This audio was created using Microsoft Azure Speech Services
It might be my lifelong love of comic books talking, but I am starting to believe that my building’s facility manager is truly a super hero.
By day, her alter ego ensures our offices are comfortable, our site is secure, and the budget is managed. She is competent in a wide variety of topics. She goes relatively unnoticed as she works hard- focused on the well-being of the building’s tenants and fighting diligently against the waste of time and money.
She has a super secret lair full of tools designed specifically for her use. Information is critical to keeping buildings in top condition. Over the last several decades, buildings controls have become smarter, gathering data while providing control. Building Management Systems have started to pull in that data to translate it into actionable information. So, maybe her lair is more office than cave, but her modern building management system and embedded power and energy management system alerts her to the current and future needs of our facility.
She reacts quickly and efficiently when she is called:
The electricity bill arrives!
BAM!!! She detects an overcharge and makes it right!
The HVAC shuts down!
POW!!! She determines whether the issue is electrical or mechanical and gets it up and running again.
Our test department wants to add new equipment
WHAM!!! She is able to re-balance loads and take on the capacity without a retrofit.
Using the tools in her lair, she makes assessments, assembles core teams, and solves problems quickly. Most of the time, the building population never knows how close we were to overpaying for peak time energy or living through 85% humidity. She keeps us comfortable and maintains building efficiency.
So, while she turned town my offer to wear a cape, our facility manager takes on a lot of responsibilities for the building. As a part of my journey to understand power and energy management, I have come to respect all that she does…and thank her for being our building’s super hero.
