EleBlog

29 Nov, 2009

AGC of America has a Specialty Contractors Council.

AGC's SCC just issued a 2-page PDF -- Best Practices Guidance for Retainage.

The major points:

1. Parties can begin to raise questions about retainage as they prepare their bids and proposals.

2. Sub-tier parties should read and understand all documents that collectively comprise the agreement between the owner and prime contractor, including the general conditions of that agreement.

3. Contracting parties may negotiate contractual terms and conditions. Each party should make an independent determination of the terms and conditions that it considers acceptable, and identifying, negotiating, and/or accepting the following are among the terms and conditions subject to each firm's independent business judgement.

29 Nov, 2009

I recently did a presentation on construction's future. Below find one slide from the thing, on Hotels (previously posted this month: Offices, Stores, Warehouses & Manufacturing).

WHAT THIS IS: All of the data are from McGraw-Hill Construction. I have saved every official report from MHC on the $ value of construction starts -- going back to 1998. I dragged them all out, dove into them, and came up with this (for this segment and for the others).

Data from 1998 to 2008 are "actual" numbers as provided by MHC.

2009 is an estimate (it's not over yet) -- and 2010 is a forecast.

WHY THIS IS IN SQUARE FEET instead of dollars -- dollars are subject to interpretation, inflation adjustment, etc. A square foot is a sq. ft.! And construction people can relate much better to square feet than dollars, in my experience.

29 Nov, 2009

Business Week ran an article, "Can blue light save lives?"


No, really. I'm not kidding.

29 Nov, 2009

What did analysts at Zacks Equity Research think about electrical manufacturers and distributors -- as of Oct. 12, 2009? See this Industry Outlook.

Hubbell: Price Oct. 12 = $43.00.


Grainger: Price Oct. 12 = $93.14  


How about the S&P 500? On 10/12, the close was 1076.19

Percentages: HUBa + 4.65%. GWW + 4.63%. S&P 500 + 1.42%.

29 Nov, 2009

Reasons why construction is "The Best Industry in the United States"

1. The industry is not going away.

2. The industry rewards hard work.

3. The industry is merit-based.

. . . from Matt Stevens, who has a blog.

27 Nov, 2009

Electronic House offered a question in a feature-article headline: "Can an 8K-Sq-Foot Home Be Green?"

Your knee-jerk answer is probably -- well, NO (or maybe HELL No!).

Maybe you are wrong (and me, too). Here's a section on the electrical/lighting piece of the (obviously somewhat expensive) house:

This system goes much further. Photocell sensors are positioned throughout the house to determine how much sunlight is entering and how much additional artificial illumination is needed. The AMX home automation system retrieves local weather information from the Internet and operates the lighting and motorized Lutron Sivoia QED shades accordingly. If it’s a sunny day, for instance, the shades can rise to increase the solar gain, thereby requiring less heat and lighting.

Note that Conundrum is the name of the custom electronics company responsible for the job.

27 Nov, 2009

A fascinating Web "timne-lapse" graphic -- go to The Business Insider and look for click through and press "play" -- shows how unemployment went from underneath 5% to over 10% in the past few years. It's not an electrical or construction thing, per se . . . but it's pretty interesting to look at, even if you are NOT a human being, not a worker, and not living in the U.S. 

27 Nov, 2009

Perhaps the graphic on Manufacturing Construction made you think of CHINA.

I came across an interesting factolito on China the other day, while cleaning up some files. It came from an article in Monthly Labor Review, which is a U.S. Department of Labor publication. Headline "China's manufacturing employment and compensation costs: 2002-06."

Here's the key sentence, for me:


That's right:

a. There were 112M people doing manufacturing in China in 2006.

b. They were paid an average of 81 cents per hour.

27 Nov, 2009

I recently did a presentation on construction's future. Below find one slide from the thing, on Manufacturing (previously posted this month: Offices, Stores, Warehouses).

WHAT THIS IS: All of the data are from McGraw-Hill Construction. I have saved every official report from MHC on the $ value of construction starts -- going back to 1998. I dragged them all out, dove into them, and came up with this (for this segment and for the others).

Data from 1998 to 2008 are "actual" numbers as provided by MHC.

2009 is an estimate (it's not over yet) -- and 2010 is a forecast.

WHY THIS IS IN SQUARE FEET instead of dollars -- dollars are subject to interpretation, inflation adjustment, etc. A square foot is a sq. ft.! And construction people can relate much better to square feet than dollars, in my experience.

27 Nov, 2009

IBEW Local 106, in upstate New York, is adding to its 2,500-sq.-ft. training center. How much? 7,500 sq. ft., according to Observer Today (11/19). 

27 Nov, 2009

It's the EleBlog's opinion that an awful lot of resources are put behind lighting & energy efficiency, but that MOTORS are ignored. Here's a bit from an 11/09 article in Plant Engineering about motor rewinding:

27 Nov, 2009

From a Business Week article on Philips & LEDs:

The shift will boost sales of energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, but manufacturers say the real opportunity is in LED over the long term. Says Philips' de Jong: "In the next few years the price premium over fluorescent lights will be very modest, making it much more attractive for consumers to make the switch."

"de Jong" = Marc de Jong, "a member of Philips' management board and CEO of Philips' professional lighting division." Rudy Provoost, who is CEO of Philips Lighting, is also quoted in the piece.

According to the article, Philips has invested $5B in acquisitions in th epast five years, "in large part to expand its LED business." That's not precise enough for me, but there it is.

22 Nov, 2009

I recently did a presentation on construction's future. Below find one slide from the thing, on Warehouses (previously posted this month: Offices & Stores).

WHAT THIS IS: All of the data are from McGraw-Hill Construction. I have saved every official report from MHC on the $ value of construction starts -- going back to 1998. I dragged them all out, dove into them, and came up with this (for this segment and for the others).

Data from 1998 to 2008 are "actual" numbers as provided by MHC.

2009 is an estimate (it's not over yet) -- and 2010 is a forecast.

WHY THIS IS IN SQUARE FEET instead of dollars -- dollars are subject to interpretation, inflation adjustment, etc. A square foot is a sq. ft.! And construction people can relate much better to square feet than dollars, in my experience.

22 Nov, 2009

A May 2009 profile of West Electric (quoting Brian A. Miller, co-owner and president) focused on how the company treats its employees. I especially liked this part:

It’s about human relations. If you treat people well, that goes a long way in them wanting to work harder for you. If you treat them like they’re not important, they’re going to find a way to either make it rough on you or go somewhere else.

As far as making people feel wanted, build them up. Let’s say our purchasing agent works hard and finds materials at a very good market, and we’re able to bring that in at high levels. Then, two months later, we find out that the prices went way up on a material, and since he bought it at a low end, that really gave us an advantage that this was purchased at a lower price.

When you’ve got an employee that’s done things like that, you need to let them know, ‘Hey, great job on that, you’re really thinking ahead and looking for the good of the company.’

You build them up not only with praise, but you also either give them a paid vacation or a couple days off. With the way the economy is right now, these things are going to be tough to do.

22 Nov, 2009

There are a number of companies named Miller Electric in Florida. This past summer, the Bradenton Herald ran a piece on Ed and Sue Gocher, who bought Miller Electric in 2003. The company has since increased from 2 to 11 employees (from $275K in sales in '03 to $1.1M in '08).

The story is no longer available online. As of June 2009, sales were off 8% from the 2008 pace. The company does mostly residential work, and most of its employees (according to the article) are electricians with 20 or more years of experience.

Here's the most interesting paragraph, quotes from Ed Gocher: "We took much of the money made in our first years and put it back into the company. We purchased new shirts for the men with the company logo, bought new ladders and tools that help the men perform the work more efficiently, and purchased new vans (all the same color and style), heavy duty, and equipped better, to help our men perform better."

22 Nov, 2009

I've written previously (several times) that the people at CE Pro magazine tick me off. The reason: They are very, very good journalists. One such is Jason Knott, the Editor of the damn thing.

In the 11/09 issue, his editorial (page 10) is "4 Technologies Worse Than Their Predecessors."

Slick headline. Online, it's even more interesting (it's a slide show). You SHOULD click on the link agove, but if you don't, here are the 4 technologies that went the wrong way, in Jason's opinion:

• CFLs (I agree).

• 3D TVs.

• Digital music (vs. analog).

• Solar panels will make lighting control necessary (on this one, I need a little more 'splaining).

22 Nov, 2009

I came across two items on the LEDS Magazine site (dated 9/22 and 10/13):

a. Philips makes its own Lighting Facts labels.

Good news, you would think. Except that Philips had not received their labels from the Lighting Facts organization, but had instead gone ahead and made the labels themselves. 

That one appeared 9/22. Less than one month later . . .

b. OSRAM Sylvania LED lamp appears with rogue Lighting Facts labels.

Last month, LEDs Magazine reported that several Philips LED lamps were on sale in the USA with unauthorised versions of the Lighting Facts label on their packaging – 

After the problem came to light, the Philips lamps group hurriedly joined the program and submitted the required performance data.

Now, it appears that Osram Sylvania has also made its own Lighting Facts label for its 4W PAR16 LED lamp . .  . The label lacks the standard portrait format and other features of the authorized label.

When we checked the Lighting Facts website (on October 12), Osram Sylvania was listed as a partner, but the product in question was not listed.

Separate from the Lighting Facts label issue, the Osram Sylvania packaging also raises another issue, that of inappropriate comparison with existing technology. The 4W LED lamp is stated to be a replacement for a 25W lamp (of unspecified type).

22 Nov, 2009

According to a study, 150 million people are going to be "displaced" by the year 2050. See the DOE news on this.

Going by what I've previously learned, there will be 9 billion people on Planet Earth by 2050. 150M people = 1.66% of the population at that time.

Needing to move? This sound like World War III is coming.

THIS IS NOT A SERMON. I'm not certain that global warming is human-caused (what if it is something that is caused by something humans can't control?). And I'm growing in certainty that, if it is human-caused, human beings aren't capable of getting their collective act together to DO something about it.

So where does that leave us? With the prospect of 150 million people moving before the year 2050, maybe. Or maybe a damn big war.

THIS IS, to repeat, NOT A SERMON. The year 2050 will mark the 97th anniversary of the my birth (I don't expect to be here to celebrate a birthday).

Anyone significantly younger might consider what they care to do to prepare for this potential disaster

22 Nov, 2009

The Paint Quality Institute issued this Color Trends for 2010 report. I don't know what to make of stuff like this:

With consumers continued desire to create both warm and functional spaces the Good Morning palette consists of hues that are fresh, clean and comfortable.

Color Recommendations:
Honey-like hues such as tan or pale gold
Coral
Yellow
Mineral Grey

Apparently, there once was a time when "hues that are fresh, clean and comfortable" were not the norm. Apparently, that time came before 2010.

When was that?

18 Nov, 2009

I recently did a presentation on construction's future. Below find one slide from the thing, on Stores (a slide on Office Buildings posted two days ago).

WHAT THIS IS: All of the data are from McGraw-Hill Construction. I have saved every official report from MHC on the $ value of construction starts -- going back to 1998. I dragged them all out, dove into them, and came up with this (for this segment and for the others).

Data from 1998 to 2008 are "actual" numbers as provided by MHC.

2009 is an estimate (it's not over yet) -- and 2010 is a forecast.

WHY THIS IS IN SQUARE FEET instead of dollars -- dollars are subject to interpretation, inflation adjustment, etc. A square foot is a sq. ft.! And construction people can relate much better to square feet than dollars, in my experience.

18 Nov, 2009

I ran across a pretty good magazine, about which I knew nothing, recently -- State & Local Energy Report. One article that's worth your time is "How to Make Sense of the Eco-Label Boom," which contained this graphic.


Here's an excerpt from the thing that's a telling sample, I think:

But even this criterion has not always resulted in best practices for the environment. The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification of buildings was heavily criticized in recent years for designing a points system riddled with loopholes, allowing resource-intensive buildings to receive certification. The program has responded to the criticisms, but this example illustrates the difficulty of creating a meaningful certification.

18 Nov, 2009

I screwed up the other day (I guess) -- either that or they moved the link.

Anyway, here's the correct link to GREENBUILD 2009 speaker videos.

There are 14 of them. Someone over there screwed up, and the Al Gore keynote wasn't recorded.

18 Nov, 2009

Our government emitted data yesterday (11/18) on Housing Starts. According to the release, the "seasonally adjusted annual rate" in October for starts of single-family home construction was 476,000.

Let's look at the UNadjusted numbers, for some perspective:


What happened in October?

According to media reporting I heard/read, it's all about the expiration (at 11/30/09) of the $8,000 first-time-buyer federal tax credit. If this explanation reflects reality, with a tax credit scheduled to expire in just one month, people pulled back (and home builders pulled back in response).

IF THAT'S THE CASE -- it doesn't make sense to me, but it might be reflective of reality anyway -- that means that the economy is much too weak RIGHT NOW for the government to remove the props it has underneath just about everything. So the recent action of Congress and the President, to extend and expand the housing buyer tax credit, ought to "work" and lead to more SF construction in the next year.

IF THAT'S NOT THE CASE -- to my mind, the expiration on 11/30 would lead to a rush of closings in October, but that might not lead to more starts -- then the economy is weakening for other reasons. I don't know that this reflects reality. But we'll know in the fullness of time, because -- if this is true -- the extending/expanding of the buyer tax credit won't work.

18 Nov, 2009

NOTE: I'm repeating this item so infrequent visitors can see and take advantage of it.

-----------------------------------

As you can see, there's a banner ad at right for EcoBuild. It's been there in previous years.

Well, this year the folks who run that event (which I plan to attend, by the way -- it's in my hometown!) asked if we could go one step beyond. Look below, and you'll see the deal they are offering - to YOU!

Take advantage of this! Go to www.aecEcobuild.com and enter the EleBlog code -- ELBF9EKC. Read on!

------------------------------------

Normal 0 false false false

Ecobuild America, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Building Sciences, educates design and construction professionals and students on how to improve our built environment. This unique conference and exhibit, not only introduces new strategies and materials to create high performance, sustainable structures, but also the technology to do it faster and more profitably. The conference and show will be held at the Washington Convention Center in DC, December 7-10, 2009.

This is the most comprehensive event of the year for everyone who plans, designs, constructs, owns and operates buildings and infrastructure in the built environment ... commercial, residential, and Government.

If you haven't registered yet, please use the special ELEBlog code – ELBF9EKC -- to get a FREE exhibit and keynote pass. Here’s what else you can look forward to in the 2-day exhibit, Dec. 9-10:

…the products, services, and technology you need to build it faster, better, and under budget!

§                             BIM & Information Technology

§                             Building Performance & Energy Efficiency

§                             Green Building, LEED & Sustainable Design

§                             Practice & Business Management

§                             Sustainable Sites & Infrastructure

…special Exhibit Pavilions and Theaters with FREE educational sessions:

§                             NEW! IP/Intelligent Buildings Pavilion and Theater

• NEW! The AEC Interoperability Center, sponsored by buildingSMART™ alliance
• Bookstore with Hot Titles
• NEW! The BIM Aquarium The Eco Aquarium
• Building Information Modeling (BIM) Pavilion, sponsored by buildingSMART™ alliance
• BIMStorm – LIVE, sponsored by Onuma
• Green Mechanical / High Performance Buildings Pavilion and Theater
• IP/Intelligent Buildings Pavilion and Theater
• Job Fair
• Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency Pavilion and Theater
• SG Blocks Show House
• Smart and Sustainable Theater
• Special show discounts, new product debuts, software test drives, FREE mini-training sessions and more!

For complete event information: visit www.aecEcobuild.com. We look forward to seeing you at Ecobuild America!

17 Nov, 2009

Thanks to a subscription to Nexis, I accessed the 9,773-word EMCOR Group Q3 earnings conference call (transcripts of these quarterly events from EMCOR are not being posted to www.seekingalpha.com this year, as they had been in '08).

Needless to say, it would be an interested read for the EleBlog in any case -- as EMCOR is the home of the largest electrical contracting firm in the U.S. (and the largest mechanical, too).

I've selected two segments to retype and present to you here (I can't offer you a link to the transcript, but see the bottom of this item).

- - - - -

1. Tony Guzzi, president & COO, narrated part of a slide show to start the session off. The info below interested me (a) because it's local to me, and (b) because it may well be emblematic of what a company with EMCOR's capabilities can do:


Notes on these comments:


- - - - -

2. Frank T. MacInnis, chairman & CEO, answered a question on backlog (and more)


FINAL NOTE: A replay of the webcast of EMCOR's Q3 conference call is freely available, along with a PDF of the slides -- here.

17 Nov, 2009

I recently did a presentation on construction's future. Below find one slide from the thing, on Office Buildings. I'll present other slides in the coming weeks.

WHAT THIS IS: All of the data are from McGraw-Hill Construction. I have saved every official report from MHC on the $ value of construction starts -- going back to 1998. I dragged them all out, dove into them, and came up with this (for this segment and for the others).

Data from 1998 to 2008 are "actual" numbers as provided by MHC.

2009 is an estimate (it's not over yet) -- and 2010 is a forecast.

WHY THIS IS IN SQUARE FEET instead of dollars -- dollars are subject to interpretation, inflation adjustment, etc. A square foot is a sq. ft.! And construction people can relate much better to square feet than dollars, in my experience.




EleBlog comment: Does it look like we fell off of a cliff? In office buildings, it sure as heck does.

17 Nov, 2009

I did not attend the Nov. 11-13 GREENBUILD event in Phoenix. I regret not going, but it is literally impossible to be everywhere. So I'm relying on web reports on what others saw and heard there, as well as some video. Here's what I've found so far (there is probably a lot more!!!):

From USGBC (the event sponsor)


From GreenBiz.com


From EnvironmentalLeader.com

GreenBuild news roundups (with embedded links) --

17 Nov, 2009

The World Energy Engineering Congress was held Nov. 4-6 here in Washington, D.C. I attended each day. Four reports were posted to TEDMAG.com, and I think I did a pretty good job of reporting -- which means (freely translated) . . . you might want to read this stuff.

1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s keynote; Leviton's breakfast; a bit about green jobs.

2. How lighting fits into a vision of The Smart Grid.

3. I attended a session on the World's Greenest Building. It wasn't hype (and I got a surprise).

4. Misc. stuff from WEEC, focus on Toyota's Approach to Lighting.

12 Nov, 2009

As you can see, there's a banner ad at right for EcoBuild. It's been there in previous years.

Well, this year the folks who run that event (which I plan to attend, by the way -- it's in my hometown!) asked if we could go one step beyond. Look below, and you'll see the deal they are offering - to YOU!

Take advantage of this! Go to www.aecEcobuild.com and enter the EleBlog code -- ELBF9EKC. Read on!

------------------------------------

Normal 0 false false false

Ecobuild America, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Building Sciences, educates design and construction professionals and students on how to improve our built environment. This unique conference and exhibit, not only introduces new strategies and materials to create high performance, sustainable structures, but also the technology to do it faster and more profitably. The conference and show will be held at the Washington Convention Center in DC, December 7-10, 2009.

This is the most comprehensive event of the year for everyone who plans, designs, constructs, owns and operates buildings and infrastructure in the built environment ... commercial, residential, and Government.

If you haven't registered yet, please use the special ELEBlog code – ELBF9EKC -- to get a FREE exhibit and keynote pass. Here’s what else you can look forward to in the 2-day exhibit, Dec. 9-10:

…the products, services, and technology you need to build it faster, better, and under budget!

§                             BIM & Information Technology

§                             Building Performance & Energy Efficiency

§                             Green Building, LEED & Sustainable Design

§                             Practice & Business Management

§                             Sustainable Sites & Infrastructure

…special Exhibit Pavilions and Theaters with FREE educational sessions:

§                             NEW! IP/Intelligent Buildings Pavilion and Theater

• NEW! The AEC Interoperability Center, sponsored by buildingSMART™ alliance
• Bookstore with Hot Titles
• NEW! The BIM Aquarium The Eco Aquarium
• Building Information Modeling (BIM) Pavilion, sponsored by buildingSMART™ alliance
• BIMStorm – LIVE, sponsored by Onuma
• Green Mechanical / High Performance Buildings Pavilion and Theater
• IP/Intelligent Buildings Pavilion and Theater
• Job Fair
• Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency Pavilion and Theater
• SG Blocks Show House
• Smart and Sustainable Theater
• Special show discounts, new product debuts, software test drives, FREE mini-training sessions and more!

For complete event information: visit www.aecEcobuild.com. We look forward to seeing you at Ecobuild America!

11 Nov, 2009

I keep saying it's a Depression. Everyone else keeps saying it was a recession, and it's over. I don't know. What does this look like to you? It's the decline in state tax revenues (and I don't think it's yet at the bottom, folks) . . . from www.Ritholtz.com, home of The Big Picture blog.

11 Nov, 2009

. . . and a company "falls up." A blog on the site of an Austin newspaper went into the subject of lighting standards falling down at athletic facilities. Here's some of it (find the rest here):

Consider a 100-foot pole loaded with athletic lights: Using AASHTO standards, the total load could be no greater than two-thirds of the pole’s rated strength. The safety cushion also protects against variations in materials and workmanship. Just as important, the additional strength reduces fatigue during times of normal stress, which weaken the poles’ structural integrity over time.

Why did Whitco use the lesser specs? One possible answer, which has been suggested by some including the company’s former owner, was to save money and increase profits. Reducing the metal in the poles and their base plates means less money spent on materials.

11 Nov, 2009

Her's what a start-up company, Packet Power, does, according to an article:

. . . Managed hosting and Internet connectivity company ipHouse, for instance, will have spent $55,000 on the Packet Power system by end of next year. CEO Bil MacLeslie, who has been using the technology since November, 2008, can barely contain his enthusiasm:

“The reality is this that there is no comparison with any other product and I have looked at what’s offered from … various electrical manufacturers,” MacLeslie said. Packet Power “is really cool.”

MacLeslie loves the system for both its simplicity and the fact that it’s automated. In a data center, computing equipment sits in separate racks – the equipment or devices could be servers, storage units or a network switch. Ordinarily, understanding how much power each rack is consuming would require monitoring equipment analogous to a residential electric meter placed at every rack – and someone visually reading the numbers on each meter.

Packet Power fully automates this process. The cable, which is a “smart” power cable with digital technology and stamped with a barcode, can be inserted into a server rack, thereby powering it and also wirelessly relaying power consumption data to a USB device, which looks like a memory stick with a tail. The related management and reporting software can be installed on a PC.

11 Nov, 2009

From a CE Pro article, Pre-Wiring Traps to Avoid:

11 Nov, 2009

This electrical & mechanical contractor was profiled this past summer in the Central Penn Business Journal. The company, according to the article, is 109 years old -- and posted 39.5% growth over the past three years (that's cumulative for the period).

From Bill Craft, vp of service (and the 4th generation in the biz):

11 Nov, 2009

"One more leg down" is how Bloomberg TV headlined a 10-minute appearance by Whitney Tilson -- talking about housing (among other things). See Tilson/Bloomberg VIDEO here.

I went looking for a presentation by Tilson/T2 Partners on housing, and found a 203-page thingy dated 11/9/09. See the graphic below, taken from the thing -- I hope it's self-explanatory.

10 Nov, 2009

Blogging over on Consulting-Specifying Engineer's site, David Sellers last month posted Current Loops, Scaling Resistors, and Tubular Screw Clamp Terminals.

It's a relatively short post (in words) -- accompanied by 11 illustrations. If you're into this stuff, you might find it incredibly interesting.

For me, it -- once again -- shows why the Internet is going to kill print publications. Something this detailed (and illustrated) on a subject like this woulid be "edited down" to a smaller size (for printing) by a print magazine editor.

10 Nov, 2009

Here's what's been posted to TEDMAG's blog lately:

Most recently -- a review of employment data emitted last Friday by the USG. Includes electrical contractor data.

AND

Four posts on the Green Retrofit conference, held Oct. 15-16 in NYC (sponsored by McGraw-Hill). The posts concerned:

An intro, plus details on PlaNYC (the city of New York's green plan).

Details on a presentation by Kevin Kampschroer, a green guy from the GSA. Subjects: DC power distribution, among other things.

Bracken Hendricks addressed the group, and I was mesmerized. He tied all of the green stuff you might have heard together.

Data on the Green Retrofit market (again, from McGraw-Hill) -- including three slides I pasted in to the blog.

10 Nov, 2009

A release from EnOcean carries this headline:

Self-Powered Wireless Keycard Switch Unlocks Hotel Energy Savings.

EnOcean offers "energy harvesting" technology -- no wires needed, no electricity supply needed. It's amazing. The release above was emitted on 10/28/09.

But wait: In looking for the release online, I came across stuff EnOcean was talking about 18 months ago. For example: This article (on the same subject) posted to Automated Buildings back in 3/08.

10 Nov, 2009

"The unit price of electricity is going nowhere but up," explained Frederick Butler, president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

10 Nov, 2009

The Bureau of Labor Statistics periodically comes out with a new edition of its Occupational Outlook Handbook. The 2008-09 edition is out, and there's stuff (a lot of it) about Electricians on this page.

Here's a tiny sliver of the info that awaits you there:

In May 2006, median hourly earnings of wage and salary electricians were $20.97. The middle 50 percent earned between $16.07 and $27.71. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $12.76, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $34.95. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of electricians were:

Motor vehicle parts manufacturing	$31.90
Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution	26.32
Local government	23.80
Nonresidential building construction	20.58
Electrical contractors	20.47
Plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors	19.56
Employment services	17.15

10 Nov, 2009

A data center webcast (to which I did not listen) featured a participant from Schneider Electric's APC -- John Tuccillo, who is president of something called The Green Grid.

GreenBiz, sponsor of the thing, ran an article on it. There's a link in the piece to an archive of the conversation.

The Big Deal: "Simple" best practices, it says, can cut energy use in data centers by 20%.

It seems a bit crazy to overlook this. Yet from what I've learned, many data center managers ARE.

03 Nov, 2009

The USG's "construction put-in-place" report (a/k/a the data on "construction spending") came out yesterday. As usual, in looking at this release, the EleBlog skips right over the headline number and the first few pages, and goes to the UNadjusted data (Table 2 in the report).

Here's what's in Table 2:

Total construction spending DOWN 12.1% vs. the first 9 months of 2008.

03 Nov, 2009

AIA's "work on the boards" report for September was awful. There was a tick up (from the miserable August report), but at a 43.1 reading, it remained (for the umpteenth time in a row) significantly below the "50" reading -- which differentiates between expansion and a pullback. The pullback has lasted, I think, 18 months. Either the AIA survey doesn't mean anything, or things aren't going to be better in construction for some time (as the "work on the boards" takes some time to get off the drawing boards and into contracts, ground-breakings, retrofits, etc.).

Additionally, AIA reported a big decline in project backlogs at the firms responding to its survey. This only makes sense, if you've been following this survey month after month (which EleBlog has.

- - - - -

McGraw-Hill Construction's September report showed the $ value of new contracts for construction down 7% from August. The EleBlog (which follows this one, too) tries to ignore the month-to-month fluctuations and seasonal adjustments. The bottom line: After 9 months of 2009, the $ value of contracts for new construction -- which you can otherwise think of as "Construction Starts" -- is down 32% from one year ago.

That sucks. What's of note: Non-residential $ values are down (-37%) just as much as residential (-38%).

- - - - -

Reed Constuction Data's October newsletter shows September's construction starts fell only 1.5%. Considering that MHC and Reed are looking at the same thing, it's interesting to find them coming up with a disparity. Reed has the total $ value of construction starts in the Jan-Sept. period down 21.6%. Reed's numbers for "Commercial" construction in the first nine months show the $ value down 34.3%.

- - - - -

If you want to draw a conclusion from this, it's that construction isn't bolting out of the gate for 2010. It's likely to be a mediocre year . . . at best.

03 Nov, 2009

Here are some selected sentences from a National Real Estate Investor report (10/19):

AND


AND

The improvements will allow the company to provide occupants and tenants with state-of-the-art services, he said.

[XXX] plans to install security systems that permit monitoring of public areas from a central location or via remote cell phone. Tenants can also have systems installed to monitor their offices remotely.

03 Nov, 2009

I find the "below the surface" stuff -- not generally reported, I don't think -- to be more interesting than the opinions of "leading economists," Ben Bernanke, or any of the media or D.C.-based schmucks.

After all, not a one of them saw this economic cataclysm coming, did they? Yet you can't argue with the data. Of course, you can misinterpret the data -- but that's on you (and me) . . . right?

Here's a case in point, NPD Group, which is a consumer-focused market research company, reported this:


What does this mean? At a minimum, it means 300+ million people are going out to eat less. Does it mean they have less disposable income, or they're all on a diet? Perhaps they're all doing REALLY WELL, but don't want to go out to the local Arby's and look like non-green big eaters in the eyes of their neighbors?

You tell me.

03 Nov, 2009

There's an awful lot of "Stuff" happening in the electrical generation area.

Pike Research has a research survey out claiming that Microgrids are going to go bananas in the next 5+ years. You have to pay to see it; what little it will share for free can be found here.

Pike Research forecasts that over 3 GW of new microgrid capacity will come on line globally by 2015, representing a cumulative investment of $7.8 billion.  North America will be the largest market for microgrids during that period, capturing 74% of total industry capacity.  In North America, the largest category will be instutional microgrids, followed by commercial/industrial and community grids.  In other regions, however, the story is different and we expect community microgrids to be the largest category in Europe and Asia Pacific.

BASICS? See this article (many years old) from a DoE national lab.

03 Nov, 2009

Here's a "Did You Know?" from the 10/26 issue of Business Week: Peter Morici, the U. of MD economist, said: