Baltimore Gas & Electric cuts their energy… use
Oct/090
BG&E truck repair facility in Woodlawn area of Baltimore County
Brian Smith, property manager for Baltimore Gas & Electric installed energy efficient lighting in their truck repair facilities and explained it this way;
At one time we were only a power plant, it didn’t make sense for us to be energy efficient. But now that we have to purchase power for our own facilities, plus our customers, it makes more sense for us to not use so much overhead and power. So [the energy efficient lights] really helps us.
The bottom line is that Baltimore Gas & Electric spent a half million dollars on 1500 light fixtures that were so energy efficient that the project paid for itself in just 18 months.
Smith attributes the energy savings to the high tech fixtures with advanced optics, which allow BG&E to cut back on the total number of fluorescent tubes. He was replacing high pressure sodium’s and old T12’s with T5HO.
And the color improve substantially, says Smith.
The issue with auto mechanics – truck mechanics. You pop the hood of a car, and you have all your bundles of wires that feed to your sensors and all your electrical components. When you have high pressure sodium lighting the orange and brown looks the same. You really can’t tell the color of the wire. By going to a higher output, brighter white light, with a high color rendition you can actually tell the color of the wires much easier. You don’t have to have a secondary light to see the color of the wires. It was a remarkable difference.
It was a no-brainer.
Polished Concrete Flooring Is Clean, Green and Cost-Effective
Jun/090
Medrad, an affiliate of Bayer AG, based in Pittsburgh, Pa specifies polished concrete for thier facilities to reflect on the company’s commitment to environmental consciousness. Read feature in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Magazine .
Ferrari designers speaking about hotel flooring
Feb/090
Pininfarina is the Italian firm that designs the Ferrari sports car. They are also pulling the carpet off the floors in the hotel rooms of the Keating Hotel they designed recently in San Fransisco.
In an email, Francesco Fiordelisi, of Pininfarina explained, that without the carpet, the hotel room floors have the “edge of industrial design”. And from a more practical point of view, he says, “What takes the most time in terms of cleaning a room? If the room has carpeting, it is the floor. And, carpet often looks dirty.”
Industrial Distribution Group discusses flooring
Feb/090
Industrial Distribution Group’s Mark Garmon, discussing his flooring installation.
“We have a 82,000 ft.² distribution center. We built this building 10 years ago. We had a Rustoleum epoxy floor coating. And it was delaminating. We had a housekeeping, safety, and appearance issue with that floor.”
“Then, this facility was hit with a tornado in May.”
“We spent a lot of time investigating different floor systems. We toured facilities around North Carolina and looked at different applications. We thought that polished concrete best fit our environment. From an appearance, and safety, and operational issue”
“The system was finished in October, 2008.”
“Before we had an epoxy sand grout system. The maintenance on that… we scrubbed it weekly. The problem we had was de-lamination came up. So we had an issue with safety. At that level, you have to shut your operation down, prep of floor. It’s a huge cost.”
“The cost difference between the old maintenance and the new maintenance, I would say that it is somewhere about 75% less cost.”
“We actually had four different competitors come in and do a test patch. We had them each remove epoxy on a 10 x 10 square. We got to evaluate their process and compared products.”
“We choose QuestMark over the others. First, I would say the cost. And the finished product. They did great job. And, I think their knowledge of the process. QuestMark did exactly what they outlined in their quote; and it was to the tee. Good job.”
Con-way Freight shop floor
Oct/080
Successful Dealer magazine published a short piece about Con-Way Freight using polished concrete flooring. Before the new flooring went in, the truck repair shop was replacing the floors about every three years just from normal wear and tear, and so Con-Way was looking for a more long-term solution.
Ed Arciniaga, construction manager for Con-Way, worked with QuestMark Flooring to create it’s polished concrete floor.
According to Arciniaga, “The floor looks great and is easy to maintain. And all we are doing is using the floor scrubber to keep it clean.”
The floor is in the 5,000-sq.-ft. maintenance facility and was completed in few days.
The story is in Successful Dealer magazine at bottom of the website page.
International Facility Management Association describes key benefits
May/080
Concrete is extremely-durable. And the most environmentally-friendly approach to any building component, of course, is to make use of existing materials. That’s one reason why we favor polished concrete on straight concrete floors. Straight concrete is common on industrial floors.
The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has published a good overview of the key benefits of a polished concrete floor.