection Association is adding two relatively new consensus documents to add to its NFPA-70 suite* that will likely be candidates for incorporation by reference into public safety law (if they are not already):

NFPA 78: Guide on Electrical Inspections (NEW)  Scope: This Committee shall have primary responsibility for documents on the requirements for professional qualifications, professional competence, training, procedures, and equipment for electrical inspections and electrical plans examinations.

NFPA 1078: Standard for Electrical Inspector Professional Qualifications (2021) Scope: This Committee shall have primary responsibility for documents on the requirements for professional qualifications, professional competence, training, procedures, and equipment for electrical inspections and electrical plans examinations

NFPA 1078 is further along the development trajectory than NFPA 78.  We covered these documents in September 2018 and now both have moved along the NFPA document development trajectory into the NITMAM stage during which time stakeholders may petition for a place on the NFPA Standards Council Agenda during the NFPA Annual Conference & Expo in San Antonio, Texas, June 17-20. as long as they file a Notice of Intent to Make a Motion before April 26th (CLICK HERE to start the process).

There are a number of large research universities with power systems large enough to support an internal, full-time electrical inspection staff and/or occupational safety personnel.  They usually collaborate closely with state and local building code authorities.   As the rollout of Standards Michigan continues into all 50 United States (StandardsAlabama.COM through StandardsWyoming.COM) we  will continue collaboration with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee and IEEE Standards Association Committee SCC-18 (which coordinates user-interest concepts moving between NFPA and IEEE standards) on to submit comments and to respond to the comments of other stakeholders.   Electrical inspectors directly employed by education facility organizations are also encouraged to communicate directly with our colleague Joe Tedesco, a respected voice in the US electrical safety industry.

 

Issue: [Various]

Category: Electrical, #SmartCampus, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Jim Murphy, Joe Tedesco

* By “NFPA 70” suite we mean the following:

NFPA 70 National Electrical Code

NFPA 70A National Electrical Code Requirements for One- and Two-Family Dwellings

NFPA 70B Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance

NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace

NFPA 78: Guide on Electrical Inspections

NFPA 1078: Standard for Electrical Inspector Professional Qualifications

 

 

Lease Accounting

April 22, 2019
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“The Battle About Money” | Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1570)

The education industry provides a significant market for real property square-footage.   Operation and management of that square-footage — often widely scattered across the globe — is a consideration in our lower #TotalCostofOwnership agenda.  The Government Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has posted a public commenting opportunity on the answers to 81 questions that were posed in earlier drafts of its Implementation Guidance for Leases.

The requirements of this Implementation Guide apply to the financial statements of all state and local governments (which likely include school districts and public colleges, universities and technical schools).  The objective of this Implementation Guide is to provide guidance that clarifies, explains, or elaborates on the requirements of Statement No. 87, Leases.   You may enter your comments on the exposure draft linked below:

GASB EXPOSURE DRAFT—IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE—LEASES

Comments are due April 30th.  Note that you will have to conform to GASB’s requirements for public comment.   We follow the GASB suite, but do not advocate here.  We are simply passing along the commenting opportunity.   Administrative burden is often cited as an explanation for the rising costs of education so, to that extent, we have an interest in the future of this document.  We encourage user-interest stakeholder in the administrative branches of educational organizations to collaborate directly with across the entire span of GASB consensus documents.

Of course, we are open every day at 11 AM Eastern time to walk through any standard.  We also devote one hour every month to Finance & Management standards.  See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconference.

Issue: [19-61]

Category: Finance & Management, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Richard Robben, John Kaczor, Matt Prozaki

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