Who Do Daylight Harvesting Projects Succeed or Fail?

Recently, the sustainable design movement has given daylighting a comeback in the mainstream construction industry. Daylighting, a practice that has been vital for energy conservation and easy illumination for centuries, can be defined as "the use of daylight as a primary source of illumination to support human activity in a space."

Examples of daylighting in architecture.
Source: http://bit.ly/1PxN13t

Daylighting is an extremely useful tool, as it promotes limited use of electricity and efficient design methods. Yet, some daylighting projects are not as successful as others. David Eijadi from The Weidt Group, an energy design consulting firm, highlights the main reasons why some daylighting projects may fail:

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• Lack of coordination or understanding between the different design disciplines concerning the daylighting control system.
• Improper location of controls.
• Inadequate specification of the controls systems, component parameters, and sequence of operations.
• Shop drawings made by contractors that detail the system are not checked, or the lighting designer does not know what to check.
• Field changes to tune a system are not documented and taken back to the designer to complete the feedback loop.

These problems result in common failure modes, such as:

• Under-dimming, which results in less than expected energy savings.
• Over-dimming, which results in user irritation.
• Frequent cycling of dimming or switching, resulting in user irritation.
• Lights left on at night, which results in less than expected energy savings.

"

Although these mistakes are common, they are preventable. Eijadi recommends these eight steps to combat failed daylighting projects:

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1. Conduct a daylight simulation, and use these plans when designing the lighting system and its controls.
2. Prepare plans that document daylight zones, and establish independent control zones that work optimally with these patterns.
3. Locate the photosensor on the reflected ceiling plans and interior elevations.
4. Identify light fixtures that are controlled by individual sensors or controllers.
5. Write a daylighting controls narrative.
6. Require the contractor to submit shop drawings based on design documents and control narrative for review.
7. Include the requirement for calibration of controls in the specifications, and require calibration logs to be submitted by the contractor. 
8. Provision building operator training by the controls manufacturer.

"

Main source: http://ecmweb.com/contractor/why-do-daylight-harvesting-projects-succeed-or-fail

A few shots from our annual holiday party.

Intrepid Electronic System's 2015 Staff!

Train Before Trucking: Industrial Truck Accident Prevention by Tom O'Connor

"Powered industrial trucks cause approximately 100 fatalities and more than 35,000 serious injuries every year. It is estimated that as many as 25 percent of all accidents involving this type of equipment can be attributed to lack of training. As a result, proper hazard awareness and recognition when operating powered industrial trucks can help drastically reduce these types of accidents. 

A few basic precautions apply to all powered industrial trucks, which are more commonly identified as forklifts or lift trucks. Defined as mobile, power-propelled trucks used to carry, push, pull, lift, stack or tier materials, they vary greatly depending on where they operate and the function they perform; options range from narrow aisle trucks to rough-terrain forklifts. They may be powered by electric or combustion engines. The first step of training is to become familiar with the equipment. 

Forklifts and lift trucks typically have short wheel bases and weigh as much as or more than many cars, which makes them potentially hazardous to use. Operators must be properly trained by a competent person prior to driving one. Once an individual is authorized and trained to use a powered industrial truck, the equipment still should be inspected prior to driving one. Once an individual is authorized and trained to use a powered industrial truck, the equipment still should be inspected prior to operation. The inspection should include testing the vehicle's brakes and controls to ensure they work properly. In the event something is not functioning correctly, a supervisor must be alerted and the equipment taken out of use until it is repaired and deemed safe. 

Only one person should be on a forklift or lift truck at any given time. This person must always wear a seat belt and adhere to manufacturer requirements, instructions and load limits. Failure to do so can have dire consequences.

Operators should position the forklift so that the forks are square with a load prior to picking it up. The forks should be placed underneath the load as far as possible. It is imperative that loads are never raised or lowered when traveling from one location to another and that they aren't swung or carried over people. Objects being moved with a forklift need to be securely fastened in place. This can be done by using a proper securing pin to secure movable or replaceable lift bars. It is important that a threaded bolt or pin is never used for this purpose. 

Whenever an industrial truck needs to cross an aisle or other area with obstructed views, the driver should move slowly and use the horn to alert others. The vehicle should always face the direction being traveled. Sudden stops or starts must be avoided. 

Lower the lift or forks of an unattended forklift or lift truck, neutralize all controls. and chock the wheels. When not carrying a load, the forks should always be kept in the lowest possible position without making contact with uneven surfaces.

The following examples demonstrate what can happen when training is not provided and basic precautions are not observed: 

• A 37-year-old forklift salesman was killed when attempting to deliver an industrial truck to a job site. The equipment was driven onto a loading dock, and the parking brake was engaged with the power off; however, the wheels were not chocked. The industrial equipment fell off of the loading dock and fatally crushed the individual. 
• A 44-year-old industrial truck operator died after falling approximately 30 feet to the ground from the upper tier of a handmade, wooden work platform. He was attached to a forklift at the time of the fall. Proper safety procedures were not in place at the time of the incident. 
• A 51-year-old rigger was killed as a result of injuries sustained when he was pinned between a semi truck trailer bed floor and a lift truck. The accident occurred when he attempted to move a piece of metal framework that was not secured or on a pallet. 

All of these accidents could have been prevented with the mandatory training prescribed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The regulations require that employers provide both classroom and practical experience training in the use of a forklift before allowing an employee to use it on the job. As part if the training, the employee must physically demonstrate he or she can safely operate the lift. The employer must certify that the training and evaluation have been completed at least once every three years. Refresher training is required more frequently if the operator demonstrates a deficiency in the safe operation of the truck. 

If you would like more information on this topic, a number of online resources are available. They include the OSHA eTool for Powered Industrial Industrial Truck Safety and the OSHA Safety and Health Training Resource for Powered Industrial Truck Safety. In addition, OSHA has several regulatory requirements that promote safe operation of this type of equipment that are important to be familiar with. All can be found at www.osha.gov."

Source: http://www.ecmag.com/section/safety/train-trucking

Intrepid Electronic Systems is now promoting enGauge's Fire Extinguisher Monitoring System!

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MFR Home Fire Sprinkler/Flashover Demonstration 10-2015

Home fire sprinklers are necessary for your safety. Find out why in this demonstration.

"How Secure Is Your Security?" - from EC Mag's Deborah L. O'Mara

"Are your low-voltage and security customers concerned over 'hanging' security cameras on the enterprise network and opening it to potential vulnerabilities? Or are they looking at protecting other parts of their commercial facility that may be housing data and other privileged information? Manufacturers in the physical security industry have those same thoughts and are taking steps to prevent hacking, malicious takeovers, and even data center terrorism and sabotage.

There's good reason for these concerns. News surfaces daily of data theft, email leakage, gaming network circumvention and more, as hackers continue to find ways into communication infrastructures. For example, hackers recently set up a live-streaming website for more than 100 private webcams in New York.

As news of private and corporate network takeovers and incidents of malicious software ('malware') continue in epic proportion, the security industry has become extremely proactive, easing these fears with new partnerships, tactics and technologies.

'The bottom line is: Is your security system secure?' said Charlie Hare, Panasonic;s national category manager, Security and Mobile Video Solutions, Newark, N.J. 'Panasonic is taking proactive steps to secure data from networked video surveillance and camera streams.'

The company recently announced a partnership with Symantec, Mountain View, Calif., the world's largest provider of secure sockets layer (SSL) server certification, to develop more secure video-transmission solutions to prevent data takeover and malicious activity. Called Secure Communication, the company's recent launch of Norton Secured, powered by Symantec, is designed to provide secure data management in video surveillance and address cyber-security incidents that continue to occur, including hacking, data breach, password takeover and tampering.

Hare said Secure Communication is PC-level security for built-in devices such as video surveillance cameras and embedded video management systems (VMS). Secure Communication enables video streams with three pillars of protection: data encryption, communication encryption and verification to maintain evidence and safety of video streams. It specifically protects against spoofing (false data), altering (changing images) and snooping (stealing passwords) of protected surveillance communications. Because its end-points are connected to the network, IP camera installation can compromise that connection.

Panasonic continues to develop technology to put this type of protection on cameras and video surveillance servers. Secure Communication is available on its new Panasonic 3, 5 and 6 Series models.

It 'provides extra layers of protection for Panasonic IP devices,' Hare said. 'It encodes data and encrypts transmission.'

Protection at the appliance level

Security-industry appliances, sometimes referred to as embedded devices, may also be open to hacking or data loss. Razberi Technologies. Farmers Branch, Texas, recently introduced the LocBeri Cyber Security System to prevent unauthorized users from accessing network ports deployed for surveillance cameras.

'The potential costs and consequences of hackers getting through firewalls and onto the user's computer networks can be devastating,' said Rich Anderson, Razberi's chief marketing officer and chief technology officer. 'Whenever you install IP cameras, especially outside on a building, you're potentially opening the network up to others."

He gave an example where college students unplugged exterior cameras and connected their laptops instead to hop onto the network and alter test scores.

'For installers, LocBeri is easy to implement, and the graphical user interface of the VMS software program automatically populates the media access control [MAC] addresses of all ports through a utility software scan and locks down those ports with a single click,' he said. '[It] scans attached cameras and automatically configures the switch so only those cameras work on those ports. There is no major downtime or labor involved when undergoing system maintenance or changing a camera, because one push of a button unlocks all ports to allow for system changes and another push when finished relocks the system, saving the installer programming and installation costs.'

LocBeri is a standard feature on all Razberi ServerSwitch units.

'We're a big proponent of open systems and open architecture, but of course that does bring up concerns of cyber-security threats with everything residing on the network,' said Jack Cabasso, managing director of Aventura, a video management solutions, access control and VMS software manufacturer in Commack, N.Y. 'But, open systems are also more adaptable, and ways to secure the systems can be more readily addressed. It's an area where we need to educate the installation community and users on steps they need to take to secure their video and other environments.'

Creating layers of security, adding new technology and providing end-user education is helping the industry address possible network takeover or other unauthorized activity of surveillance cameras and video-transmission streams."

Source:  http://www.ecmag.com/section/systems/how-secure-your-security

Kudos, Kurt!

On November 24th, Intrepid's very own Kurt Brinkman was elected as NorCal NECA's President!