Clean the chicken, put it in a large pot and cover it with cold water. Bring the water to boil.
Add the chicken wings, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips and carrots. Boil about 1 and a half hours. Remove fat from the surface as it accumulates.
Add the parsley and celery. Cook the mixture about 45 min. longer.
Remove the chicken. The chicken is not used further for the soup. (The meat makes excellent chicken parmesan.)
Put the vegetables in a food processor until they are chopped fine or pass through a strainer. Both were performed in the present study.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
(Note: This soup freezes well.) Matzo balls were prepared according to the recipe on the back of the box of matzo meal (Manischewitz).
Today marks the 10th anniversary of Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold’s remarkable journey with UNMC. Thank you, @jeffreypgold, for your unwavering commitment to excellence and your visionary guidance to the UNMC community. https://t.co/jgGhyMH55rpic.twitter.com/fPxvyMsnz2
— University of Nebraska Medical Center (@unmc) February 1, 2024
Most people step into morning shower and pour their first drink take as read the water and energy standards that assure safety and reliability. Today at the usual hour we refresh our understanding of the relatively stable stack of standards that are treated as given. With links to the Alice Parker invention of home heating. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
ASSE 1016/1017 mixing valves to prevent scalds, and temperature guidelines balancing burn risks (max ~120°F at fixtures) against Legionella growth (storage ≥140°F).
Today we slice horizontally through several vertical catalogs that interact, cross reference and are fairly dynamic in their best practice discovery and promulgation.
Plumbing and sanitation systems in educational settlements – especially those with healthcare and research enterprises are intricately linked, ensuring clean water supply, waste removal, and public health. Plumbing systems deliver potable water to dormitories, academic buildings, dining halls, and recreational facilities through a network of pipes, pumps, and valves. (Kitchens). These systems source water from municipal supplies or campus wells, often treated to meet safety standards (Backflow Prevention). Hot water heaters and pressure regulators maintain consistent supply for showers, sinks, and laboratories.
Sanitation systems, conversely, manage wastewater and sewage. They collect used water from toilets, sinks, and showers, channeling it through drainage pipes to campus treatment facilities or municipal sewer systems. Advanced campuses may employ on-site wastewater treatment plants, using processes like sedimentation and biological treatment to reduce environmental impact. Regular maintenance, including pipe cleaning and septic tank pumping, prevents blockages and contamination.
The interaction requires precise coordination. Plumbing systems must avoid cross-contamination with sanitation lines, using backflow preventers and proper pipe insulation.
Sanitation systems rely on plumbing’s water flow to transport waste efficiently. On large campuses, high demand during peak hours challenges both systems, necessitating robust infrastructure. Sustainable practices, like low-flow fixtures and greywater recycling, enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and align with campus environmental goals, ensuring a hygienic and functional environment.
Join us today at 11 AM when we sort through the settled science and unsettled standards of care. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
100 years ago, the Supreme Court made it clear in Pierce v. Society of Sisters: raising children is the responsibility of parents, not the government.
100 years later, the Trump Administration remains committed to protecting parental rights. pic.twitter.com/yduXdLShty
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) June 1, 2025
“…O chestnut tree;, great rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bold? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
We sweep through the world’s three major time zones; updating our understanding of the literature at the technical foundation of education community safety and sustainability in those time zones 24 times per day. We generally eschew “over-coding” web pages to sustain speed, revision cadence and richness of content as peak priority. We do not provide a search facility because of copyrights of publishers and time sensitivity of almost everything we do.
Our daily colloquia are typically doing sessions; with non-USA titles receiving priority until 16:00 UTC and all other titles thereafter. We assume policy objectives are established (Safer-Simpler-Lower-Cost, Longer-Lasting). Because we necessarily get into the weeds, and because much of the content is time-sensitive and copyright protected, we usually schedule a separate time slot to hammer on technical specifics so that our response to consultations are meaningful and contribute to the goals of the standards developing organization and to the goals of stewards of education community real assets — typically the largest real asset owned by any US state and about 50 percent of its annual budget.
1. Leviathan. We track noteworthy legislative proposals in the United States 118th Congress. Not many deal specifically with education community real assets since the relevant legislation is already under administrative control of various Executive Branch Departments such as the Department of Education.
We do not advocate in legislative activity at any level. We respond to public consultations but there it ends.
We track federal legislative action because it provides a stroboscopic view of the moment — the “national conversation”– in communities that are simultaneously a business and a culture. Even though more than 90 percent of such proposals are at the mercy of the party leadership the process does enlighten the strengths and weakness of a governance system run entirely through the counties on the periphery of Washington D.C. It is impossible to solve technical problems in facilities without sensitivity to the zietgeist that has accelerated in education communities everywhere.
Michigan Great Lake Quilt
Michigan can 100% water and feed itself. Agriculture is its second-largest industry.
The heating and cooling requirements of K-12 schools, college and university educational, medical research and healthcare delivery campuses are a large market for boiler pressure vessel manufacturers, installers, maintenance personnel and inspectors. The demand for building new, and upgrading existing boilers — either single building boilers, regional boilers or central district energy boilers — presents a large market for professional engineering firms also. A large research university, for example, will have dozens, if not well over 100 boilers that heat and cool square footage in all climates throughout the year. The same boilers provide heating and cooling for data centers, laundry operations, kitchen steam tables in hospitals and dormitories.
“…The International Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code establishes rules of safety — relating only to pressure integrity — governing the design, fabrication, and inspection of boilers and pressure vessels, and nuclear power plant components during construction. The objective of the rules is to provide a margin for deterioration in service. Advancements in design and material and the evidence of experience are constantly being added…”
Many state and local governments incorporate the BPVC by reference into public safety regulations and have established boiler safety agencies. Boiler explosions are fairly common, as a simple internet search on the term “school boiler explosion” will reveal. We linked one such incident at the bottom of this page.
University of Michigan Central Heating Plant
The 2023 Edition of the BPVC is the current edition; though the document is divided into many sections that change quickly.
Two characteristics of the ASME standards development process are noteworthy:
Only the proposed changes to the BPVC are published. The context surrounding a given change may be lost or not seen unless access to previous version is available. Knowledgeable experts who contribute to the development of the BPVC usually have a previous version, however. Newcomers to the process may not.
The BPVC has several breakout committees; owing to its longer history in the US standards system and the gathering pace of complexity in this technology.
We unpack the ASME bibliography primarily during our Mechanical, Plumbing and Energy colloquia; and also during our coverage of large central laundry and food preparation (Kitchens 100) colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting, open to everyone.
We examine the proposals for the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code; including our own. The 2026 National Electrical Code where sit on CMP-15 overseeing health care facility electrical issues should be released any day now. We have one proposal on the agenda of the International Code Council’s Group B Committee Action Hearings in Cleveland in October. Balloting on the next IEEE Gold Book on reliability should begin.
FERC Open Meetings | (Note that these ~60 minute sessions meet Sunshine Act requirements. Our interest lies one or two levels deeper into the technicals underlying the administrivia)
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan
First Draft Proposals contain most of our proposals — and most new (original) content. We will keep the transcripts linked below but will migrate them to a new page starting 2025:
N.B. We are in the process of migrating electric power system research to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers bibliographic format.
Recap of the May meetings of the Industrial & Commercial Power Systems Conference in Las Vegas. The conference ended the day before the beginning of the 3-day Memorial Day weekend in the United States so we’re pressed for time; given all that happened.
We can use our last meeting’s agenda to refresh the status of the issues.
We typically break down our discussion into the topics listed below:
Codes & Standards:
While IAS/I&CPS has directed votes on the NEC; Mike is the only I&CPS member who is actually submitting proposals and responses to codes and standards developers to the more dominant SDO’s — International Code Council, ASHRAE International, UL, ASTM International, IEC & ISO. Mike maintains his offer to train the next generation of “code writers and vote getters”
Performance-based building premises feeder design has been proposed for the better part of ten NEC revision cycles. The objective of these proposals is to reduce material, labor and energy waste owed to the branch and feeder sizing rules that are prescriptive in Articles 210-235. Our work in service and lighting branch circuit design has been largely successful. A great deal of building interior power chain involves feeders — the network upstream from branch circuit panels but down stream from building service panel.
Our history of advocating for developing this approach, inspired by the NFPA 101 Guide to Alternative Approaches to Life Safety, and recounted in recent proposals for installing performance-based electrical feeder design into the International Building Code, appears in the link below:
Access to this draft paper for presentation at any conference that will receive it — NFPA, ICC or IEEE (or even ASHRAE) will be available for review at the link below:
NFPA 110 Definitions of Public Utility v. Merchant Utility
NFPA 72 “Definition of Dormitory Suite” and related proposals
Buildings:
Renovation economics, Smart contracts in electrical construction. UMich leadership in aluminum wiring statements in the NEC should be used to reduce wiring costs.
This paper details primary considerations in estimating the life cycle of a campus medium voltage distribution grid. Some colleges and universities are selling their entire power grid to private companies. Mike has been following these transactions but cannot do it alone.
Variable Architecture Multi-Island Microgrids
District energy:
Generator stator winding failures and implications upon insurance premiums. David Shipp and Sergio Panetta. Mike suggests more coverage of retro-fit and lapsed life cycle technicals for insurance companies setting premiums.
Reliability:
Bob Arno’s leadership in updating the Gold Book.
Mike will expand the sample set in Table 10-35, page 293 from the <75 data points in the 1975 survey to >1000 data points. Bob will set up meeting with Peyton at US Army Corps of Engineers.
Reliability of merchant utility distribution systems remains pretty much a local matter. The 2023 Edition of the NESC shows modest improvement in the vocabulary of reliability concepts. For the 2028 Edition Mike submitted several proposals to at least reference IEEE titles in the distribution reliability domain. It seems odd (at least to Mike) that the NESC committees do not even reference IEEE technical literature such as Bob’s Gold Book which has been active for decades. Mike will continue to propose changes in other standards catalogs — such as ASTM, ASHRAE and ICC — which may be more responsive to best practice assertions. Ultimately, improvements will require state public utility commission regulations — and we support increases in tariffs so that utilities can afford these improvements.
Mike needs help from IEEE Piscataway on standard WordPress theme limitations for the data collection platform.
Mike will update the campus power outage database.
Healthcare:
Giuseppe Parise’s recent work in Italian power grid to its hospitals, given its elevated earthquake risk. Mike’s review of Giuseppe’s paper:
Mike and David Shipp will prepare a position paper for the Harvard Healthcare Management Journal on reliability advantages of impedance grounding for the larger systems.
The Internet of Bodies
Forensics:
Giuseppe’s session was noteworthy for illuminating the similarity and differences between the Italian and US legal system in handling electrotechnology issues.
Mike will restock the committee’s library of lawsuits transactions.
Ports:
Giuseppe updates on the energy and security issues of international ports. Mike limits his time in this committee even though the State of Michigan has the most fresh water international ports in the world.
A PROPOSED GUIDE FOR THE ENERGY PLAN AND ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF A PORT
Other:
Proposals to the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code: Accepted Best Practice, exterior switchgear guarding, scope expansion into ICC and ASHRAE catalog,
Apparently both the Dot Standards and the Color Books will continue parallel development. Only the Gold Book is being updated; led by Bob Arno. Mike admitted confusion but reminded everyone that any references to IEEE best practice literature in the NFPA catalog, was installed Mike himself (who would like some backup help)
Mike assured Christel Hunter (General Cable) that his proposals for reducing the 180 VA per-outlet requirements, and the performance-base design allowance for building interior feeders do not violate the results of the Neher-McGrath calculation used for conductor sizing. All insulation and conducting material thermal limits are unaffected.
Other informal discussions centered on the rising cost of copper wiring and the implications for the global electrotechnical transformation involving the build out of quantum computing and autonomous vehicles. Few expressed optimism that government ambitions for the same could be met in any practical way.
Are students avoiding use of Chat GPT for energy conservation reasons? Mike will be breaking out this topic for a dedicated standards inquiry session:
Winter weather pipe-breaking and subsequent water flooding incidents on educational campuses around the world draw attention to Underwriters Laboratory product standard UL 515 Standard for Electrical Resistance Trace Heating for Commercial Applications which was last revised in July 2015. From the home page of UL 515: the scope is as follows:
(UL 515) requirements cover electrical resistance trace heating for commercial applications as applied to piping, vessels, traced tube bundles, and mechanical equipment. Trace heating includes heating panels and associated parts. This equipment is intended for installation in ordinary locations in accordance with the following installation guidelines:
National Electrical Code, ANSI/NFPA 70, Article 427
IEEE Standard for the Testing, Design, Installation, and Maintenance of Electrical Resistance Trace Heating for Commercial Applications, IEEE 515.1.
Trace heating covered by this Standard is intended for applications where it is exposed to weather, unless specific markings and instructions limit the applications.
Trace heating may be installed on metal or rigid plastic pipes. Unless specific recommendations are made for the plastic pipe material to be heated, plastic pipes are considered to have a maximum long-term thermal exposure limit of 50°C (122°F).
UL 515 is on a 5-year revision cycle; though comments on its improvement may be directed at any time to Julio Morales Julio.Morales@ul.com. A review of the Standards Technical Panel suggests that User-Interest input — quite possibly product success and failure information — would be welcomed.
In future posts, we will sort through the interdependency of related NFPA and ASTM standards on this technology
Abstract: In the past, electrical heat tracing has been thought of as a minor addition to plant utilities. Today, it is recognized as a critical subsystem to be monitored and controlled. A marriage between process, mechanical, and electrical engineers must take place to ensure that optimum economic results are produced. The Internet, expert systems, and falling costs of instrumentation will all contribute to more reliable control systems and improved monitoring systems. There is a harmonization between Europe and North America that should facilitate design and installation using common components. The future holds many opportunities to optimize the design.
Danny S. Parker | Philip Fairey | James D. Lutz, PE
ABSTRACT. The WVU campus in Morgantown, located in north central WV is identified to have elevated heat flows by low-temperature geothermal play fairway analysis of the Appalachian basin. Along with the elevated subsurface heat flows, WVU also has surface demand necessary to develop a deep direct-use geothermal system in the eastern United States. West Virginia University is currently using a steam-based water heating system. This study focuses on converting the current heating system to a geothermal deep-direct-use district heating system.
A comprehensive evaluation of the current heating system is being conducted to determine the university’s heating energy demand. Energy demand is calculated for the whole campus based on the equipment survey and readings from the steam meters. Based on the steam meter readings, the approximate hot water usage of the whole campus is in the range of 10,000-12,000 GPM (gallons per minute). For buildings where there are no existing data or steam meters available, the energy usage is estimated using e-Quest. The tool e-Quest (Quick Energy Simulation Tool) is available through the U.S. Department of Energy and can provide monthly building energy usage data for comparison purposes.
The study includes an in-depth analysis of existing heating and cooling equipment, such as air handling units (AHUs) and heat exchangers, to determine their compatibility with hot water systems. The potential for retrofitting these systems to enhance energy efficiency, reduce operational costs, and contribute to the university’s sustainability goals is evaluated. This retrofit requires significant infrastructure changes, including installing new pumps, pipes, and heat exchangers. A detailed study for retrofitting was conducted on one of the buildings, which includes air handling units, pumps, valves, and expansion tanks.
The total retrofitting cost was found to be approximately $130,000. A preliminary hot water distribution model using Aspen HYSYS is developed, incorporating key system components like heat pumps and geothermal plate heat exchangers with a hot water distribution temperature of 180℉. Similarly, Aspen HYSYS models are developed to study and compare the normal hot water distribution model.
Florida’s campus coffee scene picks up influences from Gulf of America nations. Hot options are popular in winter, though iced drinks never fully disappear.
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/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
