EleBlog

27 Feb, 2007

From the London Free Press, a Canadian newspaper (2/27) -- "European light bulb makers are close to an agreement in principle to work together on phasing out energy-wasting incandescent bulbs for the consumer market, the chief executive of Royal Philips Electronics NV's lighting division said yesterday."

From the Edmonton Sun, a Canadian newspaper (2/25) -- "Venezuela,Cuba and Australia are all phasing-in bans on energy-sucking incandescents, while Ontario and California are poised to follow suit in the coming years."

From the Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian newspaper (2/25) -- "So what kind of hypocrisy is there in a government that bans incandescent light bulbs while subsidising people who drive fuel-guzzling, greenhouse gas-emitting, giant four-wheel-drives?"

From the New York Times (2/20) -- "Australia intends to phase out incandescent light bulbs completely within three years, the country’s environment minister said today. The minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the government would use both persuasion and regulation to get the whole country to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs, which use less energy, as part of its drive to cut down on the amount of “greenhouse” gases, implicated in global warming, that it releases into the atmosphere."

EleBlog take:

a. I replaced the lamps in our den -- where my wife and I do most of our recreational reading -- with high-brightness CFL lamps two months ago. The CFL unit was more flexible (really) and offered the advantage of letting you put the light exactly where you want it; the lamps then in place did NOT do that.

My wife went nuts. Her eyes need help. This was not enough light. I brought back the old ones; the CFL units were relocated to places where they are used very infrequently. Some Christmas present, eh?

This isn't a case study, just a data point.

b. I personally prefer incandescent light over that emitted by fluorescents. Even the state-of-the-art CFLs aren't quite "there" in my opinion.

c. From the Aussie article referenced above: " . . it's worth noting psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, a member of the advisory committee for the Government's Boys' Education Lighthouse Schools Program in 2003, has advocated the removal of fluorescent lighting in classrooms after studies showed its flickering nature reduced boys' ability to learn and concentrate, especially if they have autism or attention deficit hyperactive disorder."

d. HELP IS ON THE WAY. New lamps using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are going to make their debut this year (2007). They are coming SOON. They will put CFLs . . . in the shade! If everything goes according to plan, LEDs will provide the same light quality as incandescents, with much lower energy consumption.

27 Feb, 2007

WPCS International Inc. calls itself "a leader in design-build engineering services for specialty communication systems and wireless infrastructure." Last week, it revealed that it purchased -- for $2.5M -- Voacolo Electric (Trenton, N.J.). To my certain knowledge, Voacolo is NOT a household name among electrical contractors nationally . . . and perhaps not even in Jersey.

What's important here: A company in the "datacom" business bought an electrical contractor. Andy Hidalgo, CEO of WPCS: "Many do not realize that a complete wireless network or specialty communication system requires not only establishing the wireless connectivity but it also entails electrical work and structured cabling. Due to our fast growth, we have had to subcontract much of this work in the Mid-Atlantic work to third parties. Now . . . we can keepour work in-house and lessen our dependence on subcontractors which, in turn, should increase our margins."

NOTES:

1. I predicted this. In presentations in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I said that if electrical contractors did not expand into telecom/datacom, the companies in the other business would buy electrical contractors.

2. This is yet more evidence of convergence.

3. While WPCS's release doesn't discuss Power over Ethernet (not to mention PoE-Plus), that might be one driver of such an acquisition. That's a guess.

27 Feb, 2007

According to the AIA, keeper of this data, the ABI rating for January was 57.9 -- which is very good. See the release here. From Kermit Baker, economist (and a guy who sure gets around!) -- “You have to go back twenty-six months for the last negative score for the index. While the index was positive in 2006, it hovered around the break even mark for much of the year. So far the last three months have seen much higher levels of demand for design services and is likely to translate into sustained levels of high activity in the construction industry.” Release date: 2/21.

27 Feb, 2007

I tend to like writing that makes me think, and I aspire to that (I know, I'm not there yet). A recent blog entry on CIO.com -- "What Happened to That Whole Hoteling Concept?" -- fit the bill. My reaction was -- yeah, I forgot that, what did happen?

Here's the link.

Quote: " . . . the buzz seems to have subsided. Or died altogether." The blogger doesn't claim to have the answer. There are a couple of responses that add fuel to the fire.

Why this is relevant here: I had been convinced that office buildings -- which certainly are the sources of a lot of work for electrical contractors (new ones and tenant improvement work in existing buildings) -- were going to be on the decline. That is to say, there would be FEWER office buildings built new over time -- a gradual dimunition of the breed. We've got more than enough existing office buildings in the places where most people work.

Could be I was wrong. Hoteling was one of (several) trends that I saw reducing the need for office space.

In this case, Joe = Wrong = Good for the industry!

27 Feb, 2007

Above, you see the way our British friends spell Data Centers. While on vacation (catching up on my reading), I ran across an item I clipped from a January weekend edition of the Financial Times: "Google and Microsoft plan data centres." The gist: The two giants will spent more than $1 billion (combined) "on new data centres to handle future rapid growth in online traffic."

Google's $600M facility is going up in Lenoir, N.C.; Microsoft's $550M DC will be built in San Antonio.

THE KICKER: "Low electricity costs have also become a significant factor in deciding where to locate data centres, given the high power consumption of the ranks of servers they house."

27 Feb, 2007

You might know that this blog is about the Electrical construction industry -- but also about Elephants. Here's some interesting recent stuff from the Washington Post, which has devoted some ink of late to the elephants I get to see most frequently -- Ambika, Shanthi & Kandula.

On 2/9, an article ran on Amika's recovery from an illness. She's 59, which means she's going to leave us soon. The article says she's better. I'm not sure you can pick it up by reading the piece, but she is a most wonderful elephant -- good-natured, patient, friendly. I've been visiting her (and the others at The National Zoo) since 1979. She's made me very happy. See the article here.

This past weekend, the Post ran a bylined piece from Marie Galloway, the trainer, talking about all three elephants, including 5-year-old Kandula (if you can watch him and not break into a smile, I feel sorry for you) and his mom, Shanthi. Note that Marie is an elephant keeper at the Zoo, and has been for a long time. My wife and I have talked to Marie -- and once, at some event, when Jill was describing how much we missed Shanthi's first baby, Kumari, we saw Marie fight tears. See her article here.

23 Feb, 2007

I continue to believe that the strength in the price of copper has more to do with the weakness of the U.S. dollar than with most other things. What do I mean, "strength" in the price of copper?

Well, have you looked at a price chart of the red metal in recent days? CLICK HERE to peruse a 30-day chart on the www.kitco.com base metals Web site. I am not a commodity trader, a technical analyst, blahblahblah . . . but that chart shows a rebound that looks like one heck of a lot more than the proverbial "dead cat bounce."

23 Feb, 2007

Mike Holt (in one of his many e-mail newsletters) this week passed along the item below, from The Organization Formerliy Known As CBEMA:

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Ninety percent (90%) of the problems with ITE installations are internal to the facility; only 10% are related to conditions on the utility electric service. Importantly, 75% of the problems arising within a facility are related to grounding making proper and adequate grounding the single-most important factor in reliable ITE system performance.

The purpose of the following letter of information is to establish guidelines for grounding of power systems and equipment for ITE installations.

Click Here to read the full letter provided by the Information Technology Industry Council.

23 Feb, 2007

I don't post a lot of "stuff" here about OSHA and safety. I think it's damn important, but I know that there are plenty of places for construction contractors to go for safety and OSHA information.

However, I this week saw the info below in an e-mail sent out by IEC. It seems important enough for me to regurgitate here:

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IEC National would like to remind its contractor members that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 300A log summaries must be posted on all construction sites February 1 through April 30.

All summaries must be certified by a company executive and displayed in a common area where notices to employees are typically posted. CLICK HERE to check if your company is required to post a summary. CLICK HERE to download copies of the OSHA 300A form.

The summaries, which are a yearly OSHA requirement, list the total number of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred in 2006 and were logged on the employer's OSHA 300A form. Employment information about the average number of employees and total hours worked during the calendar year is also required. Companies with no recordable injuries or illnesses in 2006 must post the form with zeros on the total line.

22 Feb, 2007

77% of construction and building firms had problems with skills shortages in 2006, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Building (which is a British institution) – as reported on www.PersonnelToday.com, which noted that "the most common reason given by respondents for the skills shortages was that the industry was not attractive enough to potential recruits.”

From Michael Brown, a CIOB official: “It is relatively easy to import migrant workers at craft or supervisory levels locally, from Eastern Europe, but considerably more difficult to recruit senior managers.”

EleBlog take: I believe that the U.S. will soon resort to heavy imports of trained electricians from Eastern Europe, to cope with our skilled electrical worker shortage. This was done in the 1998-2001 boom (I wrote about it back then). I think it's going to happen again -- and it will be much bigger this time.

22 Feb, 2007

Rocco Forino, a 33-year-old third-generation welder (and former Wall Street analyst), has launched a service that allows subcontractors to check up on the past performance of general contractors. According to a story in the real estate section of the San Francisco Chronicle (2/2):

“ . . . the new credit-rating tool allows subcontractors from all 33 trades to check up on the past performance of general contractors. Like eBay, where users rate one another's reliability, participating subcontractors submit reports on general contractors, and the subscription-only Web site passes the information through a number of financial tools. The end result is that each general contractor is given a Forino score between zero and 500. Not only can subscribers search for scores on general contractors, but they can also maintain a watch list of the general contractors they most often deal with.”

I believe the Chronicle’s articles are available online, for free, for 30 days after posting – which means you’ll probably have to pay for this one soon after 2/28. But if it’s still online free, you’ll find it by CLICKING HERE.

22 Feb, 2007

The OSHA “general industry electrical installation standard” has been revised for the first time since 1981. I don’t think the durn thing is all that shocking for most contractors, as the revision’s requirements “draw heavily” from NFPA 70E (2000 edition) and the National Electrical Code (2002 edition).

For more, including a link to the Federal Register stuff on this, CLICK HERE.

 

22 Feb, 2007

“The home networking market is set to evolve from one that consists largely of home networking hardware such as routers to one dominated by network entertainment devices.” – from a 2/1 release from ABI Research.

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“Use of structured wiring packages in new construction fell last year to 960,000 from a million in 2005 [according to a Consumer Electronics Association study revealed at the International Builders’ Show]. Monitored security system installation dropped to 580,000 from 600,000; multiroom audio installs to 290,000 from 30,000; and home theater installs to 220,000 from 230,000, the study found.” – from Consumer Electronics Daily, 2/14.

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Data from the same survey as referenced directly above, I think – from a 2/19 online posting by Sound & Video Contractor:

            “Strtuctured wiring remains the most prevalent technology in new home construction, according to builders surveyed, who say they installed structured wiring networks in 53% of new homes. Growth in structured wiring has plateaued, however, along with multiroom audio and monitored security systems.

            “In 2006, those builders sampled said they installed monitored security systems in 32% of homes, up from 29% in 2005. Despite the modest number of homes built with multiroom audio (16%), that number inched up just a percentage point over 2005, CEA says.

            “Among technologies offered by home builders, lighting control, home automation, and energy management are seeing the greatest growth potential, according to the study. 57% of builders offered automated  lighting last year, up from 45% in 2005. More than half of builders offered home automation, compared with 42% in 2005. Energy management offerings increased from 46% to 52%.”

Find the SVC article by CLICKING HERE.

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What is the meaning of all of this? Heck, I’m not sure. But of all the info above, the piece that sticks out (to me) is the INCREASE (running against the general trends of stagnation/slight decline) in automated lighting – offered by 45% of builders responding to the CEA survey in 2005, and last year offered by 57% of them.

EleBlog take: As noted previously -- home technology is more and more about electrical stuff. If a consumer electronics installer is doing lighting control, is he/she/it an electrical contractor? If you answer "no" to that question . . . 'splain yourself!

22 Feb, 2007

October’s Energy & Power Management contained a 2,155-word feature subtitled, “Voice and Data Network Applications Impact Electrical Planning.”

[Disclaimer: I work for E&PM as a columnist]

The article talks about how Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Power Over Ethernet (PoE) can go together. According to the article:

“Before PoE, corporations could not commit their mission-critical voice systems to run on the data networks. Losing data during a power outage is one thing, but losing data and voice during an outage is something else entirely.

“By supplying power over the same cable as the data network, these systems now deliver the reliability expected from a business-class phone system. The resulting convergence of requirements for voice, data, and power provides new opportunities and challenges for electrical contractors and facilities managers who may not have had to deal with these areas previously.

“According to David McIntosh, IT and facilities manager at a 250-seat call center that has recently added 100 VoIP phones to its site, “Installation provided an interesting challenge because the electrical contractor who installed the electrical infrastructure for the new area wasn’t interested in providing wiring for the new phones. As a result we had to use a network cabling contractor.

“Ideally, it would have been easier from a cost and scheduling standpoint to have one contractor provide all of the wiring.”

Sounds interesting? CLICK HERE to see more.

 

20 Feb, 2007

According to a Philadelphia Business Journal article (2/12), new standards in the city recently required that anyone doing certain work (plumbers, sprinkler fitters, and sheet metal workers) be certified. New City Council legislation would require the same of electricians and telecom techs, the article says.

"The idea is being pushed by (IBEW Local #98) with the backing of (NECA). Workers would have to have at least 10,000 hours of documented, full-time practical experience working on electrical or telecommunications systems and have completed an apprenticeship program," according to the article.

Right now, "all the city of Philadelphia requires of people to install these systems in our homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces is one individual with an electrical contractor's license. This individual can then hire anyone, regardless of their lack of training or experience," John J. Dougherty, business manager of Local 98, told the newspaper.

20 Feb, 2007

January's Cabling Installation & Maintenance features a 1,900-word article by Editor Patrick McLaughlin on cabling in the data center. As I'd expect from Patrick, the article is informative and well-written. But my favorite piece of it is surface info, not deep knowledge.

According to Patrick (quoting a Belden exec), it took TWO acts of Congress -- HIPAA and Sarbox -- to revive the died-in-2001 data center market. Take a look at the article by CLICKING HERE, selecting January 2007 in the issue pull-down, finding the article, and clicking on it. You'll have to register (which is FREE) to see this article (and others).

20 Feb, 2007

"Breathe New Life Into Aging Electrical Switchgear" is the headline Plant Engineering magazine slapped on a 2,140-word feature from Square D Services. The article delves into options for replacing/retrofitting existing (obsolte) gear. CLICK HERE to see it.

20 Feb, 2007

FMI Corp. on 2/12 released its outlook for 2007. It sees total construction put in place rising by 2.2% in 2007 -- with nonresidential construction markets perhaps growing as much as 9.0%. CLICK HERE to see the release.

20 Feb, 2007

A few entries ago (on 2/17), a post here noted that Pulte had abandoned a three-year-old effort at Prefabrication of home components.

Saturday's Los Angeles Times (2/17) included an item about Fan Zhi of Beijing, who makes pre-fab houses. He "hopes to turn [it] . . . into the McBungalow of the home-building world. He says his energy-efficient product, which can be assembled in less than three hours, can withstand hurricane-strength winds and Southern California wildfires."

20 Feb, 2007

While on vacation over the past week, I managed to read a few books. One was “Stealing God’s Thunder: Benjamin Franklin’s Lightning Rod and the Invention of America.” An excellent read. I’ve read books previously on Franklin, but this was unique: Devoted almost totally to his work as an inventor – especially the lightning rod. In the telling of this particular story in this particular way, the American Revolution is but a sideshow!

Did you know that Franklin created the word “electrician” . . . as well as battery, and positive and negative?

Of significant interest to me, given the work I do, was the epilogue. Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1752. By the 1840s “there were at least 15 lightning rod factories in America, and the devices were being marketed directly to individual households.”

And: “By 1870, there were 30 major lightning rod manufacturers in the United States and perhaps as many as 10,000 traveling lightning rod salesmen.”

That, apparently, was the beginning of the electrical industry! I had always (previous to this read) dated the industry to Thomas Alva Edison’s wiring of lower Manhattan (1881).

The book is by Philip Dray. He did an amazing job!

17 Feb, 2007

A report in the 1/25 Washington Post carried the headline, "Pulte Pulls Plug on Prefab Va. Plant." The article says the home builder was closing a 3-year-old plant (Manassas, Va.) "where it once hoped to build many of its Washington area homes and possibly revolutionize traditional home-building methods"

According to the article, Pulte found the process was "economically unviable, especially under ccurrent market condtions." CLICK HERE to see the rest of the story.

17 Feb, 2007

According to a 1/25 article in The Orange County Register, Lennar Corp. is asking subcontractors in California "to reduce charges for work they've already done or face a minimum six-month ban on bidding for work."

Rumor? NO. The article quotes Jeff Ros, Lennar's southwestern regional veep.  He sent a letter, which said:

"As our customers continue to pay us a lower price for our homes,we must in tun pay you a lower price for your services."

According to the newspaper, "the letter tells subcontractors to either reduce their "unpaid invoices" (by some %) or "be excluded from bidding future work for a minimum of six monts."

Lennar reportedly asked the subs for invoice cuts -- remember, this is for work already done! -- by from 5% to 20%.

Quote from Roos: "Every builder is doing the same thing."

17 Feb, 2007

More than half the housing units started in New Jersey in 2005-06 "have excluded children," according to Nation's Building News (a publication of the NAHB). Read about "vasectomy housing" by CLICKING HERE.

17 Feb, 2007

You'll want to read a blog entry on Construction.com from someone named Don Fornes -- "Keeping an Eye on Construction Webcam Technology." He claims they can reduce delays. Especially impressive is the quote from a guy who notes that contractors who tried ONE webcam soon went company-wide with the idea. CLICK HERE to see it.

17 Feb, 2007

Finding qualified people is tough in Industrial Distribution, too, according to Jack Keough, who blogs for the magazine Industrial Distribution. CLICK HERE.

12 Feb, 2007

Security Distribution & Marketing magazine in its January issue assessed "total industry revenues" at "upwards of $29 billion in 2006," up 9% in a year. Burglar and fire alarm markets represented an average of 58% of installing company revenues. See the 2,484-words story by CLICKING HERE (you might have to register to see it). 

06 Feb, 2007

Just arriving today in my e-mail in-box is the 11/06 report from the U.S. Geological Service on Copper supply/demand. I checked, and the previous missive was posted here 1/19. To get to it, click on the January postings link at right and page down a bit. There's some INTERESTING stuff in that very first paragraph; production fell in Nov "from the already low October levels" . . . and yet prices fell in Fall and early Winter. As I've written elsewhere, U.S. supply/demand is no longer as important in the copper market (and probably many others) -- when one compares the at-the-margin increases/decreases in buying from China and India.

Anyway, here's the November report.

Average daily mine production of copper in November fell
slightly from that in October, according to data compiled by the
U.S. Geological Survey. Smelter production and downstream
production of electrolytic refined copper rose in November by
73% and 14%, respectively, following restart of smelters closed
for maintenance. Consumption of refined copper and the
combined production of brass- and wire-rod mill products fell
by 7% and 5%, respectively, from the already low October
levels.

Copper production at the Lisbon Valley Mine in Utah fell to
only 709 metric tons in November (t) from 938 t in October.
Heavy rains earlier in the month diluted leach solutions, and
their supply of sulfuric acid was disrupted in October when
Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. (Magna, UT) declared a force
majeure on acid shipments following closure of its Garfield,
UT, smelter for maintenance. The planned smelter closure had
been extended from 45 to 63 days owing to “an increase in the
scope of the work required.”

The production shortfall at Lisbon
Valley further delayed ramp up to “commercial production” of
copper, which has taken place more slowly than the company
had anticipated. At capacity, Lisbon Valley is projected to
produce about 25,000 metric tons per year (t/yr) of electrowon
cathode (Constellation Copper Corp., 2006a, b; Rio Tinto plc,
2006, p. 5).

At the beginning of December, Phelps Dodge Corp. (Phoenix,
AZ) announced that its board of directors had given conditional
approval to development of the “initial mining project” at the
Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt project in Katanga Province,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Final approval was
subject to obtaining governmental approval of agreements
reached for supply of electric power.

The project, owned by
Phelps Dodge (58%), Tenke Mining Corp. (25%) (Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada), and Gecamines (17%), the DRC
state-owned mining company, is operated by Phelps Dodge.
Significant progress reportedly has been made toward
completing a final feasibility study and an environmental impact
assessment. Construction work reportedly was progressing
toward production of the first cathode by the end of 2008.

Owing to a successful drilling program that confirmed reserve
modeling, the feasibility study was being updated for a facility
to produce more than 100,000 t/yr of electrowon cathode and
about 8,000 t/yr of cobalt. The initial project will focus on 103
million metric tons of oxide reserves and was expected to have a
40-year life. Capital costs for the initial project were projected
to be $650 million. Phelps Dodge was responsible for providing
70% of the funding (Phelps Dodge Corp., 2006; Tenke Mining
Corp., 2006).

References Cited
Constellation Copper Corp., 2006a, Constellation Copper reports third quarter
2006 financial results: Denver, CO, Constellation Copper Corp. press
release, November 9, 7 p.
Constellation Copper Corp., 2006b, Update on copper production at Lisbon
Valley Mine: Denver, CO, Constellation Copper Corp. press release,
December 6, 1 p.
Phelps Dodge Corp., 2006, Phelps Dodge conditionally approves Tenke
Fungurme copper/cobalt mining project in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo: Phoenix, AZ, Phelps Dodge Corp. news release, December 6, 1 p.
Rio Tinto plc, 2006, Fourth quarter operational review: London, United
Kingdom, Rio Tinto plc news release, January 17, 20 p.
Tenke Mining Corp., 2006, Tenke Fungurume project update: Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada, Tenke Mining Corp. news release, Nov. 20, 2 p.

05 Feb, 2007

SYSTIMAX Solutions (a CommScope operation) issued a release 1/24 on a survey of nearly 1,500 IT professionals. It's pretty interesting, so it's pasted below. The key finding, which is in the middle somewhere:


. . . MACs = "moves, adds, and changes." They are the bread-and-butter of a lot of electrical/datacom contractors.

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SYSTIMAX(R) Solutions Survey Reveals Network Downtime as Primary Concern for Network Managers

Survey respondents also pinpoint network speed, management and monitoring as important considerations in infrastructure decisions

SYSTIMAX® Solutions from CommScope (NYSE: CTV - News), the worldwide leader in structured connectivity solutions, has announced the results of a global research study conducted among 1,484 information technology (IT) professionals. The new SYSTIMAX Solutions(TM) research report, entitled "Speed and Agility, Performance and Reliability: A Report on Global Enterprise Network Trends," includes responses from IT professionals from 45 countries and demonstrates the effects of network infrastructure solutions and support services on user productivity.

As more employees rely on the company network, the impact of downtime on productivity loss, and ultimately on corporate costs, becomes an increasingly serious issue. The survey discovered that users reported on average 1.9 hours of network downtime a month and found that companies that have deployed higher performance cabling tended to experience lower average downtime.

"The survey demonstrates that most IT professionals suspect that downtime is an issue," said Fiona Nolan, Global Marketing Director of SYSTIMAX Solutions. "They probably have a sinking feeling that money is draining from the company bank account every time a server crashes or a service provision to a key user takes a week to fulfill. Well, we believe they're right. That's the bad news. But the good news is that the study also shows that professionals who are willing to invest in quality systems are better able to support the evolving networking needs of the company."

The study demonstrates that more and more IT professionals are planning to install copper-based Category 6A cabling, while Category 5e cabling is heading for obsolescence. And, from a fiber perspective, throughout the past five years there has been rapid growth in acceptance of laser optimized multimode fiber as an alternative to traditional multimode and singlemode fiber.

The survey results demonstrate these trends:

- Category 6A cabling currently represents 5% of the installed base of structured cabling systems. Respondents now expect 25%of new installations to utilize Category 6A cabling, up from just 17% a year ago. The largest adopters are expected to be in the finance and technology sectors.

- Category 5e cabling was used in 53% of historical installations. Participants now expect to use Category 5e in less than 9% of new installations.

- While OM1 and OM2 multimode fiber is currently the most popular, that popularity is expected to be cut in half, dropping to only 34% of new installations.

- OM3 laser optimized multimode fiber is expected to become the dominant fiber for future installations. While OM3 currently represents 11% of the installed base, it is expected to be utilized in 43% of new fiber installations. The increase in usage matches the faster networking speeds in the backbone. In 2002, only 28% of the respondents intended to install OM3 fiber; today 43% of the survey participants believe they will need OM3 to support their networks.

The study also indicates a growing trend among IT professionals of migrating to faster speeds in the horizontal and the backbone connections. Some key indicators:

- In the horizontal, installation of 10 Gb/s Ethernet is expected to increase from 4% to 29% over the next five years.

- In the backbone, more than half of respondents - 51% - intend to install 10 Gb/s Ethernet in the next five years, while users expect that 100 Gb/s Ethernet will represent 15% of installations for network backbones by 2011.

In addition to network downtime, productivity can be lost as IT professionals spend more time working on moves, adds and changes (MACs) for an increasingly mobile workforce, or on other support functions, including unauthorized or incorrect MACs, LAN connectivity problems and IT service provisioning and auditing:

- Overall, users reported that nearly 18% of network assets are mislaid or moved unofficially annually, and 11% of MACs, on average, need rework.

- Globally, users reported 3.8 LAN connectivity problems annually, averaging 1.3 hours of time lost per occurrence. Companies typically spend 19% of IT support time monitoring network performance.

- IT managers reported spending an average of 4.4 hours preparing and initiating an IT work order and 7.7 hours per month auditing network assets.

"Video conferencing, VoIP and collaborative working are all on the rise," Nolan said. "These applications improve productivity and reduce costs - and IT administrators are accommodating these demands by migrating Ethernet networks to higher speed and, subsequently, higher performance cabling from the backbone all the way to the desktop."

Note to Editors: Research Methodology

IT professionals in 45 countries were invited to participate in the survey via a Web portal in 2006. Contributors to the research could view the questions in any of 12 languages. The 1,484 IT professionals who completed questionnaires were a representative sample of SYSTIMAX Solutions as well as non-SYSTIMAX Solutions customers. The respondents came from organizations with between 50 and 10,000+ network users in sectors ranging from Education to Finance and Government to Media.

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05 Feb, 2007

Siemon has rolled out pre-terminated copper and fiber optic trunking cable assembles. CLICK HERE.

Southwire has rolled out "FlatWire Ready" low-voltage lighting. It's interesting. See www.flatwire.tv.

05 Feb, 2007

From Network World:

"The IEEE wants to make idle or underutilized Ethernet connections more energy efficient, which could mean huge electrical cost savings for large enterprises. The trick: finding a way to seamlessly throttle between 10Mbps and 10Gbps." See the rest of this article by CLICKING HERE -- note that it is continued to 2 other pages, so you'll have to click to see all of it.

Also see this release on the formation of an IEEE Study Group on the matter.

05 Feb, 2007

Mike Holt's Web site added a new page, "Free Mike Holt Publications and Industry Manuals." CLICK HERE to see what's available.

04 Feb, 2007

I'm falling behind. Doing some reading recently, I found out about TWO services of Google:

1. a "200-year" news archive. I use Google News all of the time, and I had missed this entirely. This is idiotic. Look at: http://news.google.com/archivesearch

2. An article in The New Yorker talked about "Google's Moon Shot." It's all about the effort to scan a bunch of books into a database. http://books.google.com/

I knew about the Books deal, but I hadn't kept it in my sights; it's still in Beta. The 200-year archive is apparently OUT of Beta, which makes it a disgrace to have missed it completely.

To see the New Yorker article, CLICK HERE.

04 Feb, 2007

Jim Olszytnski is the Editor of Supply House Times, a magazine serving plumbing and other distributors. (Find the magazine here: www.supplyht.com.

Here's what he wrote in his January editorial, using information from NAED:

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Customers want it NOW!

The National Association of Electrical Distributors Education & Research Foundation recently published a research report: “Value-Added: Assessing Service Offerings of Electrical Distributors.” According to NAED, the highest ranked new services customers would most like to see were:

• Same-day delivery, 86%.
• Emergency delivery within two hours, 73%.
• Immediate credit on warranties/returns, 71%.
• Early-morning delivery, 70%.

Everything else finished way back of this pack.

“Same day…two hours…immediate…early morning” — customers don’t seem to regard patience as much of a virtue nowadays. Seems that any distributor not looking at ways to speed up services is in danger of being lapped by the swiftest competitors.

04 Feb, 2007

Some articles from the January Consulting-Specifying Engineer:

Busway is Right for Distribution Center (written by a Square D guy): http://www.csemag.com/article/CA6407674.html

Direct Current (for Data Centers) -- Do's and Don'ts (a roundtable): http://www.csemag.com/article/CA6407676.html

Emergency Power Off (or not) -- A Consideration of NEC Articles 645.10 & 685 -- http://www.csemag.com/article/CA6407670.html

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04 Feb, 2007

Network Computing put this together. If you're in the market for one of these, you might give this a read. CLICK HERE.
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01 Feb, 2007

In January, there were an all-time record # of posts here on EleBlog -- 48.

Additionally, the site averaged 906 visits a day. The average for the month's first 17 days was 877, and for the final 14 days it rose to 941. On 1/29, there were 1,889!

I find these numbers encouraging!
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01 Feb, 2007

Back in May (2006), I attended BuilConn (2nd year in a row) -- and wrote about John Greenwell, a project manager for Continental Electrical Construction, a major Chicago area electrical contractor. CLICK HERE to see the old (short) entry.

Today, I received an e-mail from John -- saying that's he's started blogging. He's titled his thing "IP Convergence and the Electrical Industry," which for my money is a heck of a title. I've added a link to his blog at right, but you might want to cruise over (CLICK HERE). His first few entries are thought-provoking, at the least.