Managing Livestock in Winter

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Electric Power Availability: Cold Weather Preparedness

January 16, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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PUBLIC LAW 109–58—AUG. 8, 2005 | ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005

Reaction: December 18 Open Meeting


Reliability v. Availability

January 25th Joint Meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and FERC: Docket No. AD06-6-000.  Given the close coupling of electric and natural gas supply with respect to power reliability, the mind boggles at the hostility of the Biden Administration to natural gas anywhere on earth.  Natural gas is critical to generation plant black start capabilities and hospitals, among others.

A selection of the presentations:

“Long Term Reliability Assessment” – Presented by Mark Lauby, Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer, NERC

“Grid Reliability Overview & Updates” – Presented by David Ortiz, Director of the Office of Electric Reliability

“Status of Standards and Implementation for Cold Weather Preparedness and Applicability to Nuclear Plants” – Presented by David Huff, Electrical Engineer, Office of Electric Reliability

“Gas-Electric Coordination Since Winter Storm Uri” – Presented by Heather Polzin, Reliability Enforcement Counsel, Office of Enforcement

“Overview of Power Reactor Activities” – Presented by Andrea Kock, Deputy Office Director for Engineering, NRR

“Grid Reliability Updates” – Presented by Jason Paige, Chief, Long-Term Operations and Modernization Branch, Division of Engineering and External Hazards, NRR

Electrical Resource Adequacy

Related:

Utah State University: History of Probability

Sample Probability and Statistics Problem from Professional Electrical Engineer’s Examination

Loss-of-load-based reliability indices

Farm Electrical Power

January 16, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Many land grant colleges and universities are stewards of agricultural facilities that require reliable electrical power that is safe and sustainable for livestock well off the core campus distribution grid. Today we examine the 2026 National Electrical Code safe electric service rules with an eye toward the close date of April 6th for public input on the 2029 NEC.

2029 National Electrical Code

 


Updated: September 3, 2024

ACTION ITEMS:

Article 547: Agricultural Buildings

Public Input with Responses from CMP-7 (Start at PDF Page 187)

Public Input with Responses from CMP-2 Article 220 Part V: Farm Load Calculations (Start at PDF Page 28)

Related: National Electrical Safety Code (Higher Voltage Distribution Wiring from Merchant Utility to Off-Campus Agricultural Outbuildings)

Sunday, Animal, Farm, Agri august

Many land grant colleges and universities are stewards of agricultural facilities that require reliable electrical power that is safe and sustainable for livestock and animal habitat for sporting.

FREE ACCESS: 2023 National Electrical Code

The premise wiring rules for hazardous university owned buildings have been relatively stable.  Electrical professionals are guided by:

  1. Farm Load Calculations of Part V of Article 220,
  2. Corrosion mitigation with appropriate specification of power chain wiring
  3. Stray voltage and the equipotential plane
  4. Interactivity with regulated utility power sources.

Public response to the First Draft of the 2026 National Electrical Code will be received until August 28, 2024.  We coordinate our approach to the entire NFPA electrical suite with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly.  We typically refer to previous transcripts of technical committee actions to inform any changes (improvements) that we propose, if any.

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

We maintain this issue on the standing agenda of our Power and Nourriture (Food) colloquia.  Feel free to join us with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.


More:

2028 National Electrical Safety Code

Stray Voltage: Sources and Solutions

University of Nebraska: G87-845 Electrical Systems for Agricultural Buildings (Recommended Practices)

Cornell University Agricultural Safety and Health Program

Mike Holt

Fred Hartwell

National Safety Council  (22 deaths by electrocution on farms per 100,000 in 2017)

National Agricultural  Safety Database

 

Cx Building Commissioning

January 15, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“Ten Books on Architecture” 30-20 B.C | Vitruvius

Building commissioning is a systematic quality assurance process that ensures a building and its systems (HVAC, lighting, plumbing, controls, etc.) are designed, installed, tested, and operated exactly as intended by the owner and designers.

It begins early in planning, continues through construction, and includes:

  • thorough testing
  • correcting deficiencies
  • complete documentation
  • training of operations staff

The goal is to deliver an efficient, comfortable, safe, and energy-saving building from day one — while minimizing future operational problems and costs.

Today at 16:00 UTC we pull together the relevant standards and our influence in writing them over the past 30-odd years.  Use the login credentials at the upper right our home page.

Whole Building Design Guide

January 15, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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“The Ideal City” (c. 1480) / Fra Carnevale

§

The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization bringing together representatives of government, the professions, industry, labor and consumer interests to focus on the identification and resolution of problems and potential problems that hamper the construction of safe, affordable structures for housing, commerce and industry throughout the United States.  The National Institute of Building Sciences was authorized by the U.S. Congress in the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, Public Law 93-383.

As the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States — and one that is largely financed with public money —  the education industry is a major stakeholder in NIBS leading practice discovery and promulgation.  Best practice in education facility construction is informed by best practices in other federal agencies with significant construction spend

We track development and commenting opportunities on NIBS consensus products linked below:

Whole Building Design Guide

National BIM Standard V3

United States National CAD Standard

It is remarkable how much standards action happens in the drearier (boilerplate) — General Conditions — part of a construction contract.  Admittedly, you must have an interest in the fine points of the building construction disciplines.

As of today’s posting we do not find any NIBS titles released for public consultation in the Federal Register.  We do, however, keep NIBS products on our periodic Ædificare c0lloquium; open to everyone.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [15-317]

Category: Architectural, Management & Finance

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Richard Robben

Representative School, College & University Construction Contract General Conditions


More

2021 NIBS Report to the President of the United States

Monograph: Guide to Architectural Design Phases

Commissioning Process Requirements for New Buildings and New Systems

January 15, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Standards Michigan ASHRAE Coverage

ASHRAE Standard 202 provides procedures, methods, and documentation for project delivery from predesign through occupancy/operations, ensuring buildings and new systems meet the Owner’s Project Requirements. The standard promotes a uniform, integrated approach to verify performance, deliver quality facilities, and support ongoing successful operation.

Key related titles frequently referenced or forming the broader commissioning framework include:
ASHRAE Guideline 0The Commissioning Process (core foundational guideline harmonized with Standard 202 for whole-building commissioning)
ASHRAE Guideline 1.1The HVAC Commissioning Process (detailed technical guidance for HVAC systems)
Our most active work in the ASHRAE catalog:

Energy Standard for *Sites* and Buildings

Energy Standard for Data Centers

Ventilation for Commercial Cooking Operations

Environmental Air in Sacred Spaces

Design & Operation of Health Care Facilities

International Fire Code

January 15, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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2024 International Fire Code | Free Access

Crosswalk: NFPA Fire Code and ICC International Fire Code

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES based on Committee Action Hearings October 2024

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

ICC BCAC | Comments to be presented at October Hearings

Noteworthy Proposals:

IFC 1010.27 Locking arrangements, PDF page 252

IFC 1020.2 Corridor Fire Resistance Ratings. PDF page 356

IFC 915 More Carbon Monoxide Detection Systems, PDF page 1156

IBC 917 Mass notification for Group E occupancies, PDF page 1176

IFC 5701 More Process Hazard Analysis, PDF page 1571

The transcript (Complete Monograph) of Committee Actions should be available by September 5th.

Committee Action Hearings on Proposed Changes: October 23-31 Long Beach, California

“A Square with Imaginary Buildings” | Hendrik van Steenwijck (1614)

LIVE: I-Code Group B Public Comment Hearings

Higher Education Laboratories

“Waking Effectiveness of Alarms for Adults Who Are Hard of Hearing” 2007  Victoria University, Australia

Health Facilities: Navigating IBC and NFPA differences


Posted February 14, 2023

Free access to the latest edition of the IFC is linked below:

2021 International Fire Code

Following the ICC Group A revision cycle public consultation on the 2024 International Fire Code will begin.  The ICC will announce the development schedule sometime in 2022.

We limit our resources simply tracking the proposals that run through Group E (Educational) and Group I (Institutional) occupancies in the Group A suite with closer attention to the state they are adopted whole cloth or with local exceptions.  In many cases, IFC adoption by state and local authorities is delayed by one or more previous code revisions.  This delay in adoption may be necessary in order for jurisdictions to evaluate the impact of changes upon the region under their authority.

Public safety budgets historically support the local and state fire marshal and his or her staff.   The revenue stream of many trade associations originates from membership, conference attendance, training and certification enterprises that service the public sector stakeholder.   Manufacturer sponsorship of trade association conferences is noteworthy.

Unless there is an idea, or proposed regulation that has run off the rails (either in terms of rigor or cost increase) — we place fire safety in the middle of our ranking of priorities.  With gathering pace, we find many fires safety goals being met with electrotechnologies where we place our highest priority.

Click on image for more information. The map is updated by expert agencies frequently so we recommend a web search for an update.

Significant code changes rarely happen within a 3-year cycle so it is wise to follow ideas as they travel through the agendas of technical committees through several cycles as administered by the Fire Code Action Committee.

The ICC posts the transcripts of public proposals, technical committee responses to public proposals, public response to the technical committee response and the final balloting in a fair and reasonable fashion as can be seen in the transcripts linked below:

2021 International Fire Code Proposed Changes

2021 International Fire Code Public Comment Agenda 

A search on the terms “classroom” or “school” in any of the documents above offers granular insight into the trend of current thinking.   We find fire extinguishers placement a perennial concern across several standards suites.   You will note the careful consideration of proposals for use of the mass notification systems, now integrated into fire alarm systems and their deployment in active shooter situations.

The transcripts reveal detailed understanding and subtlety.

“The Country School” | Winslow Homer

There are many issues affecting the safety and sustainability of the education facility industry.  We add value to the industry because of our cross-cutting perspective on the hundreds of “silos”created by the competition (and sometimes cooperation) among accredited, consortia and open-source standards developers.  We have the door open every day at 11 AM Eastern time to enlighten understanding of them all.  We also host a breakout teleconference every month to drill into the specifics of standards action on fire safety for the real assets of school districts, colleges and universities.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

Finally, we persist in encouraging education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process.  You may do so by CLICKING HERE.

The ICC Group B Code Meetings will be hosted soon and open to the public:   

International Code Council 2022 Group B Public Comment Agenda (September 14-21 Kentucky International Convention Center)

The Group B tranche is largely focused on energy, structural, residential and existing building concepts but all of the titles cross-reference the IFC in some way so it is wise to follow how the concepts re-arrange and cross-reference themselves with each cycle.

 

Issue: [16-169]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management, Space Planning

Colleagues: Mike Anthony,  Casey Grant, Joshua Evolve, Marcelo Hirschler


More

2021/2022 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

FINAL ACTION RESULTS ON THE 2018 PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE INTERNATIONAL CODES – GROUP A

2018 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES COLUMBUS COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS

2018 GROUP A PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA | INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE

2018 GROUP A PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA | INTERNATIONAL FIRE CODE

2018 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS ON THE 2018 EDITIONS OF THE GROUP A INTERNATIONAL CODES

 

 

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