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It’s easy for facility managers to think of themselves as having a bricks and mortar job. This year’s FMXcellence recognition program shows how accurate that view is — and how limited. Behind all the heavy equipment and sophisticated technology of the projects that received recognition...

The rationale for commissioning is pretty straightforward. Invest a modest amount of money to find things wrong with a building, fix those problems, and get the investment paid back in a short period of time. Sounds logical. But top management often sees things differently. The executive viewpoint may...

Justifying an energy efficiency project requires facility executives to walk the fine line between salesmanship and exaggeration, said Richard Lubinski, president of Think Energy Management , at the Facility Decisions conference and exposition in Las Vegas. (For more on his session, click here .) To...

Want to improve your chances of convincing bean counters that investments in energy projects are worthwhile? Stop talking about payback periods and start talking about return on investment, said speakers at the Facility Decisions conference and exposition in Las Vegas. Alan Whitson, president, The Corporate...

I got a surprise reading about results from a new survey conducted by the Uptime Institute . According to the survey , communications between IT and facilities are good or excellent in 57 percent of the companies that responded. In 59 percent of companies, communication was formal, structured and active...

If you’re a facility executive responsible for data centers, the following undoubtedly makes immediate sense. As servers, storage devices and other IT gear get smaller and more powerful, they generate more heat. That translates into greater cooling load in the same space, which in turn means more...

Variable–speed drives (VSDs) passed a milestone recently. As many facility executives know, VSDs reduce the amount of energy an electric motor uses by reducing the frequency of the electrical power delivered to the motor. With a chiller, for example, a VSD can slow the motor in part load conditions...

Suppose you manage a data center that uses the underfloor plenum for cooling. Then imagine that the raised floor extends to the outside walls of the building. And now picture a gigantic hole in the wall that lets two-thirds of the chilled air escape. Unthinkable? Certainly. But a new group argues that...

When you’re thinking about energy-efficient technologies, should you care about oil? When it comes to the energy used by buildings today, coal and natural gas are far bigger fuel sources. Looking to the future, renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines draw much of the attention...

With high energy prices and rising concerns about global warming, energy efficiency is a hot topic in Washington, drawing support even from some conservative Republicans like Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). So why did an extension of tax deductions for building energy efficiency measures drop out of the Senate...

Want to get an idea of building technologies to start considering for projects in the years ahead? Take a look at the public review draft of a proposed standard for green buildings being developed by a trio of powerhouses: ASHRAE , IESNA and the U.S. Green Building Council . Many of the technologies...