Color Code Your Pipes
Correctly labeling your equipment is very important and will save you more headaches than you can imagine. One of the easiest ways to stay organized is to color-code your pipes (and repaint them if they’ve faded or aren’t consistent). Chief engineers and Resident Managers tell me about the importance of…
What Is Your Coverage Score?
One of the ways that LogCheck gives you insight into your facility is with a Coverage Score. Your Coverage Score shows you how well your team is completing their assigned tasks. It’s an easy way to answer the question, “Is the work getting done?” The higher the Coverage Score, the…
Know Your Zones
Shawn’s Tip Of The Week: Do a zone audit In my tip from two weeks ago, I mentioned a “zone audit” as a great way to save energy without spending a lot of money. This idea deserves a deeper look, so today I’ll explain how a zone audit works, and…
Spring And Fall “Shoulder Months” Will Make Or Break Your Energy Budget
Spring and fall “shoulder months” hold your best opportunities for low-to-no cost energy savings. If you know how to find them, you stand to save a whole lot of money (and have a healthier building for it). If not, you risk blowing your energy budget during these moderate temperature months….
Subscribe to Dan Holohan’s Newsletter
If your building has any kind of central heating system, this might be the most valuable tip I can give you: subscribe to Dan Holohan’s newsletter. If Holohan is new to you, then you’re in for a treat. I can’t think of anyone who knows more about heating, but on…
5 things that you can do to increase building efficiency, today:
Shawn’s Tip Of The Week: This week, we’re focusing on the low-hanging fruit. Installing more efficient equipment or changing policy pays off, but it takes a lot of work, time, and/or money. Rather than focus on those, however, today we’re going to look at what’s cheap, easy, and actionable. Here…
Air Seal Your Conditioned Spaces
Shawn’s Tip Of The Week: Use a smoke stick to stop unwanted air movement For this week’s tip, I’ll defer to the 32BJ Training Fund‘s great video on air sealing. In it, Victor Nazario uses a smoke stick to detect drafts in an apartment building. He then seals those problem areas,…
It’s Always A Good Time To Check Your Air Filters
Shawn’s Tip Of The Week: Check And Change Your Air Filters Everyone knows that changing air filters is one of the most basic parts of building maintenance. But it’s easy to let simple things like this fall behind and end up with a facility that’s running inefficiently. It’s never a…
Mobile Technology Helps Facilities Engineers Run Hospitals Better
It seems that we can’t go a week without seeing another article about how healthcare workers use mobile technology to improve patient care. But what about the engineers who take care of the actual facilities? Like a doctor is in charge of a person’s health, engineers are responsible for their…
TOTW: When It’s Cold, Do Freeze Rounds
Shawn’s Tip Of The Week: Conduct freeze rounds whenever the temperature drops As this year’s exceptionally cold weather continues to take its toll on many of our cities, engineers like you are the first line of defense tasked with keeping our buildings comfortable and safe. Freezing conditions can cause huge…
