Al Peterson, Engineer III, Broward County, Fla. Energy & Building Automation Section

Address Sore Spots in your Control Specs

Every facility manager faces two questions when his or her building comes online: 1) Is everything working? and 2) How do I monitor these systems? From this fundamental starting point, following are examples of key building systems that Broward County, Fla. finds important to monitor and some recommendations as to what this owner would hope engineers address in assembling their controls specifications. Emergency power Problem: Is incoming voltage present on all phases? How is it monitored? Is it with a relay on each phase? Is that the cheapest way? Recommendation: Skip installing the relays, and instead, use our local utility's customer interface for peak shaving with an emergency generator or use a power-monitoring device. Why? In an emergency, if any phase loses power, some equipment will shut down while some motors continue to run, and this can be damaging to the motor. A building automation system equipped in the above manner, however, can take immediate action to prevent said damage. Problem: If all phases of power are lost, the equipment in the building will shut down. Recommendation: UPS backup for the BAS. Why? When the utility or emergency power returns, the BAS can properly re-sequence start-up, thus preventing equipment damage and spiking kilowatt demand, which results in higher electric bills.