Hawaii Building Engineers Association

Current Affairs

The Hawaii Building Engineers Association (HBEA) is growing! Attendance at our educational seminars has been exceptional. The speakers at the July 23rd meeting were Jim Trapp of InControl.  Jim talked about the fire ordinances and how Fire Codes affect buildings. Kehau Mendes talked about 2008 Duct Cleaning Standards from the National Air Duct Cleaning Association; his topic was “What Are You Breathing?” The third speaker was Rob Bellizzi who talked about “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” of variable speed drives. A lot was learned about each of the above subjects and we are looking forward to the next educational seminar.

HBEA is offering take home courses for Professional Certification to engineers with a one-hour lunch time class in Basic Electricity for Non–Electricians. You are invited to sign up for this class. We will also offer classes in Basic Electricity, Motor Fundamentals, a 3-day class (3 hours), and Understanding Building Systems- a 5-day lunch time course for Property Managers. On line courses are also available for HVACR (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration). For details, call 808/531-0444 and ask for Barbara.

ALERTON WEBTALK

ALERTON WEBTALK -Bactalk Product has mobile access. I have accessed through the following platforms. Yes to Pocket PC Yes to IE Windows Mobile v7.0 Yes to Apple OS. Supports the Safari browser on the Macintosh. Tested with Mac OS X Version 10.4.8 (Tiger), JRE Version 1.5.0_06, and Safari Version 2.0.4 (419.3) Yes to Firefox 3.0 My thoughts and experience with Campus Wide Access. Nothing beats a BACNET/IP connection through a laptop especially if your campus is already setup with enterprise wide Wireless Hot Spot access. BYUH is a prime example of a Facilities expanding their Alerton Controls through this media. The Handhelds or Phone is OK but limited and not a duplicate of what is on your front-end BAS Server. WEBTALK supports PDAs and Windows Mobile devices and smartphones. Again nothing beats access through Laptop or PC. At BYUH email alarms through smtp via their Nextel phones is all they need and when alarms happen, their Envision for Bactalk BACNET/IP enabled client PCs are used for complete interface. They saved $$ this way in lieu of our WEBTALK hardware. My thoughts and experience with Web Access. Setting up a VPN with the campus IT dept. and employing Remote Desktop or comparable to access the system from all over the world( Ive accessed and programmed from Guam and the Philippines with no lag- Solid Internet Access was the key) gives you operation as well as full programming capabilites and with current technology, makes propietary software a thing of the past and is more secure and versatile since the Campus IT Dept's Security is the Gatekeeper. Working with MIS/IT Dept. is the key. For PPTP: The server will allow you to have up to 254 outside connections at any given time. If your ISA Server has a Forefront TMG you can have a max of up to 1000 simultaneous connections. Web Access through a Centralized Server that is specialized to handle web page duties and a Front-end Server managing all Global Controllers and their unitary controllers is still the way to go in my opinion. Putting all your eggs one basket...yikes...Global controllers should only be working to Manage their specific site duties and not be bogged down by serving up web pages. This is what the Central Web Server/Front- End Server should be doing and with good IT practice and PC maintenance, it is the easiest, most reliable and the least costly to maintain. One Internet connection instead of multiple internet access nodes at each global controller equates to ease of tshooting by dileneating Enterprise Ethernet issues and BAS Specific Controls. Our Web Appliance- WEBtalk can have up to 150 simultaneous connections. No extra client "seat purchases" required. This product works with the Envision for Bactalk Bacnet Product Line, is Linux Based- Apache Server OS to add yet another layer of piece of mind from Windows haters and is made for Operator ACCESS with no way of outside access to programming. This Feature should never be sold; as programming should only be under the watchful eyes or with permission of the owner/facilities team ( through VPN Remote control or On-Site programming). The customer is ultimately the keeper of the key. Alerton is coming out with Web Enabled Global Controllers soon for sites/projects that require this in their spec and we will be BETA testing Wireless controls soon; which in my view is more valuable to potential customers than something that has already been done. Web Access can be served up many ways. Alerton has the easiest and possibly cheapest to deploy...then again I'm biased. I've never had to deal with Webtalk and Web aaccess issues ... the oldest system out there is the first generation released back in late 2001. Have a great week Alvin Director of Engineering Hawaii Energy Systems, LLC 2290 Alahao Place, Suite # 300 Honolulu, HI 96819 Ph 808-690-0820 Fx 808-679-0062