Operating Cost

Efficiently capturing facility management data about a new building or recently installed equipment saves time and money for the plant operations team after construction is completed. The process begins with selecting the most appropriate model for collecting the information and properly integrating it into the facility management system at the inception of a project. Building information modeling (BIM) is a critical component in data collection.

Onset announced the release of a new high-performance data logger for building performance monitoring applications in January of 2014. The HOBO UX120-006M Analog Logger provides twice the accuracy of previous models, a deployment-friendly LCD, and support for up to four external sensors for measuring temperature, current, CO2, voltage, and more. This enables energy engineers, facility managers, and others to easily solve a range of building performance applications, including energy audits, building commissioning studies, and equipment scheduling optimization.

Lease arrangements for office and laboratory space have historically been mostly for smaller companies, but are now becoming increasingly popular as a way for large research institutions to find an entrée into or expand in congested and expensive urban centers quickly, cost-effectively, and with more flexibility than building new.

The following is a compilation of responses to a survey that asked individuals responsible for planning, design, operations, and maintenance of high-containment facilities to rank their priorities for 2014 and make open-ended comments regarding those priorities. The issues identified in this survey will be the focus of Tradeline’s upcoming conference—The 2014 International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities—on April 10‐11 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The respondents ranked their overall priorities as follows:

A new approach to space planning based on Lean design concepts improves space utilization processes and helps reduce building and operating expenses for academic, research, and healthcare facilities by achieving maximum efficiency with minimum construction.

The University of Sussex has initiated a $246 million service delivery contract with Interserve. Over the ten-year partnership, Interserve will provide services including building management, capital projects development, grounds maintenance, cleaning, postal services, parking, security, waste management, and infrastructure improvements. Interserve will aim to deliver best-practice processes to improve operational efficiency. The University of Sussex has five campuses in the United Kingdom, three of which are in Brighton.

Eastern Kentucky University's utility costs have remained stable over the last two years due to the implementation five years ago of an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) with Siemens Building Technologies. Aiming to generate savings and address deferred maintenance needs, the $27 million contract included extensive infrastructure upgrades to HVAC, lighting, and water systems, as well as the integration of building automation technologies.

The following is a condensed transcript of a panel discussion from Tradeline’s 2013 International Conference on Research Facilities. The panelists are William Gustafson, principal at Ballinger; Steven Frei, principal at Affiliated Engineers, and Michael Reagan, vice president of Stantec. The moderator is Steve Westfall, founder and CEO of Tradeline.

The Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), a high-containment facility in Geelong, Victoria, has been operating 24/7 with no shutdowns, even for maintenance or upgrades, for nearly 30 years, thanks to the initial design, selection of materials, and quality of construction.

The AAHL—with BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4 biocontainment areas—has an extensive redundant plant to ensure that critical systems, such as the air handling units, remain continually operational. The facility was one of the first in the world to use microprocessor control for all engineering systems.

The University of Massachusetts Medical School is initiating an energy retrofit of the Lazare Medical Research Facility in Worcester. Airside solutions provider Aircuity will install demand control ventilation (DCV) systems on a total of nine floors, including eight floors of laboratory space and a vivarium level, to provide significant cost savings and optimal indoor air quality. The retrofit is expected to reach completion in spring of 2014.

With academic research funding either flat or slumping, it’s time to rethink current laboratory design standards. Concurrent with the funding slide is a hike in both direct costs (salaries, for example) and indirect research costs like spending on facilities operation, equipment, and labor. At the same time, the demand for space continues to increase unabated.

The State of Washington’s Department of Enterprise Services (DES) has selected AssetWorks' AiM platform to serve as the statewide facilities inventory system. DES is expected to leverage AiM to capture, manage, and report on relevant facility inventory data for both owned and leased facilities. This data in turn is expected to be used by the state’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) to conduct in-depth analysis, long-term planning, and ongoing management of the state’s facilities portfolio.

Montana State University is building the $18 million College of Business in Bozeman. The 45,000-sf facility will be aligned for maximal sunlight harvesting in the winter months with the south side of the building comprised almost entirely of windows. The building will utilize geothermal heat exchangers, an advanced air circulation system, and multiple renewable energy technologies.

Getting the planning team on board with Lean project delivery from the outset of a project can net huge savings in both capital expenditures and long-term operating costs. A California hospital, for example, saved $700,000 and 550 sf per bed, and the project was completed 25 percent ahead of schedule, a level of efficiency that can be achieved in other industries, as well.

Annual revalidation of BSL-3 biocontainment facilities—which involves verifying that systems are operating to specifications—is important not only to maintain a safe working environment for scientific needs, but also to reduce utility and maintenance costs and protect the substantial financial investments such buildings represent. The time and expense of the revalidation process can be minimized with careful preplanning.