Introduction

An effective school facility is responsive to the changing programs of educational

delivery, and at a minimum should provide a physical environment that is comfortable,
safe, secure, accessible, well illuminated, well ventilated, and aesthetically pleasing.
The school facility consists of not only the physical structure and the variety of building
systems, such as mechanical, plumbing, electrical and power, telecommunications,
security, and fire suppression systems. The facility also includes furnishings, materials
and supplies, equipment and information technology, as well as various aspects of the
building grounds, namely, athletic fields, playgrounds, areas for outdoor learning, and
vehicular access and parking.

The school facility is much more than a passive container of the educational process: it
is, rather, an integral component of the conditions of learning. The layout and design of
a facility contributes to the place experience of students, educators, and community
members. Depending on the quality of its design and management, the facility can
contribute to a sense of ownership, safety and security, personalization and control,
privacy as well as sociality, and spaciousness or crowdedness. When planning,
designing, or managing the school facility, these facets of place experience should,
when possible, be taken into consideration.

The facility planning process at its best involves an assessment of functional needs in
light of the educational program developed during educational planning. There are
several names for this process: Educators refer to the development of educational
specifications, while architects refer to it as facility programming. Facility planning
includes any or all of the following activities: feasibility studies, district master planning,
site selection, needs assessment, and project cost analysis. Spatial requirements and
relationships between various program elements are established. The outcome of the
facility planning process is a public facility program, or educational specifications
document, that outlines physical space requirements and adjacencies and special
design criteria the school facility must meet.

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2394/School-Facilities.html

Many maintenance and engineering tasks present dangers to front-line technicians. To

minimize the possibility of personal injury as much as possible, managers must ensure
technicians have access to and use the right combination of personal protective
equipment (PPE), including gloves, eyewear, and hand and foot protection.

Testing and maintenance of electrical systems often present the most

obvious safetyhazards, including arc-flash, but activities related to plumbing system
maintenance and grounds also can endanger workers. By understanding the nature of
such risks, managers can more successfully specify PPE products to protect workers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employers
furnish "a place of employment which is free from recognized hazards that are causing
or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees." This standard
requires employers to identify and address workplace hazards. Institutional and
commercial facilities often use PPE to reduce employee exposure to hazards.
OSHA specifically regulates the use of PPE under standard 1910.132. OSHA requires
PPE for employees exposed to hazards created from processes or from hazards in the
work environment. PPE used to protect workers includes head, eye and face protection,
respirators, hand and foot protection, protective clothing, and protection from electrical
hazards.

Managers also should be aware that OSHA regulations specify that the use of PPE
must be the last option for controlling workplace hazards. OSHA mandates that
employers first use engineering and administrative controls to reduce or eliminate
hazards before considering. When managers determine engineering and administrative
controls are not feasible or effective in reducing these hazardous exposures to
acceptable levels, they are required to determine if PPE is advisable to protect their
workers.

Electricity-related hazards at the jobsite include electric shocks and burns, arc-flash
burns, arc-blast impacts, and falls. Workers also might need PPE that addresses
multiple hazards. Here are the most important PPE issues associated with electrical
hazards:

The National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) 70E standard on electrical hazards
provides requirements for PPE for both electrical and arc-blast hazards. Minimally, PPE
for such work should include an untreated, natural-fiber, long-sleeve shirt and long
pants, as well as safety glasses with side shields. Depending on the voltage and the
electrical tasks, different types of PPE are required.
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/facilitiesmanagement/article/PPE-Providing-Protection-
Keeping-Workers-Safe--13901?source=part

Poor maintenance in general increases the likelihood of unplanned downtime and the
risk of a catastrophic failure due to an arc flash incident, explains GEs Weihing. Plus, in
extreme situations, protective devices may not work. For example, if breakers cant
operate as designed, a short circuit can occur, resulting in infrastructure damage and
extended downtime. Lacking or not following LOTO procedures, switching circuits inside
arc flash hazard areas and performing work on or near energized circuits can create
extreme danger for personnel and equipment.

Common maintenance mistakes include bypassing overcurrent protection and/or having

inadequate overcurrent protection when updating a motor control center (MCC) bucket
(the metal structure that contains components such as a circuit breaker, motor starter,
etc.), states Siemens Viradia. These factors, compounded with inadequate surrounding
environments (such as dust and/or humidity), have resulted in outages and a loss of
production.

Consequently, Vande Hoef instructs processors to look carefully at component ratings.

For example, if a circuit breaker needs to trip due to a ground fault or a short circuit, it
could seriously malfunction if it is not designed to handle the amount of fault current that
could flow through the system. We see this all the time in older facilities that were
originally designed with smaller transformers, he says. Over time, processors add
capacity and increase transformer sizes to allow more fault current to flow, but
suddenly, the equipment is not rated for it anymore. Its not something that affects
operations, but it leads to dangerous situations just waiting to happen.

When processors know they have to increase the capacity of their electrical system,
says Interstates Ten Haken, theyll frequently go to the front end of their electrical
systems and put in a new transformer along with one or two pieces of new equipment.
But this gives them much more capacity than their existing equipment can handle. Ten
Haken likens it to the person who puts an oversized engine into a pickup truck without
pairing it with a new transmission designed to handle the extra power transfer.

When we survey existing facilities, we often find prior expansions did not include a
properly permitted and designed electrical system, says Food Plant Engineerings
Redmond. This is a major safety concern and introduces the risk of potentially
damaging expensive equipment. When dealing with any kind of electrical work, its
extremely important that the facility consult with licensed engineers, code officials and
equipment manufacturers, adds Redmond.

http://www.foodengineeringmag.com/articles/94025-electrical-systems-and-
components-the-lifeblood-of-your-facility#Maintenance can extend life
Much of the electrical equipment in an industrial facility requires high-quality electricity; it
will not tolerate sags, swells, transients, or harmonics, and it certainly will not tolerate
power outages, no matter how short-lived. It is important to note that 80 percent of
all power quality and reliability problems occur inside end-users facilities. These
power disturbances are caused by large loads turning on simultaneously, improper
wiring and grounding practices, the start-up of large motors, and electronic equipment
that can be both a source and victim of power quality phenomena. These disturbances
can interrupt production lines, cause damage to products and equipment, result in lost
orders or transactions, corrupt data communication and storage.

http://www.readingelectric.com/news/ElectricalPowerMonitoring.lasso

Good maintenance regimes do not happen by accident: they need careful planning,
proactive management and comprehensive reporting. The tone for good maintenance is
also established beforehand by considerate design, intelligent construction and
satisfactory commissioning.
There are specific legislative and regulatory responsibilities placed on the occupier of a
building and associated premises as duty-holders to ensure the safety of the electrical
installation. There are also statutory obligations to ensure the successful operation of
life safety systems, such as emergency lighting and fire detection and alarm systems,
when they are actually needed. Transportation systems such as lifts, escalators and
moving walkways also need periodic assessment. Insurance policies may be an
additional driver of this if periodic certification cannot be produced then insurance
policies may not be honoured if the need arises. BS 7671 (the IET Wiring Regulations)
and the accompanying Guidance Notes discuss the periodic testing and inspection that
should be at the heart of any maintenance regime for the premises electrical
installation.
Maintenance activity, especially on life safety systems, needs to be recorded and
signed off. To demonstrate compliance of fire alarms, emergency lighting and similar
systems with statutory requirements a log book recording periodic tests should be used.
This in turn must be left available for auditing purposes. Dates of test, anomalies, and
remedial actions should all be noted.
http://electrical.theiet.org/wiring-matters/60/electrical-maintenance/index.cfm
Five to 10 times every day in the United States, a worker will be seriously injured in an
electrical workplace accident. The accident statistics indicate that approximately once
each day someone will die as a result of an electrical workplace accident. Awareness of
these statistics in recent years has resulted in the expansion of existing safety
standards that define best practices for workers who work on electrical systems.

The most important of these standards is the NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety
in the Workplace. In recent years, NFPA 70E has evolved to increase awareness and
develop best work practices around a hazard called "arc flash and arc blast." In the
past, arc flash and blast hazards were not as well understood as was the hazard of
electric shock and possible electrocution. The understanding and awareness of arc
flash and blast hazards have developed substantially since 1999.

Electrical injury accidents are only possible when someone interacts with electrical
equipment that is electrically energized, usually by opening the enclosure to expose
energized components and circuit parts, racking a circuit breaker out of its cell, or some
other unusual physical interaction. Because of this fact, the most fundamental safety
principle is to de-energize the equipment before anyone interacts with it in this way to
expose himself to potential electrical hazards.

The practice of de-energizing electrical equipment is called lockout/tagout and is often

abbreviated as LOTO. It is a very specific set of procedures that must be performed
only by trained and qualified persons who are wearing electrical personal protective
equipment. Once the equipment has been verified to be in a de-energized state and all
of its sources of voltage have been locked out to prevent it from being re-energized
during the work, electrical accidents are not possible.

There are some situations that are likely to require or justify work on energized
equipment. These justifications are very specifically defined in the standards, and
usually the decision to work on energized electrical equipment must be documented by
a signed authorizing document called the energized work permit. For the majority of
electrical work, including scheduled maintenance, de-energizing is the fundamental
requirement for safety.

Electrical equipment can be thought of as having two types of components that could be
termed "active" and "passive." Passive items are components such as structural support
framing, steel cover panels, copper bars to conduct electricity, cables, insulation
systems, and the like. These components do not physically move about under normal
operating conditions. Once the equipment is properly rated according to the system
electrical conditions and installed safely in accordance with applicable codes, these
passive components don't require much maintenance, other than periodic cleaning and
tightening of attachment hardware.

Active components are current-carrying or current-detecting devices that utilize

combinations of electromechanical mechanisms and digital circuits. Their sole purpose
and function is to continuously monitor equipment operating conditions to make sure
that an abnormal condition can be quickly detected and then to respond rapidly to it to
protect the equipment. These devices are usually called by names such as circuit
breakers, overcurrent protective devices, protective relays, fused devices, and others.
They function as protective devices for the system. They are not primarily designed to
protect people, only the equipment and the system.

Under normal operating conditions, both active and passive components operate
normally. Circuit breakers, fuses, and protective relays normally operate with their
current-carrying contacts (or fuse elements, in the case of fused devices) in a closed
position. As soon as a protective device detects an abnormally high current condition
(such as a short circuit or arc flash), they are designed to open rapidly to protect the
system and minimize the damage.
During an arc flash event, the time to open the circuit is especially critical because the
fault clearing time is one of the most important factors that determine how much arc
flash thermal energy will be released. If a worker is working on the equipment when this
happens, a faster clearing time will reduce the hazardous energy that is released. How
quickly this happens depends on many factors, including the characteristics and
settings of the devices and the maintenance condition and settings of the overcurrent
protective device.

The most important point to remember, though, is that the fault clearing time of the
overcurrent protective device just upstream from the fault condition is the most critical
aspect of its function, both for protection of the system and, as it happens, protection of
anyone who might be working within the flash protection boundary, as well. For
instance, it is well known that the thermal energy released in an arc flash event is
directly proportional to the fault clearing time. So if the duration of the fault (before the
upstream device opens) is doubled, the energy released will also be doubled.

https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2014/06/01/Maintenance-of-Electrical-Distribution-
Systems.aspx?Page=4

Kiemle-Hankins and Birclar understand the importance of equipment and facilities as it

relates to the quality of our service. Even the best technician is only as good as the
tools at his disposal, and we keep our team properly equipped in order to meet your
requirements professionally and efficiently. As is the case with training our employees,
we continually invest in maintaining and upgrading our equipment, vehicles and
facilities. We also maintain stringent calibration requirements for all equipment used to
test or evaluate customer assets. We invite you to visit any of our facilities at any time.

http://www.birclar.com/about-us/facilities-and-equipment