Blog - Smart Buildings Center

Smart Buildings Exchange Early-Bird Registration Open!

January 9, 2020 By Britton Rife

A limited number of early-bird tickets for Smart Buildings Exchange, September 2-3, 2020, in Seattle are now available — register now and save $100!

About the event
Buildings are digitizing. Throughout the built environment, new technologies are connecting building systems and occupants in ways that generate confusion, opportunity, challenges and concerns over risks. From enabling buildings to perform for occupants and owners in previously unimaginable ways, to leveraging buildings to accelerate smart cities and electrification of transportation for a cleaner and healthier Earth, the opportunities are countless and exciting. Smart Buildings Exchange brings together the key audiences to challenge the hype, bear witness to the innovation, and explore the business case for accelerating the adoption and commercialization of smart buildings technologies and practices.

Exhibitor & Sponsorship Opportunities
Smart Buildings Exchange will host a boutique style exhibition highlighting industry leading vendors and sponsors that represent the Pacific Northwest vision for “smart” including the latest in smart building technologies and practices. Exhibitor & Sponsorship opportunities are limited — please download our Sponsorship Prospectus or contact britton.rife@neec.net for more information about ways your organization or business can participate in the conference.

NEEC members get 15% off of registration! Be sure to reach out to info@neec.net to receive your NEEC member discount code before registering.

Smart Buildings Exchange (SBX) 2020
September 2 – 3, 2020
Bell Harbor Conference Center, Seattle
https://smartbuildingscenter.org/sbx

SBC EP Board Members Receive West Sound STEM Network Outstanding Partnership Awards

January 9, 2020 By Britton Rife

West Sound STEM Network, a regional network with over 50 members from a cross-sector of industry, education, government, and nonprofit sectors dedicated to ensuring that area youth have access to career pathways that lead to family-wage, high-demand careers, recently presented four “Outstanding Partnership” awards at the West Sound STEM Network Career Connect Washington Summit. Two of the awards were presented to Smart Buildings Center Education Program (SBC EP) Board members Perry England, MacDonald-Miller, and Robb Andrade, Siemens.

MacDonald-Miller and Siemens are industry members of West Sound STEM and a driving force in developing the controls programmer and associate controls specialist apprenticeships. MacDonald-Miller and Siemens provide outstanding leadership on the Senior Leadership Team and on the Implementation Team and regularly interact with and support education and industry within the West Sound STEM Network region. MacDonald-Miller has led STEM Cafes for teachers with a focus on engineering design, and Siemens works with educators and schools in the region to bring real-world applications into the classroom. These efforts provide real-world training opportunities for teachers and students to increase their own STEM knowledge, connect with industry, and engage in activities that they can take back to their classroom. The professional development links real-world application to classroom instruction in a way that is engaging and understandable to both teachers and students. MacDonald-Miller and Siemens have also hosted teacher externships and worksite learning tours for students. Thank you to MacDonald-Miller and Siemens for providing these deep and meaningful connections for educators and students which are critical to support developing the workforce of today and tomorrow.

Perry England and South Kitsap School District Superintendent Tim Winter with the MacDonald-Miller award.

Robb Andrade and South Kitsap School District Superintendent Tim Winter with the Siemens award.

New SBC Video Training: Verifying Proper Operation of Outdoor Air Damper Controls

January 9, 2020 By Britton Rife

Have you seen our new SBC Video Training Series on Diagnostic Tool Applications yet? If not, check out the series on our YouTube Channel or click the link below to watch the first video in the series.

Verifying Proper Operation of Outdoor Air Damper Controls
This video demonstrates the use of portable temperature data loggers to record discharge air temperature (DAT), mixed air temperature (MAT), return air temperature (RAT) and outside air temperature (OAT) as well as supply fan status using a motor logger. The training shows how to program/deploy the data loggers and how to interpret from the data whether damper controls are working as intended.

Thank you to Puget Sound Energy and Seattle City Light for their support in developing the video training series!

NAPHN 2020 Conference Call for Papers

January 9, 2020 By Britton Rife

Passive House 2020 – Choose Your Future
New York City, June 11-12, 2020

Through January 24th, the North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) 2020 Conference Call for Papers is open for both workshops and the main conference sessions.

“Choose Your Future” is a call to action in these uncertain times, to empower individuals and teams, to mitigate risks and ensure positive outcomes. In addition to the expected spectrum of in-depth presentations and workshops, there will be a particular emphasis on engaging building developers and owners of all stripes, in a peer-to-peer dialogue.

For more information, please visit https://naphnetwork.org/conference/

New SBC Video Training Series: Diagnostic Tool Applications

December 26, 2019 By Britton Rife

With support from Puget Sound Energy and Seattle City Light, the Smart Buildings Center (SBC) has developed a video training series demonstrating practical applications of some of the tools available in SBC’s Tool Lending Library. These demonstrations are especially useful for commercial buildings without a building automation system (BAS), but the concepts can apply to any commercial building. Videos in the series include:

Melissa Sokolowsky, Senior Project Manager at the Smart Buildings Center, demonstrating practical applications of some of the data loggers available in the Tool Lending Library.

Identifying Fan Operation During Unoccupied Hours
This video demonstrates the use of a motor logger to verify the operating schedule of fans, applicable to any motor driven device such as exhaust fans, supply/return fans, terminal unit fans and pumps. The training covers programming and deployment of the data loggers as well as data analysis.

Measuring Ventilation System Effectiveness
This video demonstrates the use of a CO2 meter and data logger to measure the effectiveness of the ventilation system. The training covers the programming and deployment of the meter and data logger and as well as data analysis.

Verifying Condensing Boiler Efficiency
This video demonstrates the use of a data logger to measure hot water return temperatures on a condensing boiler to determine whether the flue gas is condensing, and thus operating efficiently. This training shows how to program and deploy a 4-channel data logger with remote sensor, and covers data analysis.

Verifying Boiler Temperature Reset Control (coming soon)
This video demonstrates how to use data loggers to determine whether a hot water temperature reset strategy based on outdoor temperature is in use and working correctly, by monitoring the hot water supply temperature and outside air temperature. The training includes programming and deployment of the data loggers, as well as analysis of the data.

Seattle Tune-Up Accelerator Program Recognized for Leadership in Energy Efficiency

December 11, 2019 By Britton Rife

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) recently recognized the winners of the 2019 Leadership in Energy Efficiency Awards.

These awards recognize individuals and teams for their outstanding collaboration, innovative solutions and significant contributions to advancing energy efficiency in the Northwest. A panel of Northwest energy and utility leaders selected the winners from more than 30 nominations submitted by the regional energy efficiency community.

The Seattle Tune-Up Accelerator Program was recognized with the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Award for Innovation. This program is a new model to help existing buildings achieve energy savings and cost-effectively meet state and city climate and energy policies.

The City of Seattle Office of Sustainability team led by Nicole Ballinger and Sandra Mallory, the Seattle City Light team led by Joe Fernandi, Ted Brown and Rose Palomo, along with technical support from the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab team led by Chris Meek, the Smart Buildings Center team led by Brittany Quigley, and Srinivas Katipamula and Nora Wang with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, envisioned and implemented the Tune-up Accelerator program.

Seattle Tune-Up Accelerator Program team with their awards at the NEEA Leadership in Energy Efficiency Awards

More information on the other award winners can be found here.