Hawaii Building Engineers Association

2008

The New Year has arrived 2008 and the Association has also arrived with our great meetings and educational programs. We hope you will join us this year starting with our first meeting in January on the 23rd of the month. Call to RSVP for the meeting. Also we will be having educational classes on Basic Electricity and Basic Air conditioning over lunch hours starting at 11:00 - 12:00 during the week of the 7th, 14th, and 21st call for details. Those interested in the FEB. Meeting for the Storm Water Best Management Practices sign up today. HBEA 808.531.0444 ask for Barbara.

HBEA STANDARDS

ENERGY AUDIT AND ELECTRICAL AUDIT STANDARDS

GUIDELEINES AND STANDARDS

In cooperation with local, state, Federal Regulations and national associations many guidelines and regulations have been written to address both electrical inspections and energy managements programs. At all times the local, state and federal regulations must be meet to insure compliancy with all the organizations. These guidelines are only to be used to help meet the other requirements through an organized auditing process.

Applicable codes, standards and references should be used and some are listed below:

§         National Electrical Code   - NEC

§         National Electrical Manufactures Association – NEMA

§         American Society for testing and Materials – ASTM Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

§         National Electrical Testing Association – NETA

§         American National Standards Institute – ANSI

§         State and local ordinances

§         Insulated Power Cable Engineers Associated – IPCEA

§         Association of Edison Illuminating Companies

§         OSHA Part 1910: Subpart S, 1910.308

Other organizations may be involved as well and are listed below

• Occupational Safety and Health Association
• Hawaii Department of labor
• Hawaii Department of Health
• Environmental Protection Agency

Electrical Industry Standards

All electrical inspections shall be conducted by a responsible person and shall utilize all manufactures instruction manuals applicable to each piece of equipment that will be electrical energized. All personnel shall utilize NFPA 70E requirements when working on electrical equipment.

All equipment found defective shall be reported to the proper building manager. The inspector shall maintain a written report of all tests and present a certified final test report. Any equipment found to be defective will be repaired before any final testing is completed that may skew the reporting statistics. The following test guidelines will be followed and the testing report shall include the following:

• Summary of project
• Description of the equipment
• Description of test
• Test results
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Appendix, including appropriate test forms
• List of test equipment used and calibration dates

Safety and Precautions

Safety practices will be adhered to and not limited to the following requirements:

§         Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 –OSHA

§         Accident Prevention Manual for Industrial Operations, Seventh Edition, National Safety Council, Chapter 4.

§         

Applicable State and local safety operating procedures

§         NETA Safety/Accident Prevention Program

§         Owner’s Safety practices

§         National Fire Protection Association, NFPA 70E.

All tests shall be performed with the apparatus de-energized except where otherwise specifically required by the nature of the test.

Power circuits shall have conductors shorted to ground by a hot line grounded device approved for the purpose.

All work in all cases shall not proceed until all safety precautions have been investigated and established.

The following programs should be available for each building.

3 Phase Motor Protection

Why Protect Your Three Phase Motors?

Historical data shows that 44% of motor failures are due to overloads and single-phasing.  (Cooper/Bussman’s Protection Handbook Bulletin http://www.bussman.com/library/docs/spd02/SPDSection11.pdf)

This can be serious, especially since a problem isn’t detected until the motor fails.  When that happens, which unfortunately may be on the weekend or night when it is difficult to get a repairman, the consequences may include inconvenience, loss of revenue, extensive repair costs, or irate customers. 

What Causes Overloads

Overloads are caused by excessive load on a motor.  This results in current that exceeds the

FLA

(full load amp) ampacity rating of the motor, resulting in overheating and damage to the motor.  Some causes are improperly sized motors or changes in the loads.

What Causes Single Phasing

Voltage imbalance means that the voltage between the phases isn’t equal.  Single phasing is the worst condition of voltage imbalance because one phase is lost (open) and the current in the other two phases increase to keep the motor running.  The result is overheating and a burnt out motor. 

Some causes are damaged motor starter contact, damaged switch or circuit breaker, open fuse in the circuit breaker, cable failure on the transformer primary or secondary side, or poor connections in terminals (Bussman, p5).

FIX MY PROBLEM

2:30 a.m. The engineer is called a power outage has caused problems with the central plant and other systems around the building. Upon arriving it is found that a lot of the equipment is tripped off line. After starting some equipment it is found that when an additional piece of equipment is started the other equipment starts single phasing. what is the problem? and how do you troubleshoot this problem correctly?

HBEA

The Hawaii Building Engineers Association’s main objective is to provide networking and educational seminars, on-line training and take home educational courses for our members. We have quarterly educational training seminars to help the building engineers perform their jobs more efficiently with also increased performance.

Our last meeting for the year was a success with some great speakers on topics related to water and energy reduction for Hawaii. We will be sponsoring the meeting for the upcoming Storm Water Best Management Practices. The meeting will talk about the City’s Storm Water management Plan, enforcement actions by Public Regulating Agencies, and implementation of Property Management Best Practices. 

We also hold classes in basic electricity, advanced electricity, motor fundamentals, heating ventilation and air conditioning, both basic and advanced. Online courses are available through our partnership with HVACR education. The North American Technician Excellence, Inc. (NATE) is the leading certification program for technicians in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) industry and is the only test supported by the entire industry. Membership is $50 per person annually and provides a great many resources for Building Engineers to utilize. Check out the web site at Http://www.hawaiibea.com

Chiller Efficency

Chiller Maintenance for Efficiency

Chiller plants represent up to 53% of the total energy used in a building and consume large amounts of electricity.  Chillers represent a substantial capital investment for our building and are a major contributor to operating costs in commercial buildings. For many buildings, chillers are the largest single energy users, and comprehensive maintenance is critical to ensure their reliability and efficient operation.

Building Facility Manager’s work with their contractors to operate at high standards of preventative, predictive and proactive maintenance in solving their chiller plant problems.  In addition to the daily, weekly, monthly and annual service requirements needed for their chillers, managers often include predictive maintenance in their maintenance plan to maintain the central plant. These predictive maintenance steps include vibration analysis, infrared thermography, rotor bar testing and eddy current testing. Each test helps to diagnose problems in advance. All preventive maintenance (PM) is geared to ensure the high performance and reliability of the chiller plant for everyday use.

Here are five simple things you can do to ensure a sustainable chiller plant.

Electrical Transformers and Power Equipment

About the Book : Events in the electric utility industry (HECO) in the last few decades have made knowledge of transformers and power equipment assume even greater importance, in general, the trend has been toward squeezing out every ounce of capacity to achieve a greater efficiency, all increasing the potential for decreased reliabilty. this book addresses these issues and pays particular interest to load management. third edition by Anthony J. Pansini.

FIX MY PROBLEM

3 A.M. A Building Engineer is called about a problem with a chiller. The security manager states that the unit is making loud noises and is about to trip off line. Upon investigation the unit is surging and the temperatures are getting high. what should the building engineer look at to fix this problem?