28 Oct, 2007

An item ran here previously (December 2006) on research at MIT into Wireless Power Transfer. The geniuses there call this WiTricity.

Power without wires? It's exciting and upsetting at the same time!

I recently stumbled across a longer article (888 words) on this on the Control Design site. Here's a piece of it that I especially enjoyed (because it helped me to understand this just a bit):

WiTricity is based on using coupled resonant objects. Two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently, while interacting weakly with extraneous off-resonant objects, say the MIT scientists.

So, imagine a room with 100 identical wine glasses, each filled with wine up to a different level, so they all have different resonant frequencies. If an opera singer sings a sufficiently loud single note inside the room, a glass of the corresponding frequency might accumulate sufficient energy to actually explode, while not influencing the other glasses.

In any system of coupled resonators there often exists a so-called “strongly coupled” regime of operation. If one ensures to operate in that regime in a given system, the energy transfer can be very efficient.

28 Oct, 2007

Money magazine recently included a pasted-in half-sized 12-page insert recently -- "How to Cut Your Energy Bills In Half." There was an idea in here -- so basic it's weird to type it up. But (a) I've done this, (b) you've probably done this, (c) maybe not everybody does this (???) -- and therefore (d) it's a really neat NEW idea for those who aren't doing it.

It's simple. If you're smart, you probably use power strips to try to protect some of your electrical/electronic stuff. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (last time I saw this number) the average house has about 25 electronic items in it -- including the computers, printers, TV, stereo, etc.

The strip isn't the idea. The idea is to TURN THE POWER OFF to all of these things when you're not using them. It's not easy to do otherwise -- to go around a house, turning things off that can be turned off. With a power strip, you've got a one-button turn-off (for half a dozen items, anyway).

There are savings here -- including "green" stuff that's good for everyone. Example: Of course you turn your TV off, but you probably leave it plugged in . . . and it's still drawing power. I've read somewhere that some TVs draw 40 watts of power. If your TV is on 6 hours a day, that means it's drawing 21.6 kWh per month when it's doing nothing whatsoever (40 watts x 18 hours x 30 days = 21,600 watts).

OK -- you can't do this with your fridge. But you certainly CAN do it with your computers, printers, TVs, stereos, and such. Further, you probably have several TVs in your house, if you have kids; and one or more computer printers; and heaven-knows-what-else. The potential is NOT huge in your house. But if we all did this, not only would we save money, but we'd ramp down the amount of electric power the nation needs to get through an average day.

And consider: Much of the power needed comes during PEAK periods (during the day). So if you leave your house to go to work, leave all of this stuff "off but really on" . . . you are contributing to the power draw needed from your utility to meet middle-of-the-day peak power requirements.

- - - - -

OK. Let's say you don't care about "green" stuff and you spend no time worrying about your local electric utility's peak power problems.

Why should you do this? Let's stick with TVs. If you have three of 'em, and they are used an average of 6 hours a day, and you pay 10 cents per kWh -- you are SPENDING almost $78 a year to power television sets that are doing nothing.

If you are "green," reducing energy waste should appeal to you.

But if you are a person working to stretch the spending power of his/her dollar, the $78 ought to attract your attention. And this is do-able via the purchase of power strips -- which you probably already have.

28 Oct, 2007

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a PDF recently trying to explain the Big Construction Mystery: How housing construction could be down so sharply without causing a similar-sized (or even bigger!) decline in residential construction employment.

It remains a mystery, but there might be an explanation. Here's a graphic from the thing:

How can this be? BLS has an explanation: The resi construction people who already HAVE lost their jobs were NEVER COUNTED in the first place (and thus they are not NOW counted as unemployed). Here's the key paragraph:

It is unclear as to what extent construction employment is being impacted by the industry’s large number of immigrants, some of whom are assumed to be undocumented. In 2006, 28 percent of all workers employed in construction and extraction occupations were foreign born.

However, the exact number is undetermined as CES does not collect demographic information. BLS requests the number of persons employed by a given establishment, regardless of nationality or legal status. While BLS surveys are confidential and used only for statistical purposes, firms may be reluctant to report payroll data on undocumented workers to a government agency.

Thus hiring and layoffs in construction may be larger than reported in the payroll survey due to exclusion of such workers.

ELEBLOG TAKE: Here's what this means -- if what's being explained about is true (and it might well be!) the residential construction industry is Even More INEFFICIENT than one might have thought. The increase in workers needed to build all the new houses in 2004-06 was (obviously) GREATER than the increase reflected in the BLS data.

Bottom line: If there were untold numbers of uncounted workers doing residential construction work in this period, residential construction productivity was not just BAD. It was HORRIBLE.

I know, I know -- this is not a great insight. It's obvious. OK -- it's obvious. I put it here because I needed to get it down on the blog at least once!

It is likely that many of these workers are included in the payroll survey.

28 Oct, 2007

That's what Ambrose Evans-Pritchard -- a writer for a U.K. newspaper -- writes on his blog. Here's a slice:

Well, excuse me. The sky has fallen. The median price of US houses has crashed from a peak of $262,600 in March to $211,700 in September. This is an 18pc drop nationwide.

From what I've been able to determine, the $262,600 number is the peak median price of NEW homes. 18pc = 18%.

25 Oct, 2007

A blogger for Facilitiesnet.com noted problems she's had with lighting -- including "an old magnetic ballast" that recently "went up in smoke and flames, literally." While it's probably indicative of nothing, it helps to remember that real-world people have problems with electrical technology!

25 Oct, 2007

The NFPA's October podcast includes (I have read, but not yet listened) comments on changes in the 2008 edition of the National Electrical Code from the CEO of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors.

24 Oct, 2007

While we wait for the NAHB to post the presentations from yesterday's conference, I came across the downloadables from the American Housing Conference -- held in September and sponsored by Hanley-Wood. HW is a great company; it publishes BUILDER magazine (#1 publication for home builders, and a damn wonderful thing!) . . . and a lot else.

24 Oct, 2007

I went to the 2x/year forecasting conference on housing's future held by the National Association of Home Builders yesterday. I always feel lucky to attend this event (on a press pass) -- I learn a lot. They've not yet posted the presentations online from the thing, but I found a recent (10/12) economic forecast -- with historical data -- from NAHB's economists. Here it is. Yes, going from the 2005 peak to the 2008 forecast might give you the bends!

Housing and Interest Rate Forecast,		10/12/07
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Housing Activity (000)
Total Housing Starts	1,949	2,073	1,812	1,363	1,200	1,350
Single Family	1,604	1,719	1,474	1,072	931	1,055
Multifamily	345	354	338	291	269	295
New Single Family Sales	1,201	1,279	1,049	828	781	877
Existing Single-Family Home Sales	5,914	6,182	5,708	5,046	4,725	5,150
Interest Rates
Federal Funds Rate	1.35%	3.21%	4.96%	5.03%	4.25%	4.50%
90 day T Bill Rate	1.39%	3.21%	4.85%	4.55%	3.95%	4.25%
Treasury Yields:
One Year Maturity	1.89%	3.62%	4.93%	4.65%	4.15%	4.25%
Ten Year Maturity	4.27%	4.29%	4.79%	4.73%	4.71%	4.89%
Freddie Mac Commitment Rates:
Fixed Rate Mortgages	5.84%	5.87%	6.41%	6.38%	6.41%	6.54%
ARMs	3.89%	4.49%	5.53%	5.53%	5.30%	5.40%
Prime Rate	4.34%	6.19%	7.96%	8.05%	7.25%	7.50%
Data are averages of seasonally adjusted quarterly data and may not match annual
data published elsewhere.
			© 2007 NAHB/HousingEconomics. All rights reserved.

24 Oct, 2007

The US DOE has a new "Get Smart about Energy" website. There are "more than 350 lesson plans" at the site, so I guess it's for teachers.

24 Oct, 2007

PATH, which is "a public-private partnership for advancing housing technology," has updated its 2004 list of the top 10 technologies in remodeling houses. Here's the pretty graphic from the thing:

Included here (of interest to EleBlog visitors) are: CFLs, wireless controls, and "tubular skylights."

23 Oct, 2007

In a previous post (9/6), I noted that a Wall Street Journal article on how the prices of beef tallow had doubled lately (thanks to the rush to make ethanol, at least in part) demonstrated the insidious spread of inflation.

Here's another. I came across a paper from the USDA's Economic Research Service -- "Impact of Rising Natural Gas Prices on U.S. Ammonia Supply." It's a 19-page PDF, and it's all about how rising prices in one market wreak havoc in another (just like the WSJ article noted above). Here's the abstract:

The volatile and upward trend in U.S. natural gas prices from 2000-06 has led to a 17-percent decline in the Nation’s annual aggregate supply of ammonia. During the period, U.S. ammonia production declined 44 percent, while U.S. ammonia imports increased 115 percent. Also, the share of U.S.-produced ammonia in the U.S. aggregate supply of ammonia dropped from 80 to 55 percent, while the share from imports increased from 15 percent to 42 percent.

Meanwhile, ammonia prices paid by farmers increased from $227 per ton in 2000 to $521 per ton in 2006, an increase of 130 percent.

Natural gas is the main input used to produce ammonia. Additional increases in U.S. natural gas prices could lead to a further decline in domestic ammonia production and an even greater rise in ammonia imports.

Stuff I've read about natural gas indicates the supply situation will get worse in the next few years -- and the price is likely to wander higher. I re-read the paper; hidden in the information (even in the quote above) about inflation is the fact that "U.S. ammonia imports increased 115%."

So our lack of energy self-sufficiency and infrastructure (in the case of natural gas, we need more pipelines) . . . has increased our reliance on foreign producers not just for the stuff (the gas) itself . . . but even for ammonia.

22 Oct, 2007

A blog item that surrounded -- confusingly -- by stuff about ABB is really about home security and lighting. I don't understand the world in general, or the unrelated headline and other stuff below this item, but there is basic common-sense stuff here about using lighting to make your house look occupied when you're not at home. If you are missing a bit of common sense -- i.e., if you've never used light timers or other very affordable technology to get burglars to pick on your neighbors instead -- you should read this.

22 Oct, 2007

AEC Daily is offering educational podcasts. I've not yet listened, but one of the items accessible here is a course on using Google Sketchup. It appears to be FREE.

22 Oct, 2007

Fedgov researchers apparently "Managed to destroy a small electrical generator through a simulated cyberattack." That's bad news.

22 Oct, 2007

I'm not sure what to make of this one. Stuff happens in laboratories all of the time; sometimes you never hear of it again. The source of this item is Harvard U., and it's not April 1 -- so therefore, maybe this is real.

Harvard chemists have built a new wire out of photosensitive materials that is hundreds of times smaller than a human hair. The wire not only carries electricity to be used in vanishingly small circuits, but generates power as well.

OK -- don't get too excited. If you read on (Nanowire generates its own electricity) deeper into the piece, you get to this:

A cheap nanoscale power source broadens the potential applications of such nanoscale devices. Though the tiny photovoltaic cells can generate enough electricity to power a similarly tiny circuit, Lieber said they’re not yet efficient enough to have applications on the scale of commercial power generation.

Commercial solar cells, he said, have efficiencies around 20 percent, compared with 3.4 percent for his nano-solar cells. One avenue of future research, Lieber said, will be to explore ways to boost efficiency of the nanowire photovoltaics. If they can reach 10 to 15 percent, he said, their lower cost of production — they can be made from relatively inexpensive materials and don’t require clean rooms to produce — may make them useful in larger-scale applications.

I did some prowling around the net and found another article -- linked from the Harvard web site -- that has a photo of a coaxial nanowire. Is this what the future looks like? We should be so lucky!

The photocredit on the Chemical & Engineering News site went to a Harvard source. Here's the caption that ran with that photo:

Layered Look A coaxial nanowire has a single-crystal p-type core (pink) surrounded by nanocrystalline intrinsic (yellow) and n-type (blue) layers and is topped with SiO₂ (green), as shown in this artificial-color scanning electron micrograph.

 (More)

22 Oct, 2007

Earlier, three construction inflation items were posted here (go to the right, click on "October," and you'll see them). I stumbled across another inflation analysis on the ABC website, from the chief economist there. Here's the gist:

ABC Chief Economist Jeff Taylor warned that the increase in September construction PPI will likely be followed by rising costs for many construction materials in the coming months, the result of growing prices for core crude goods (raw materials excluding food and energy products).

“Prices for core crude goods have increased at a 22-percent annualized rate in the past year,” said Taylor. “More than likely, these price escalations will have an impact on construction material costs.”

22 Oct, 2007

That's part of the name of a book -- Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets -- that hit the shelves this month. According to a review in Architectural Record, the author is a big-time NYC attorney. I've not read the book, but apparently e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e in the construction industry is slammed. Here's a piece of what AR ran on its site:

“This is the industry that time has forgotten,” he says. “Mom-and-pop shops, composed of 20 people or less, make up 92 percent of the industry. They are hugely inefficient, and they have no money to spend on improving performance and technology.”

The result, LePatner continues, is tremendous waste in a $1.2-trillion-a-year business—nearly half of labor expenses on a project, according to some studies, are squandered due to schedule conflicts and late deliveries. Problems arise because, unlike the automobile industry and others in which manufacturers benefit from economies of scale and accurate scheduling, construction managers are forced to coordinate dozens of smaller, unreliable subcontractors. LePatner also says that the construction industry suffers from “the winner’s curse”: Contractors bid so low that the profit margin erodes and the only way to reclaim it is by filing change orders. Unsurprisingly, construction leaders are troubled by his claims.

“The word that captures the feelings of our members is ‘insulted,’ ” says Stephen Sandherr, chief executive of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Few contractors abuse change orders to drive profits, he contends, and “to say that the construction industry has not embraced innovation or collaboration is naïve. Just look at the innovations in the past 20 years: design-build, construction management at-risk, and value engineering. Look at building information modeling (BIM), which embraces new technology and allows for enhanced collaboration between designers, contractors, and suppliers.”

LePatner remains unimpressed by these advances—and as promising as BIM looks, he adds, few contractors have embraced it, let alone architects. Speaking of architects, what of their role? LePatner, an honorary AIA member, has some pointed words: “You’ve become so focused on design, you’ve lost the respect of contractors and clients. Your clients desperately need you to become more involved in pricing what you design, and as a check against contractors who take liberties with your designs in the field. You need to restore yourselves to the role of master builder.”

EleBlog take: I've not read the book. Based on the review, the author (LePatner) is mostly right. In discussing the horrid levels of construction-wide productivity with someone recently, I pointed out that just about each and every building (or other construction project) of any size is:

a. Designed and engineered as an individual project.

b. Built to the unique requirements and construction management preferences of an individual owner.

c. Materials are assembled by a variety of suppliers -- almost never the same group on consecutive jobs.

d. Run by people (construction managers, general contractors, A/E firms) that assemble a unique team for each job.

e. Most of the construction is done by subcontractors -- as many as 20 of them -- who probably have not previously worked together on a single job.

f. There is no motivation (tangible or intangible) for the mechanical contractor to do things in such a way as to maximize the productivity of the electrical contractor -- and so forth, on down the line to include EVERYONE on the job.

Bottom line: "Hugely inefficient" is a proper indictment. Perhaps the book is insulting. There is a lot to say about change orders. But I'm not sure why Sandherr is so defensive. Construction needs to change. And as of this minute, it's not at all clear that it will.

21 Oct, 2007

The American Institute of Architects maintains and publicizes a monthly Architecture Billings Index. According to its 10/17 report, the ABI for September "dropped to its lowest level since June 2006."

From Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist: “The fallout from the subprime mortgage meltdown in the residential market has seeped into the nonresidential sector causing project delays and a tightening market for financing. There is also emerging concern in the industry that this situation will extend into 2008.”

One month earlier -- the August report -- the ABI dropped from a 60 reading to 53.9. The September reading was 51.1. The thing is configured so that a reading of 50 means growth, below-50 means no-growth.

21 Oct, 2007

In the process of writing up some stuff yesterday, I tripped across the fact that MYR Group is -- according to Engineering News-Record's "Top 50" electrical contractors list (for 2006) -- the 2nd-largest electrical contractor in the U.S.

Actually, MYR is probably #3. For reasons known only to the editors of ENR, they omitted Integrated Electrical Services from their 2006 tally. IES is bigger than MYR. Additionally, MYR does an awful lot of "outside" and utility work; other utility-oriented electrical contractors (Quanta Services and InfraSource Services are prime examples) were taken off of the "electrical" list and put on the "utility contractors" Top 20 list.

Note that Quanta now owns InfraSource, having purchased its rival only recently. Further, MYR Group is the successor of L.E. Myers, a prestigious electrical contracting company.

OK. having put all of that into one long footnote, here's what I wanted to say: At Xmas 1999, MYR Group (which then had stock in public hands) agreed to be acquired by FirstEnergy, a megautility based in Ohio. In 3/06, FirstEnergy elected to disgorge part of its ownershp of MYR -- selling off 60% ownershp to ArcLight Capital Partners LLC.

In doing yesterday's research, I discovered (on MYRgroup.com) that ArcLight purchased the remaining shares of MYR (i.e., the other 40%) from FirstEnergy. This happened back in the spring of 2007. I did not see a press release on this.

So the twin net-nets of this are:

- Megautility FirstEnergy is "out" of the electrical contracting business; at least, it now owns 0% of a damn big electrical/utility contractor.

- MYR Group, the 3rd-largest electrical contractor in the U.S. (or at least someplace high in the Top 5 or 6, if you include IES, Quanta, and perhaps others) is 100% owned by a private equity company (described on the MYRgroup site as "one of the world's leading energy investment firms, with more than $6.8B under management."

21 Oct, 2007

An online presentation from Green Building Studio reportedly shows "a building designed to be 'carbon-neutral' in five minutes." Even if you're not "into" design much, you'll probably want to see what this is about . . . just to "keep up" with what's now possible.

21 Oct, 2007

A 10/12 release from Reed Business Information -- a competitor of McGraw-Hill Construction in many ways -- notes that it has added "social networking capabilities" to a construction website.

The site is Reed Construction Dashboard.

According to the release, the site combines "social networking features with what professional builders care most about -- their financial performance. This isn't just about blogs and chatting. It's about creating a rich, interactive business community" blahblahblah.

I haven't yet delved into the site, but I will.

21 Oct, 2007

NECA & IBEW and IBEW (separately) won WebAwards for their new "online television"-type websites. See the release below, which went out Friday. Disclaimer: While I did not write this release, and I do not "produce" ElectricTV.net, I am involved in helping NECA & IBEW in their joint marketing operation.

ABOUT IBEW AND NECA

Through their joint marketing organization – the National Labor-Management Cooperation Committee (NLMCC) of the organized electrical construction industry – NECA and IBEW together work to:

• Reach customers with accurate information about the industry; and

• Achieve better internal communication between labor and management.

With 725,000 members who work in a wide variety of fields – including construction, utilities, telecommunications and manufacturing – the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is among the largest member unions in the AFL-CIO. The IBEW was founded in 1891. For more information, visit www.ibew.org. Voice of the $100 billion industry responsible for bringing lighting, power and communications to buildings and communities across the United States, the National Electrical Contractors Association was founded in 1901. NECA’s national office and 120 local chapters advance the industry through advocacy, education, research and standards development. For more information, visit www.necanet.org

BETHESDA, MD (October 16, 2007) The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) today announced that their media ventures received top honors in this year’s Web Marketing Association WebAwards competition.ElectricTV.net, a joint Web site of NECA and IBEW featuring streaming video stories covering a range of issues affecting the electrical and information systems industries, and IBEWHourPower.com, a video-rich site aimed at keeping union members abreast of current events and best practices, were each recognized for Outstanding Achievement in Web Site Development. Both sites were created by Golden, Colorado-based Oswego Creative.

Now in its eleventh year, the WebAwards competition (www.webawards.com) has become the premier award event for Web developers and marketers worldwide. More than 2,400 sites from 40 countries were judged in 96 industry categories during the competition. Entries were evaluated on design, copywriting, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation and use of technology.

Says IBEW President Edwin D. Hill, “People today receive their news from a variety of sources, whether print, broadcast or online. These Web sites provide additional ways that we reach consumers, contractors and workers with critical information. Being recognized by a prestigious institution like the Web Marketing Association is a great acknowledgement of how effective we are in using the latest technology to help everyone stay knowledgeable about our industries.”

21 Oct, 2007

A Panduit release (in Europe) indicates that there will be "accelerated adoption of Power over Ethernet" in 2008. The company has posted 10-page whitepaper (PDF), "Applications Driving the Adoption of Power over Ethernet."

19 Oct, 2007

That's the title of a column I wrote -- posted this week to TEDMAG.com.

19 Oct, 2007

The 9/30 Miami Herald included a 107-word box on the cost of solar photovoltaic installations for houses in Florida. The reporter got his/her info from Dan Morris of Vergona Bowersox (Boca Raton), identified as "an electrical contracting firm with a PV division."

For a 2 kW system -- large enough to get a state gov rebate -- "the cost averages $12 a watt installed with enough hardware to hold the panels on the roof in 150 MPH winds . . . $24,000 for a 2-kW system. Florida pays $4/watt . . . or $8,000 on the 2-kW system. The federal tax credit for homeowners is a flat $2,000." So the total rebate = $10K. The bottom-line cost for the Florida homeowner is $14K, or about $7,000 per kW for a system that should generate as much as 10 kWh/day.

19 Oct, 2007

"Bechtel official: Not enough workers here" -- that's a headline from the 9/28 The Pueblo Chieftain (as in Pueblo, Colo). The plant under construction is targeted to destroy chemical weapons. Here's a line from the story: "Chuck Trent, owner of Main Electric said that he's gotten a number of out-of-town electricians filling jobs at Comanche."

And another:

Asked if the background checks required by the Defense Department was a cause, Henry said that was not the problem.

"It's skills and experience," he said.

19 Oct, 2007

A 749-word Plant Services magazine article that seems to have come from Square D talks about how a Florida facility worked "to mitigate the potential of an arcing fault incident." Geez, the headline -- Arc flash on the run -- says it so much better, doesn't it? From the piece:

19 Oct, 2007

An item in the 10/8 Nation's Building News -- from the Natl. Assn. of Home Builders -- goes into "the differences between ESCs and Electricians." An ESC = an electronic systems contractor, supposedly NOT an electrician or electrical contractor. I've pasted below a bulleted list of supposed "differences," as provided by the online NBN article.

EleBlog take: The home builder attitude toward electrical contractors is that they are "electricians," and as you can see in the quote above, "ESCs" are contractors, and electrical contractors are . . . "electricians." Obviously, the game is rigged by the language (something in which the Republican Party has excelled since Frank Luntz took over the "genius" position after the death of Lee Atwater).

I think electrical contractors are NOT electricians. I also think that ESCs are electrical contractors. Despite this propaganda (click on the link above to read the entire item), the fact -- as borne out by numerous surveys of home builders in recent years -- is that the builders DO NOT WANT more than one contractor handling wires in a new home. They want single-source responsibility and simplification (and they should).

If they assign ALL of the jobs below to ONE contractor (be it an "ESC" or an electrical contractor), they finish WAY AHEAD OF THE GAME.

- - - - -

The Differences Between ESCs and Electricians:

• ESCs work with voltages less than 100 volts; electricians work with voltages greater than 100.
  
  
• ESCs deliver signals and data; electricians delivers power.
  
  
• ESCs install and configure home automation controls, touch-screens, keypads and computers; electricians install and configure switches, dimmers and breakers.
  
  
• ESCs work with analog and digital circuits; electricians only work with analog circuits.
  
  
• ESCs use cabling for multiple applications; electrician use cabling for single applications.
  
  
• ESCs require constant education and training; electricians require little continuing education.
  
  
• ESCs do not need licenses in most states; electricians must be licensed in most states.
  
  
• ESCs potentially have a large impact on the security of consumers’ personal information; electricians have little impact on consumers’ personal information.

18 Oct, 2007

I have tried, and I can't make the US government construction employment data make sense. As everyone know, housing is DOWN right now (last half of 2007) vs. recent years. Here are annual housing starts going back to 2003:

2003 -- Total 1,847,700 -- single-family = 1,499,000

2004 -- Total 1,955,800 -- single-family = 1,610,500

2005 -- Total 2,068,300 -- single-family = 2,068,300

2006 -- Total 1,800,900 -- single-family = 1,465,400

How about 2007? In the 10/17/07 report from the U.S. government, 2007 year-to-date starts were 1,079,600, vs. 2006 year-to-date (comparable, one year earlier) at 1,442,600.

Got that? At the very least, the 2007 numbers are going to come in WAY SHORT of the 2004 housing starts date.

Yet here are the government data on SEPTEMBER total employment in construction for Residential construction. These numbers include the government totals for General Builders and for Specialty Contractors.


. . . this just does NOT make sense. I don't get how employment in residential construction could be HIGHER in 2007 than in 2004. I don't get how resi construction employmenet could be down a relatively small bite (155,900, or less than 4.5%) from 2006. Housing starts are down 363,000 in the year's first nine months -- that's 25%.

Housing starts down 25% and employment down less than 4.5%? This is incredible. Three possibilities come to mind:


Yes, #3 "feels" like it might be correct. Yet it's an UNscientific wild-ass guess. There's nothing to back it up. There's no reason to believe that it contains on grain of truth, as there are no facts in there whatsoever.

17 Oct, 2007

AGC's 10/07 Construction Inflation Alert is a 16-page PDF. From my reading of it (and the graphic below), AGC's Simonson is saying that inflation has calmed down recently, but won't remain that way. Look carefully below at the relatively calm inflation for Nonresidential Buildings.

All of this doesn't seem to jibe with Turner Construction's 7.74% measure of inflation in construction over the past year. Turner is the largest general contractor in the U.S.

Obviously, inflation is damn confusing. I guess . . . ?

17 Oct, 2007

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) -- which employs an economist that everyone respects (and should!), Ken Simonson -- has issued a special report on construction inflation. I've taken the graphic below (and one that follows in the next post) from it.

Here's a link to a release AGC rolled out on the report. The release's headline: "AGC Economist Suggests Materials Cost Calm Ending Soon." Here's an interesting bit from the release:

17 Oct, 2007

Here comes the first of several posts on Construction Inflation. First, I've picked up an item in its entirety (below) . . . it's on the quarterly Turner Construction inflation-in-construction release:

Note that it says construction inflation is 7.74% year-over-year.

Construction Costs Continue Increase,

According to Turner Building Cost Index

By
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16 Oct, 2007

I just recently stumbled across a 42-page document, Developments in Design and Construction Law. It was posted to a blog devoted to Real Estate/Construction Law. It's from the Construction Law Subsection of the LA County Bar Association. I don't know how relevant this stuff will be to you; on the other hand, it's free.

16 Oct, 2007

While I've written here (numerous times) that the residential market doesn't generate the same amount of work for electrical contractors as nonresidential, Housing is important to the country. An article from Sunday's Orange County Register (OC in California) -- coverage of a state realtors' convention -- provides some startling perspectives.

1. Headline: "Housing recovery expected in 2 to 3 years." That's painful.

2. As is always the case, when you dig into such an article, you get even-more-shocking stuff. Read these two paragraphs:

Richard Green, the Oliver T. Carr Jr. Chair of Real Estate & Finance at George Washington University, cautioned real estate agents that they may need to wait longer. "Just try to hang on for three years," he said.

So the most optimistic person says "early 2009," and someone detached from the industry (an academic) -- who could easily be WRONG, but . . . -- says "three years." Yeek.

3. A reader comment at the article's foot notes: "Wow. If the realtors are this downbeat, imagine how bad it really is." You can't argue with that. Generally, realtors (as a group) paint a very optimistic picture -- all of the time. I would characterize it as UNrealistic (all of the time). So if the article (read the thing by clicking the link above) contains as much negative stuff, both from the convention's panel and from those in the audience . . . well, WOW. Things must be pretty bad in Calfornia.

16 Oct, 2007

It's WOMEN, according to this article. It's 1,237 words, it was written by someone who knows what she's talking about, it's chock full of data and info -- worth your time.

16 Oct, 2007

I attended the NECA Show Oct 6-7-8 in San Francisco. I've been going to these since 1979; I missed 1984-1989, and also 2000. So I've gone to 21 of the past 28 events. This one was GREAT. There was stupendous attendance the first day (a Saturday); more exhibitors than I can remember (it might have been a record); a great deal of optimism everywhere; and a bunch of happy people.



A couple of indicators:

1 -- Electrical Contractor magazine (I was once publisher of this) had its biggest-ever issue, at 318 pages inside the covers. Wow! I believe that the 1997 September show issue that I published was the largest ever up to that time; it was at least 100 pages smaller!

2 -- According to what I heard Sunday night, not only were many exhibitors renewing their space (for NECA 2008, which will be in Chicago) -- a significant number were expanding the size of their booth space. That's significant, too.

WHY, you ask? The obvious answer: Residental construction had its innings. NECA-member electrical contractors are, specifically, union employers; most of them focus on commercial, industrial, institutional, and other non-residential markets. As these markets have done well in 2007 (up 17% in dollars, according to BLS construction spending figures) . . . that equals high attendance at the nation's biggest electrical construction show.

Beyond that, electrical contractors in general (i.e., union + non-union employers, combined) do better when non-residential booms as compared with when new housing construction is up. There are a number of reasons for this; one big one is that there's just not a lot of electrical work to do to get a house ready to live in (as opposed to "professional consumer electronics" installation work in higher-end houses).

WHO IS THE GUY IN THE PHOTO? He's Peter Vrame of SP Products, a Chicago-area supplier to electrical contractors. Peter comes to every NECA show (and other electrical shows) with great new ideas. If contractors don't walk into his booth to check them out, he goes into the aisles and grabs passers-by. I have seen this for many years; you might think Peter is being overly aggressive . . . but the passers-by always listen to him, and they are usually glad they did! I once wrote a piece (it's now a 5-page PDF) on the misery and glory of trade shows; click on the link to read it -- it includes some interesting comments comparing Peter Vrame's behavior with that of other trade show exhibitors.

16 Oct, 2007

From Plant Engineering magazine, on Motor Efficiency. It appears to be FREE. This is the 4th Webinar chronicled here to be held on 10/18; see the other three here.

16 Oct, 2007

I enjoy reading the weekly newsletter (and more) provided by John Mauldin. Here's something from his 10/5 piece that, if yo uthink about it, makes one heck of a lot of sense . . . a kind of "economic preview," if you will. The graphic below is from his article as well.

As these subprime mortgages hit their reset periods and the mortgage payment goes up, many homeowners who were expecting to be able to refinance their homes are not going to be able to, as the value of their homes will be below what they owe on their current mortgages. In a lot of cases, they will not be able to make the higher payment, which can rise by over a thousand month. They can either simply put up with the higher payment if they are able, or walk away from the mortgage. Not everyone will be in that predicament, but about 20% of recent subprime borrowers are expected to end up in foreclosure.

Now, government officials say they want lenders to work with borrowers to come up with ways to allow homeowners to keep their homes. In a rational world, a lender is better off taking a 20% loss and keeping someone in the home than losing 40%. The problem is, how does a distressed homeowner negotiate with the CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) which owns their mortgage, which is in turn owned by European institutions or the Chinese government?

The original mortgage bank, if it still exists, is simply servicing the loan. More than likely, they even sold off the servicing of the loan, as that is not a high-margin business. There are now 161 mortgage banks that are either bankrupt or their lending ability is severely impaired.

Hundreds of thousands of homes are going to come back onto the market in the form of foreclosures over the next year. Those of us who live in Texas have seen this movie before.

What does all of this prove? The graphic shows the due-date of "resets" on various adjustable-rate mortgages, and the gross amount of mortgages that will be reset each month. This isn't a picture of the whole problem our economy has right now with debt . . . it's just a slice of the pie.

11 Oct, 2007

As often seems to be the case, big news comes in waves. In the electrical distribution game, we learned this week that Hagemeyer NV -- which owns Cameron & Barkley in the U.S. South, Tristate Electrical & Electronics in the Mid-Atlantic, and a lot else (including major international holdings) -- is in play. Sonepar, a privately owned French distributor that's HUGE, has said it wants to buy H. Rexel, which is also HUGE (but has some of its stock in public hands), says it is looking on with interest (meaning it might make a competing offer???).


While the Hagemeyer thing hasn't yet been resolved (and for all we know may not be!) . . . that's a heaping helping of consolidation, all in one week.

EleBlog take: An amazing piece of this is the Rexel 10/9 release. I can provide a link to the PDF, but here's the total content of the thing:


. . . that's the shortest press release I've ever seen. And I've been around a long time!

11 Oct, 2007

There's been a Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. I missed it (I was gone to attend the NECA convention & show in San Francisco). However, USA Today ran a 566-word story on the solar event.

ADD: The NECA-IBEW "ElectricTV" online video news program provided coverage of the solar decathlon -- in advance. See the 4th story down on the list, Spotlight On Skill.
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11 Oct, 2007

Network Computing -- which no longer exists as a print publication! -- has created a "beta" offering, The Data Center Immersion Center. Yes, I think using the word "center" twice in a title is a little dumb. The thing might be worth a visit anyway.

SO: Go immerse yourself!

11 Oct, 2007

You are certainly NOT keeping score, but this blog has noted three webinars of possible interest -- all being held on 10/18:

Planning for Power Failures (from FacilityCare magazine)

Big Retailers Go Solar (from Chain Store Age magazine)

and just added...

ZigBee & Demand Response

11 Oct, 2007

DR = demand response (an electrical utility industry offering to big customers). ZigBee = a wireless technology. The ZigBee folks are hosting a free webinar on 10/18 on the place where their technology interfaces with demand response.

11 Oct, 2007

McGraw-Hill Construction recently (9/27) told the world that the value of contracts for new construction rebounded in August from a bump down in July. I don't like "Seasonal Adjustments" and other baloney, so I page down to the bottom of each month's MHC report -- to the table I've pasted below:

YEAR-TO-DATE CONSTRUCTION STARTS
Unadjusted Totals, In Millions

	8 Mos. 2007 8 Mos. 2006 % Change Nonresidential Building $147,550 $143,267 +3 Residential Building 185,662 249,119 -25 Nonbuilding Construction 91,730 84,606 +8 Total Construction $424,942 $476,992 -11

Here's how to think about this chart:

a. Total construction is down 11%, thanks to residential (obviously). That DOES NOT include inflation. If you tack on a 5% inflation rate to this, you end up at -16%.

b. As long as we're talking about inflation, the increase in the value of contracts for nonresidential building (+3%) is wiped out by inflation. At the very best, nonresidential is FLAT.

c. Remember, these data are contracts for new construction. They are the best view we're gonna get into the future.

d. Most of "nonbuilding construction" is funded by taxes. Taxes are slowing down at the local level. Of course, the federal government can (and will) borrow as much as it wants to fund whatever construction IT is paying for.

e. Construction employment hasn't tumbled yet. Many folks are mystified by that. These numbers seem to indicate that it will fall, at some point, in the very near future.

11 Oct, 2007

While walking The NECA Show this past weekend in San Francisco, I spotted this "staff meeting" of folks at the Vest-Tech booth. I don't normally find a guy's butt interesting (it's different when it comes to women!) . . . but I found myself thinking about what, precisely, was going to happen to the hammer when the guy in the middle of this picture sat down.

08 Oct, 2007

Frank Bisbee's September "Heard On The Street" column -- at Wireville.com -- included the text of my August E-biz column for TED magazine. It's a short piece that combines three items -- comments from a key distributor executive, a short summary of an article on Wesco Distribution and a key tech decision, and a look at the relationship between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and green.

I am always gratified when Frank chooses to add something I've written to his monthly "HOTS" industry round-up. Re-reading the August column, I found that I liked it -- which is NOT usually the case when I read something written weeks or months earlier (by me).

NOTE: Stuff in TED magazine's print edition is easily accessible online -- free. But you have to register (it's not difficuit) at TEDMAG.com. What's different about the August E-biz column is that Frank chose to get permission from the mag to post the thing on his site . . . making it easier for you to "see" it (without registering at TEDMAG).

08 Oct, 2007

I did not know that CE Pro, the magazine, had yet another website -- www.CEProTV.com. Smart (but then these EH Publishing people always are!). Included among a bunch of videos is one from Eaton (home of Cutler-Hammer) -- on a line, Structured Wiring Solutions -- and also on Home Heartbeat, the Eaton wireless home tech system.

According to the words next to the video, Eaton has slapped a trademark on the term Structured Wiring Solutions. Does that seem legit?

08 Oct, 2007

Two publications -- Grist & Outside -- teamed to interview the major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination about their positions on the environment. There are a lot of words here. By my count, they have info on seven of the candidates (nothing on Mike Gravel, unfortunately -- he's pretty funny).

08 Oct, 2007

Facility Blog has posted a 10-Q quiz -- "test your green building IQ."

How about the answers? Here.

08 Oct, 2007

This Week In Petroleum, an online weekly from the U.S. DOE (Energy Information Administration), ran this graphic in the 9/26 issue. I know you already know about this, but isn't it an awesome thing at which to gaze?

08 Oct, 2007

Inadvertently, I came across "A project from Hell" -- a piece (written by a consultant) about a screwed-up construction project in South Africa. Here's an interesting slice:

I escaped after two weeks and went to the site offices of the electrical contractor foreperson. A terrifying sight met me. He was in the site office, surrounded by a mountain of drawings. The phone rang every ten seconds. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was haggard, like a dog unfed for days. He put the phone down and stared at me. I said, “I’m the new consulting electrical engineer. Mr Jonny sent me”. He stared at me further and then told me that I could shove it where it fitted, and so could Mr Jonny.

The phone rang again. I unplugged it.

He asked me what the heck I was doing. He calmed down a bit. In conversation, I found that the project was in a terrible state. It was six months behind. Drawings were wrong, or non-existent. Everybody wanted electrical power for construction. Everybody wanted conduits in slabs before casting. Or site lights or night lights.

I realised we had to stop the train before it derailed. So I took the site instruction book and wrote: “The electrical contractor foreperson is to leave site for seven days on a special project and is not to be contacted.”

“Ye’re mad!” the electrical contractor foreperson snarled. “I’m not going to another project!” I told him he was; the project was entitled ‘Get your life back together and get some sleep’. He went off like a shot.

I'm fairly certain this happens all around, and up and down, on Planet Earth.

08 Oct, 2007

Industry Week magazine recently ran tips on how manufacturers can reduce energy use. One of the seven bullets:


I'm not unhappy with IW for printing this. However, here's the EleBlog take: I'm scared.

1 -- the "tip" is not that industrial facilities should do this. The tip is: If you haven't already done this, you're an idiot.

2 -- people go on and on about how efficient and smart our "free market society" is supposed to be. It isn't. The fact that Energy Savings 101 stuff like this has to appear in magazines in 2007 is shameful.

3 -- many folks aren't happy with excessive government regulation on energy issues. They should NOT be. Let's take just one facet of the above tip: Restrooms. The fact that there are millions and millions of institutional, commercial, and industrial restrooms that don't already have occu sensors is wasteful. It's all dumb-stupid. Etc.

4 -- think of it this way: Forget about melting icecaps, global warming, the national bent toward wasteful consumption, and on and on. Buildings have owners. The owners pay monthly electricity bills. These bills could total a lot fewer dollars with intelligent use of occu sensors in restrooms. The fact that so many have not done this means the building owners (as represented by their operations people) would rather flush money down a toilet than solve a rather simple problem.

That is scary.

07 Oct, 2007

I don't normally "follow" ceiling fans, so I was gratified to find a summary of "new laws regulating the ceiling fan industry" on the ALA's website.

07 Oct, 2007

An article on GreenerComputing.com tackles energy use by computers. The writer notes that a combined reduction in energy use AND better performance of an up-to-date computer ("one PC can do the work of two") produce gigantic savings in daily electricity consumption -- $238 per year. That's the reduction in energy use from two older computers (which consume 191 watts when at rest) to one newer model (110 watts used when doing nothing).

Yes, it's a big savings -- 382 watts minus 110 watts = 272 watts saved per hour, or 1 kWh every five hours. The article assumes your local utility charges 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

Savings add up to a lot of money, compared to the (relatively cheap) cost of computers these days. From the article: "At this rate, we would have pay back on the new system in less than three years on power savings alone."

07 Oct, 2007

The previous post referenced Tom Konrad's excellent piece on why energy efficiency is a tough sell. Here's another slice of it which I wanted to present -- just the conclusion of a section on the slow sales of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Why, Konrad asks, aren't they selling like hotcakes?


This is part of a longer section. Click on the link and read his piece for the whole thing. By the way, I've never met Konrad (or even heard of him before reading this excellent blog entry).

07 Oct, 2007

Blogger Tom Konrad in August posted a 2,044-word opus on why energy efficiency is tough to sell. There's a lot there, and it reflects very good understanding and thinking. Here's what Konrad wrote about utilities and energy efficiency. Note what he says about "a mental shift" that's needed, beyond regulatory moves.

This is important. We're in an era of hysteria about "green" this and that. I am worried about all of the hype . . . and how corporations of every stripe are climbing over one another to become "green" and to out-green one another. In all of this excitement -- into which a heaping helping of Baloney has been added -- this baby (energy efficiency) may be lost in the bathwater.

More about Konrad's post in a secoind.
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07 Oct, 2007

Is the credit crisis over? The rebound in the U.S. stock market might lead one to so believe. The frenzy over what was happening in August has come out of the newspaper articles and other reporting about this; even Jim Cramer is no longer hysterical.

But . . . maybe it's premature to celebrate. Someone named Satyajit Das has given at least one interview and written at least one public article worth your time. I don't know this person. I don't know if he is correct. But I think what he is saying is worth some thought. Here's what I'm talking about:


Das might be wrong. Strength of statement and volume of words doesn't make one right! The reason to look these articles over is simple . . . the answer you come to in your own mind to the question, "holey moley, what if this guy is right?"

07 Oct, 2007

A graphic in the 10/5 Wall Street Journal is pretty interesting to look at AND think about.


The image accompanied an article about GE's plans to shut down 7 of the 54 manufacturing plants it now operates in its incandescent lamp biz. But look closely; the thing isn't about GE. Take a look at what is projected for 2010, in terms of "market share" of incandescents vs. CFLs!!!

One thing is missing, of course (at least one Important thing): LEDs. Perhaps by 2010 they will still have an insignificant share. But I don't think that will be the case if one looks out to 2015!

07 Oct, 2007

A piece ran last month on the Inman news service -- "When must landlord update electrical outlets?" If you read down in the thing, it also asks "how many phone jacks must the landlord provide?" It's aimed at residential renters.

05 Oct, 2007

Energy & Power Management magazine is being terminated, effective with the recently published September issue. That means my 6x/yearly column in EP&M is now kaput. I'll miss the money, of course, but I had a lot of fun with this column. Kevin Heslin, the editor, granted me enormous leeway. The payback for the magazine, if there was one, was that the column drew a lot of letters to the editor (which is a healthy thing for any publication!).

I put a bit of effort into this last column. It's tucked behind a password at the magazine's old website. Fortunately, the publishing company is starting a new magazine -- Sustainable Facility. It's a quarterly (at least to start), and Kevin will be the editor.

Here's the column:

- - - - -

Your Building Is Not a Commodity
by Joseph Salimando
August 27, 2007

05 Oct, 2007

To try to be consistent, I'm noting here the contribution of 17,000 (net plus) jobs from the BLS "Birth/Death" model. That's a relatively low number compared to previous months, when BLS estimated into existence 950,000 jobs between March and August.

As I've commented on this before, I'm noting here: The economy reportedly added 110,000 jobs in September, and the Birth/Death BOGUS contribution was minimal -- 17K.

05 Oct, 2007

According to the BLS, there were 746,400 people employed in "production work" in electrical contracting In August.

That's down a hair from July's revised 751,800, but UP from August 2006 (728,100).

Of note (perhaps) -- 2007 monthly figures were up by 30,000 in May, June, and July. August's increase from the same month in '06 was 18,300. That might mind something later, if a downtrend is sustained; right now, it might just as well be a Blip.

05 Oct, 2007

Table B-1 of today's employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics presents these data on employment in Residential Construction (I am taking these from the NOT seasonally adjusted columns):


. . . so according to our fedgov, we've lost fewer than 50,000 jobs in residential construction, despite a huge decrease in houses under construction.

Let me ask you: DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

04 Oct, 2007

An 8/31 AP article posted to Construction.com notes that blacks are under-represented in the construction industry:

African Americans are underrepresented in construction jobs in metro Detroit, Saginaw and Kalamazoo, according to a study released Thursday by advocacy groups.

In metro Detroit, blacks make up about 20% of the workforce, but only 7% of construction workers, according to the study. And in Saginaw and Kalamazoo counties, they make up 11% and 7% of the workforce, respectively, but less than 1% of construction workers.

and

The racial disparity in metro Detroit for African Americans -- a 13% gap -- was among the highest of the 19 metro areas that were examined.

The study also found women and Latinos underrepresented among construction workers.

I have a lot of problems with this report. They include what it says and what it implies:

1 -- There is (of course) an undertone that it must be the unions that are doing this. And the union construction trades can, in the past, have been guilty of some of this. But since the non-union (Assoc. Builders & Contractors) element claims that the union has something like only a 20% market share in construction overall, the conclusion one must draw here is that Non-Union Construction Is Anti-Black. Right?

My personal belief is that illegal immigrants are hired -- to the exclusion of American citizens, blacks included -- for many construction jobs . . . for a reason. Those doing the hiring are the non-union contractors (the unions wouldn't let union-employing contractors get away with this). Why hire an alien (Mexican?) who speaks little English over a black U.S. citizen? The alient


If it sounds as if I am villifying the non-union employers, well . . . they are acting as capitalists "should" as the system has been created and run. They are choosing to hire a worker who will accept lower pay, work longer hours, and who is unable to claim rights that restrict the employer's freedom of action. It is unrealistic to expect an unfettered employer to behave any other way!

So saying "non union construction is anti-black" doesn't go far enough.

2 -- There is an assumption (it's in the article) that construction is one of the last places that people who do poorly in school can go to get a job. Here's a quote from the article:

With the number of manufacturing jobs decreasing, construction work remains one of the few areas in which U.S. workers without a college degree can earn a decent wage, the study said

Unfortunately, there are a few facts that get in the way.

Fact #1: Even though you assume that "Everyone" graduates from high school, only 88% of those who should have HS diplomas actually get them. I don't know the racial make-up of the other 12%. But you can't apply for a job in the skilled construction trades without a diploma . . . and get hired. Yeah, I know; in your mind, it's "only construction work." But there are very good reasons that construction employers want to hire people with HS diplomas.

Fact #2: The people in the construction biz do not necessarily want to hire from the ranks of HS graduates only. When I work on promotion for the NECA-IBEW recruiting effort -- including www.electrifyingcareers.com -- I am told by my two-headed customer that "we want to compete for the college kids, too." I am not kidding. The emphasis is not only on getting more people to apply for slots in the apprenticeship program, but also to get a higher quality of applicant.

Fact #3: America is not yet bilingual. In discussion with my clients the idea of creating recruiting ads in Spanish (or in two languages), we come up against a wall: If there's no one answering the phone at the apprenticeship program who is perfectly fluent in Spanish, we are doing everyone (applicant, phone answer person, and of course the industry itself) a horrible disservice.

3 -- I recently read a report that there are more than 10,000 empty homes in Detroit. The population of the place is in a steady decline. Job opportunities are disappearing in general, thanks to the U.S. automakers' loss of market share. While housing prices nationwide are down, they are down BIG in Detroit (lots of houses for sale, not many buyers). As the economy in Detroit (especially) have been SHRINKING, it's possible that the trades apprenticeship programs (union and non-union) there haven't taken in many apprentices in recent years. That means the make-up of the trade (union and non-union) in the Detroit metro area is disproportionately the result of recruiting done in the past.

4 -- Remember this (or learn it if you didn't know it): The pool of people working as journeymen in the construction industry in the year 2007 -- union or non-union -- is a function of people who became apprentices as far back as 30 years ago. That means the make-up of construction in 2007 was created (in signficant part) by apprenticeship enrollments in 1977, 1978, and so forth, on up to four or five years ago.

5 -- People in the construction business are, right at this very minute, scared wordless about the prospects for a decrease in the number of skilled tradespeople in the future. I don't know much about the Detroit construction market (other than what I read, which is discouraging). But nationwide, the construction industry in general is IN NEED OF qualified applicants. I believe if little green female electricians, replete with deely-bobbers, from Planet X presented themselves for jobs in the next few years, they would find work. I think that applies to qualified black people, Hispanics, women . . . everyone. The key is Qualified.

So the study (which for all I know is spot-on accurate) may be sending the wrong message -- discouraging blacks from applying for apprenticeships in the skilled trades -- at precisely THE WRONG TIME.

04 Oct, 2007

A report from the National Institute of Standards & Technology says, according to a report:

04 Oct, 2007

A blogger notes a NY Times article on electricity deregulation -- which didn't work. I spent some time covering this. I consider the entire episode hilarious -- a case in which "true believers" in capitalism sold themselves on the notion that most consumers could pay lower prices for a given "good" while the sellers of that good would make more money.

Don't get me wrong -- I certainly AM a capitalist. For one thing, the alternatives suck. But I also try not to deny the evidence presented by reality. Jimmy Carter presided over the deregulation of the airlines in the late 1970s; I am pretty sure that hasn't worked out so well. The financial markets were deregulated (for the benefit of the average citizen) in the early 1970s; I am pretty sure that's led to incredible, unfair profits for the financial companies and their executives.

However, air travel is not something that everyone MUST do. Financial markets can be avoided (especially by people who can't save a dime, which seems to take in a goodly proportion of the U.S. population). ELECTRICITY is something that has become vital for everyday life.

Here's something that the blogger, on FacilitiesNet.com, included in his post:

04 Oct, 2007

Browsing around for interesting articles to post here, I realized that there are some VERY interesting pieces in one of the magazines I edit -- Rexel's POWER OUTLET. Here are a couple; if you click on the links, you'll download PDFs:

Power over Ethernet -- The Future, Here -- Now -- 2p basic intro to PoE, by Leviton Mfg.

What You Need To Know About Core Drilling -- 5p story told almost entirely in photographs, by D.A. "Bo" Conrad, RCDD.

04 Oct, 2007

Over on a green blog, there's a report on the LEED Accredited Professional designation:


Lawyers.

03 Oct, 2007

Don Leavens, the veep/chief economist at NEMA, provided an Economic Outlook on 9/20 at the Electroindustry Ebiz Forum. You can download his 32-page PDF, which may or may not be self-explanatory. There's a lot of interesting stuff in the presentation -- worth your time. Don's live talk was excellent, despite heckling (from me).

01 Oct, 2007

Today's Facility Manager now produces a "green" e-mail newsletter. Click thru to view it online.

01 Oct, 2007

A note in the FacilityBlog talks about the new Building Information Modeling guide from the General Services Administration from the angle of FMs (facility managers). But they are only one group affected by this. The GSA is the nation's biggest landlord; it owns and leases properties on behalf of the federal government. It has taken the lead in using BIM and developing standards. This is one item worth learning about for electrical contractors of significant size -- they are going to be involved in BIM, sooner or later . . . it will be compulsory.

For example: GSA will use this on federal construction and rehab projects. So click thru to the item, read it, and click from there. This isn't going away.

01 Oct, 2007

News item from NAHB's Nation's Building News: "Pule First Big Builder to Use English Training Program."

01 Oct, 2007

Forgive me for being a Yankees' Fan, but this is construction-relevant: ENR has posted a podcast, an interview with a Turner Construction project executive on the construction of the new stadium that's going to replace the House that Ruth Built. OK, not replace . . . be used in place of, I guess, would be the right words.

01 Oct, 2007

Two more things:

a. Engineering News-Record emitted its first-ever ranking of the Top 50 Green Contractors.

b. MCAA (the mechanical contractors) just unveiled a new website, www.greencontractors.us.

01 Oct, 2007

As close readers might remember, I penned a three-part column on TEDMAG recently, solely devoted to the topic of Inflation. The columns ran 9/5, 9/12, and 9/19.

Now, there are smart people out there "following" my lead. Actually, it has nothing whatsoever to do with me! But check out this stuff:


[note: the Slate and Newsweek pieces were written by the same guy]



[in the first piece, BR presents some info and then comes to this quick conclusion: "This means that the Fed is "inflating" at a rate faster today than it did right after 9/11, or during the deflationary scare of 2003."]




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