BMS Blunders I

Ater a week without a blog due to personal issues I’m starting a set of four to mark NEMEX next week.

A lot of people think Building Management Systems are a major solution to energy management- they are a useful tool but they do need active management if they are to achieve best results – if they are treated as “fit and forget” they might actually cost you energy!
Four stories from my past come to mind;
While I was Catterick Garrison ENMAN my Assistant ENMAN (Steve) took a call from the Garrison Commander on 1st October (the day the army heating season starts in the UK) complaining that the heating wasn’t on in his office. Steve went to (what I’m told was) the largest Satchwell BMS in the UK and replied – “Your office is up to temperature Sir” (he actually had one of the sensors in his office – I wonder why!). The Commander kept insisting that the heating wasn’t on because his radiator was cold.
Time for me to step in,
A quick word with Steve and I picked up my phone and a large bunch of keys and walked to the next building where the Commander had his office. Explaining again I took him to the boiler room and showed him the boiler was alight and that its header circuit was warm and looping on the shortest shunt circuit. I also showed him that the outlet pipework was cold after the control valve.
I picked up my phone “Steve NOW Please!” a short pause and the motorised valve opened and heat flowed towards the building.
I explained to the Commander that Steve had increased the set point for his office above that allowed by the rules (he’d actually done more as he’d had to force an unscheduled update on the outstation, inhibited some of the other sensors and turned off the short-cycling protocol but the Commander didn’t need to know that). We walked back to his office which was already becoming uncomfortably warm and the Commander was convinced that we had control and that actually he didn’t need (or even want) the heating on.
“Steve please put the Commander’s Office back to normal it won’t be dignified if he has to wear shorts and as I can see it from my desk he knows what I’ll say if he opens his window”
and the other stories……watch this space.

UK Association of Energy Engineers

A few months ago I was invited to join a new group- the UK Association of Energy Engineers- by a long term Energy Industry contact and I thought “Why? What’s in it for me?”.

I’m already a Member of the Energy Institute, regularly attend seminars by industry groups like ESTA and MEUC and even turn up with people like CIBSE so why?

Then I heard the concept of the group ; a group for Energy Managers run by Energy Managers and heard about the lonely energy manager beset around by demands on his expertise burnng the Midnight Oil to try to catch up. I thought “Heck I’ve been that guy!”

I then analysed the other groups -none of them are specifically FOR Energy Managers;

the Energy Institute is for all sorts of Energy Professionals (I’m a Member and a Chartered Energy Engineer but many others are from the supply side), ESTA is aimed at selling services and equipment to Energy Managers, MEUC represents (as its name says) Major Energy users -some of whom will be Energy Managers but others will be CFO’s CEO’s etc. and CIBSE are Building Service Engineers -some of who will be Energy Managers…

So none of them are specifically for Energy Managers and I remembered how without my network I would have felt exposed and without support.

So I joined up – after all it was and still is Free (for the moment; that may well change).

I saw the ambition of the group and the membership grow (nudging 200 members) and an affiliation with the Association of Energy Engineers in the United States and decided to take on the Marketing and Media portfolio -unpaid because I want this to succeed and we don’t have the resources yet for paid officers.

Now I’m building a marketing proposal for us and because we’re an organisation FOR Energy Managers BY Energy Managers I want to know what services Energy Managers really want?

Vilnis Vesma (our secretary) has been working on a way to collate CPD certificates for members, we’ve agreed an “ask the expert”  regular feature in an energy publication, we’re looking to arrange lectures all over the UK – what else can we set up for you?

Join the Association (as I said it’s free at the moment) and let us know!

(email me @ AndyCEnergy@gmail.com if you want more information)

Pyramid Power?

My friend Vilnis Vesma (also the secretary of the UK Association of Energy Engineers) has a regular item on his website exposing some of the flim-flam artists who prey on the ignorance of people desperate to make savings. They have a sophisticated line in pseudo-science with great plausability but almost invariably they break the fundamental laws of Thermodynamics or Chemistry.
Most of them work the scam very simply; either they use interest from your money to cover their costs before they are forced to return it (and there are always some who give up before they get the money back), there are some sites where coincidentally the consumpton decreases or (the only one that actually makes a real positive difference) they find boilers needing adjustment and correct their settings (a service engineer would do it for a fraction of their extortionate charges).
Their “magic devices” usually relate to magnets, electromagnetic pulses from “almost pure copper coils” (Ever heard of impure copper coils?) and pyramids -all of which have no affect on the gas or air they are alleged to “energise” but the first one I came across made grandeous claims about adding water to the combustion.
Now adding water vapour (or vaporising water) to some combustion processes can have a positive influence. Steam added to Heavy Fuel Oil helps break that almost tar like semi-liquid up and improves mixing with air, water injected into high performance engines can stop overheating and improve power by changing some of the wasted heat into steam.
This however was nothing like that!
The works engineer at a Sheffield factory (ex merchant marine -that’s relevant) showed me the installation his Finance Director had had installed on their Steam Boiler (something like 10,000 lbs of steam an hour- a sizeable piece of equipment) .
Well there was a big red box maybe 750mm square with a plug lead, a counter marked “hours run” and a sign saying “warranty void if this box is opened”. From the side of the box a rubber tube (maybe 5mm in diameter) emerged which was cable tied to the boiler air inlet which was around half metre in diameter (If I hadn’t known where to look I’d have missed it).
Now did the sign stop us investigating? A quick application of a screwdriver and we were inside the box. The contents were a fishtank pump and a bowl part filled with the sort of gravel put in the bottom of fish tanks and part filled with water ( I tasted it).
Did this device have the miraculous effect claimed? The works engineer was used to tuning his boilers regularly but the magic box suppliers made their special adjustments and instructed him not to change them. After a week he checked the usage- it had risen
QED