Industry News

February 2012

Model ALRT-100 adds a "solution" to your product portfolio

Check out the details for EBTRON's latest addition to the catalog. The ALRT-100 provides the simple answer for satisfying the credit requirements for LEED 2009 EQc1 "Outdoor Air Monitoring." This economical device may be used to send a relay contact closure signal to a remote or local alarm when operating flow parameters are not maintained within a predetermined range. It can be used with any product that provides an analog output, but is ideally suited for the alarm output programmability of EBTRON GTC116 and HTA104 transmitters. The alarm input to the ALRT-100 would be wired to the Temp/Alarm terminals (OUT2). The setup and programming would be accomplished using SW2 to select alarm or temperature, and the SetPoint and Hysteresis, etc. from within the tramsnitter's Setup mode. For exammple: low limit or high limit alarm with hysteresis, or as a dead band alarm with upper and lower setpoint alarms as a percentage of flow. The output can be configured as active low (0VDC) or active high (5VDC/10VDC). The transmitter alarm feature can also be set (TRBL) to allow internal fault detection circuitry that monitors transmitter and sensor status to provide a trouble alarm output in the event of a fault. Needed compliance functionality can be easily provided without ABS software modifications. Details can be downloaded for all transmitter technical installation details and on the ALRT-100 at ebtron.com.

New Legislation Would Save Money, Improve Energy Usage in Federal Buildings

Wasington, DC (Nov. 7, 2011) New legislation introduced would help federal agencies save energy and money by improving building performance in federal buildings. The legislation addresses a number of ways to achieve high-performance buildings, such as the use of life-cycle cost analysis, integrated design processes, building information modeling (BIM) and building commissioning. The language reflects recommendations made by the executive committee of the High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition, of which the National Institute of Building Sciences is a member. "We can't be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to building construction," said Congressman Carnahan upon introduction of the legislation. "Getting serious about saving taxpayer money-and energy-starts with this bipartisan legislation. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this bill and start saving now."

View the "High-Performance Federal Buildings Act.""

For the complete article,click here.

Work on Saudi Arabia's super-tall $1.2B Kingdom Tower starts in January

MENAFN.com (Jordan) (11/16) Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the developer behind the Kingdom Tower, said it will break ground in a few weeks, Arabian Business reported. The company said that the US$1.2 billion tower, which is being built for Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holding, is scheduled to begin in January and will be constructed in three phases over five years.

For more information,click here.

Taiwan Legislature OKs Indoor Air Quality Management Act

Clearwater, FL - The ROC Legislature passed the Indoor Air Quality Management Act Nov. 8, making Taiwan the second country after South Korea to enact such a regulation. Shieh Yan-ru, head of the Environmental Protection Administration's Department of Air Quality Protection & Noise Control, said the act, part of President Ma Ying-jeou's environmental protection platform, is a step toward ensuring the health and well-being of the people. "The passage of this legislation, which is an extension of earlier outdoor air quality regulations, shows that the government is determined to improve the indoor environment for the people," Shieh said. The act, which will take effect one year after promulgation by the president, stipulates that owners, managers or employers of mass gathering spaces are responsible for maintaining indoor air quality in their venues, and that those who fail to meet standards will be given a period of improvement or face fines.

For full news story,  click here.

VANCOUVER, Wash.-Architects and engineers can only go so far in delivering on energy efficiency, according to a new study by New Buildings Institute (NBI). The study suggests that although the market generally assigns responsibility for building energy performance to the design team for aspects such as envelope, HVAC system and lighting system features, operational and tenant practices have a significant impact on building energy use. The study found that best practices in building operations can reduce energy use 10% to 20% across all climate zones. Poor operations practices can increase energy use 30% to 60% or more.

Click here to read the report.

Top green building megatrends for 2012!

1. Green building in North America will rebound in 2012, using new LEED project registrations as a proxy for this growth. The reduction in commercial real estate construction has not been offset by other sectors such as government construction, which has continued to falter, and so the growth rate of new green building projects fell dramatically in 2010 and 2011. Even so, in 2011, LEED in new construction accounted for about 20 percent of all put-in-place space, with domestic LEED project registrations up almost 40 percent vs. depressed 2010 levels. In addition, LEED growth has been and will be rapid in China and other fast-growing economies.

2. Green building will continue to benefit from the Obama administration's strengthened focus on greening the executive branch, with its commitment to a minimum of LEED Gold for all federal projects and focus on major energy-efficiency renovations.

3. The focus of the green building industry will continue its switch from new building design and construction to greening existing buildings. One fast-growing LEED rating system during the past two years has been LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM), with cumulative floor area in certified projects now greater than in new construction, and the author expects this trend to pick up even more in 2012. One driver of this megatrend is that "green" buildings have rents and asset prices that are significantly higher than those documented for conventional office space, according to a recent major academic research study on commercial buildings in the U.S. and Europe.

4. Awareness of the coming global crisis in fresh water supply will increase, leading building designers, owners and managers to take further steps to reduce water consumption in buildings by using more conserving fixtures, rainwater recovery systems and innovative new onsite water technologies.

5. LEED has registered or certified projects in 131 of the world's 196 countries, with a total floor area of almost 3 billion sq. ft. When combined with the nearly 1.5 billion sq. ft. registered under LEED India and LEED Canada, it is clear that LEED is the dominant global green building certification brand. 6. Zero-net-energy buildings will become increasingly commonplace in both residential and commercial sectors, as LEED and ENERGY STAR certifications and labels have become too commonplace to confer a competitive advantage among building owners. Developers of speculative commercial buildings will also begin to showcase Zero Net Energy designs.

7. Performance disclosure will be the fastest emerging trend, highlighted by new requirements in California, Seattle and other locations. Commercial building owners will have to disclose actual building performance to all new tenants and buyers and, in some places, to the public at large. This trend is already established in Australia and will spread rapidly as the easiest way to monitor reductions in carbon emissions from commercial and governmental buildings.

8. Green Buildings will increasingly be managed in the "cloud," as witnessed by the large number of new entrants and new products in fields of building automation, facility management, wireless controls and information management in 2011.

9. Local and state governments will step up their mandates for green buildings for both themselves and the private sector. We'll see at least 20 new cities with commercial sector green building mandates, mostly in the "blue" states. The desire to reduce carbon emissions by going green will lead more government agencies, universities, hospitals and corporate owners to require green buildings from design and construction teams

For the full story click here.

Chinese cabinet approves regulation to standardize construction bidding

BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The State Council, or China's cabinet, has approved a regulation that aims to standardize bidding processes for construction and other business-related projects in order to rule out fraud and misconduct.

The regulation further clarifies the range of bidding for projects that must undergo bidding procedures. It also forbids the unreasonable and unfair restriction or exclusion of bidders for eligible projects. Bidders may not be asked to meet extra terms that are not related to the actual requirements of the projects, according to the regulation, which was approved after an executive meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday. Bidding evaluators must be randomly chosen from a given list and will be prohibited from having personal contact with bidders or accepting bribes. The regulation stipulates that successful bidders and project tenders are not allowed to set up extra agreements that deviate from the original contract. It also strictly bans any political intervention or manipulation of the bidding processes.

Violations will render the bidding process invalid and lead to fines and confiscation of any illegal gains, according to the regulation

News Release by US-Chinese Embassy

One World Trade Center is now at 90 floors

Construction of One World Trade Center in New York City has reached 90 floors, and only 14 more floors need to be completed. Work is on schedule for its 2013 completion, and panoramic views from various floors are already evident. An observation deck will be built 1,241 feet above ground. The Daily Mail (London) (12/16).

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