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First Day of School

September 2, 2025
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Donegan Acoustics

Today we take a cross cutting review of all the literature (codes, standards, guidelines, laws)  that informs safe and sustainability occupancy load, means of egress, illumination, ambient air, plumbing, electric, communication and acoustics in classrooms.

1. Building Codes

  • International Building Code (IBC): Adopted by most states, it provides guidelines for the design and construction of buildings, including schools.
  • International Existing Building Code (IEBC): Provides standards for the renovation and repair of existing school buildings.
  • State and Local Building Codes: Many states and municipalities have additional or modified codes that must be followed.

2. Fire and Life Safety Codes

  • National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Codes:
    • NFPA 101: Life Safety Code – Sets requirements for egress, fire protection, and emergency planning.
    • NFPA 13: Installation of Sprinkler Systems – Specifies standards for automatic fire sprinkler systems.
    • NFPA 72: National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code – Covers fire alarm system installation and maintenance.
    • NFPA 70: National Electrical Code (NEC) – Outlines electrical wiring standards to prevent fire hazards.

3. Accessibility Standards

  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA):
    • ADA Standards for Accessible Design – Ensures that school facilities are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
  • Architectural Barriers Act (ABA): Requires accessibility in buildings constructed with federal funds.

4. Environmental and Health Standards

Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy

  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regulations:
    • EPA Lead and Asbestos Regulations: Governs the handling of lead and asbestos in school buildings.
    • EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools: Provides guidelines to manage air quality.

5. Structural Standards

  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE):
    • ASCE 7: Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures.
  • American Concrete Institute (ACI):
    • ACI 318: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete.

6. Plumbing and Mechanical Codes

  • International Plumbing Code (IPC): Provides guidelines for plumbing system design and installation.
  • International Mechanical Code (IMC): Sets standards for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

7. Electrical Standards

  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards: Includes various electrical safety and installation standards relevant to school facilities.

8. Educational Specifications and Guidelines

  • Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) Guidelines: Provides best practices for school design that promote effective learning environments.
  • State-Specific Educational Specifications: Many states have their own guidelines for the design of educational facilities to meet state-specific educational needs.

9. Safety and Security Standards

  • Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Guidelines: Suggests design strategies to enhance security in school environments.
  • School Safety and Security Standards (state-specific): Some states have additional requirements for school security measures.

10. Sustainable Design Standards

  • LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Schools: Provides a framework for building green and energy-efficient schools.
  • Green Building Initiative (GBI) Standards: Focuses on sustainable and energy-efficient building practices.

11. Maintenance Standards

  • International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC): Provides guidelines for the maintenance of buildings, ensuring they remain safe and functional over time.

12. Other Relevant Standards

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Guidelines: Provides standards for building schools in disaster-prone areas (e.g., tornadoes, earthquakes).
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Standards: Ensures workplace safety, including in schools, covering areas like chemical safety, electrical safety, and more.

Local Considerations

  • Local Zoning Laws and Ordinances: Schools must also comply with local land use regulations, which may affect building placement, size, and use.

Classroom Acoustics


 

 

Campus Surveillance

September 2, 2025
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Big Brother is watching you.”

“Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull.”

“At any rate, they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away.”

“Fire at Full Moon” 1933 | Paul Klee

Hard upon conclusion of the fall semester, educational settlements ebb in population as students return to their home fires.

Today we pull together best practice in the systems — the people and the technologies — that sustain campus safety and stability during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays.

Join us at 16:00 UTC with login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Guide to Premises Security

Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986:

Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore Maryland

Heat Tracing

Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association A156.25 – 2023 Electrified Locking Systems

Shawnee Mission West High School

Places of Worship

Open Network Video Interface Forum

New York City Public Schools

Sacred Spaces

IEC 62676-1-1: Video surveillance systems for use in security applications

University of the District of Columbia Community College

Watch & Night Operations

ANSI C136 Series – Standards for Roadway and Area Lighting Equipment

Columbus City Schools Ohio

 

Campus Outdoor Lighting

Park Point University Campus Security

Strawberry Mansion High School | Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Outdoor Deicing & Snow Melting

Life Safety Code

September 2, 2025
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Educational and Day-Care Occupancies (July 23, 2025 Second Draft Transcript)

The Life Safety Code addresses those construction, protection, and occupancy features necessary to minimize danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat, and toxic gases created during a fire.   It is widely incorporated by reference into public safety statutes; typically coupled with the consensus products of the International Code Council.   It is a mighty document — one of the NFPA’s leading titles — so we deal with it in pieces; consulting it for decisions to be made for the following:

(1) Determination of the occupancy classification in Chapters 12 through 42.

(2) Determination of whether a building or structure is new or existing.

(3) Determination of the occupant load.

(4) Determination of the hazard of contents.

There are emergent issues — such as active shooter response, integration of life and fire safety systems on the internet of small things — and recurrent issues such as excessive rehabilitation and conformity criteria and the ever-expanding requirements for sprinklers and portable fire extinguishers with which to reckon.  It is never easy telling a safety professional paid to make a market for his product or service that it is impossible to be alive and safe.  It is even harder telling the dean of a department how much it will cost to bring the square-footage under his stewardship up to the current code.

The 2021 edition is the current edition and is accessible below:

NFPA 101 Life Safety Code Free Public Access

Public input on the 2027 Revision will be received until June 4, 2024.  Public comment on the Second Draft 2027 Revision will be received until March 31, 2026.

 

Since the Life Safety Code is one of the most “living” of living documents — the International Building Code and the National Electric Code also move continuously — we can start anywhere and anytime and still make meaningful contributions to it.   We have been advocating in this document since the 2003 edition in which we submitted proposals for changes such as:

• A student residence facility life safety crosswalk between NFPA 101 and the International Building Code

• Refinements to Chapters 14 and 15 covering education facilities (with particular attention to door technologies)

• Identification of an ingress path for rescue and recovery personnel toward electric service equipment installations.

• Risk-informed requirement for installation of grab bars in bathing areas

• Modification of the 90-minute emergency lighting requirements rule for small buildings and for fixed interval testing

• Modification of emergency illumination fixed interval testing

• Table 7.3.1 Occupant Load revisions

• Harmonization of egress path width with European building codes

There are others.  It is typically difficult to make changes to stabilized standard though some of the concepts were integrated by the committee into other parts of the NFPA 101 in unexpected, though productive, ways.  Example transcripts of proposed 2023 revisions to the education facility chapter is linked below:

Chapter 14 Public Input Report: New Educational Occupancies

Educational and Day Care Occupancies: Second Draft Public Comments with Responses Report

Since NFPA 101 is so vast in its implications we list a few of the sections we track, and can drill into further, according to client interest:

Chapter 3: Definitions

Chapter 7: Means of Egress

Chapter 12: New Assembly Occupancies

Chapter 13: Existing Assembly Occupancies

Chapter 16 Public Input Report: New Day-Care Facilities

Chapter 17 Public Input Report: Existing Day Care Facilities

Chapter 18 Public Input Report: New Health Care Facilities

Chapter 19 Public Input Report: Existing Health Care Facilities

Chapter 28: Public Input Report: New Hotels and Dormitories

Chapter 29: Public Input Report: Existing Hotels and Dormitories

Chapter 43: Building Rehabilitation

Annex A: Explanatory Material

As always we encourage front-line staff, facility managers, subject matter experts and trade associations to participate directly in the NFPA code development process (CLICK HERE to get started)

NFPA 101 is a cross-cutting title so we maintain it on the agenda of our several colloquia —Housing, Prometheus, Security and Pathways colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

 

Issue: [18-90]

Category: Fire Safety, Public Safety

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier, Marcelo Hirschler

More

ARCHIVE / Life Safety Code 2003 – 2018

 


Fire and Life Safety in Stadiums

Energy Standard for Data Centers

September 2, 2025
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Consulting-Specifying Engineer (March 4, 2025): Why and how to adopt the IECC for energy-efficient designs

2024 Update to ASHRAE Position Statements

List of Titles, Scopes and Purposes of the ASHRAE Catalog

Public Review Draft Standards

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:

Addendum g modifies Sections 3 and 6 to support the regulation of process heat and process ventilation

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

Energy Standard for *Sites* and Buildings


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:

https://www.ashrae.org/file%20library/technical%20resources/standards%20and%20guidelines/standards%20errata/standards/90.4-2016errata-5-31-2018-.pdf

https://www.ashrae.org/file%20library/technical%20resources/standards%20and%20guidelines/standards%20errata/standards/90.4-2019errata-3-23-2021-.pdf

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

Universitat de Barcelona

 

Proposed Addendum g

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.

"One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, "My little computer said such a funny thing this morning" - Alan Turing

Issue: [12-54]

Category: Telecommunications, Infotech, Energy

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Robert G. Arno, Neal Dowling, Jim Harvey, Mike Hiler, Robert Schuerger, Larry Spielvogel

Workspace / ASHRAE

 

Rhubarb Strawberry Pie

September 1, 2025
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Recipe

A dessert  popular in the United Kingdom, where rhubarb has been cultivated since the 1600s, and the leaf stalks eaten since the 1700s. Besides diced rhubarb, it almost always contains a large amount of sugar to balance the intense tartness of the plant. The pie is usually prepared with a bottom pie crust and a variety of styles of upper crust.

In the United States, often a lattice-style upper crust is used.  This pie is a traditional dessert in the United States. It is part of New England cuisine.  Rhubarb has long been a popular choice for pies in the Great Plains region and the Michigan Great Lakes Region, where fruits were not always readily available in the spring

Related

University of Missouri: Plant rhubarb, the pie plant, in March

University of Nebraska: Rhubarb Cream Pie

TU Dublin: Rhubarb Pie Using Sweet Shortbread Pastry

Strawberries

Kitchens 200

Food Safety

Lemonade

September 1, 2025
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University of Florida College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

More

United States Department of Agriculture: Frozen Concentrate for Lemonade Grades and Standards

United States Food & Drug Administration: Canned Fruit Juices

Spoon University: My Perfect Lemonade Recipe

Standards Florida

University Ave Pizza

September 1, 2025
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Standards North Dakota

North Dakota

While there isn’t a universally standardized pizza that everyone agrees upon, certain types of pizza have become iconic and widely recognized. Some of these include:

Margherita Pizza: This classic pizza features tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and a drizzle of olive oil. It’s named after Queen Margherita of Italy.

Pepperoni Pizza: Topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and slices of pepperoni (a cured pork and beef sausage).

Margarita Pizza: Similar to the Margherita, but without the basil. It typically has tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and sometimes a drizzle of olive oil.

Neapolitan Pizza: This style originated in Naples, Italy. It has a thin, soft, and chewy crust with simple and fresh ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil, and olive oil.

New York Style Pizza: Characterized by its large, foldable slices with a thin and flexible crust. It’s often topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza: Known for its thick crust, this pizza has layers of cheese, toppings, and tomato sauce. It’s baked in a deep pan, resulting in a substantial and hearty pizza.

Sicilian Pizza: Square-shaped and thick-crusted, Sicilian pizza is often topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and various toppings.

California Pizza: Often associated with innovative and non-traditional toppings, California-style pizza might include ingredients like barbecue chicken, goat cheese, arugula, and more.

Different regions and cultures have their own interpretations and variations, so what’s considered a “standard” pizza can vary widely depending on personal preferences and local traditions.

Standard Reference Material

September 1, 2025
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Metrology is the scientific discipline that deals with measurement, including both the theoretical and practical aspects of measurement. It is a broad field that encompasses many different areas, including length, mass, time, temperature, and electrical and optical measurements.  The goal of metrology is to establish a system of measurement that is accurate, reliable, and consistent. This involves the development of standards and calibration methods that enable precise and traceable measurements to be made.

The International System of Units is the most widely used system of units today and is based on a set of seven base units, which are defined in terms of physical constants or other fundamental quantities.  Another important aspect of metrology is the development and use of measurement instruments and techniques. These instruments and techniques must be designed to minimize errors and uncertainties in measurements, and they must be calibrated against recognized standards to ensure accuracy and traceability.

Metrology also involves the development of statistical methods for analyzing and interpreting measurement data. These methods are used to quantify the uncertainty associated with measurement results and to determine the reliability of those results.

National Institute for Standards & Technology

Federal Participation in Consensus Standards

ARCHIVE: UM Welcomes ANSI 2015

Easy Greek Salad

September 1, 2025
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West Virginia University Financial Statement 2024 | $1.234B

The Recipe

Standards West Virginia

Related:

Fruit Smoothie

 

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