I am the founder of a company that gets deeply involved in construction projects of all shapes and sizes. The types of products my company provides are part of the data, communications and electrical infrastructure of most any building under construction or renovation today. We manufacture products that are installed in interstitial spaces; under raised floors or above dropped ceilings. But we could be talking about any building sub-system here.
What is ASHRAE Standard 90.1?
In 1975 the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) first published a set of standards that provided minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design of most buildings, excluding low-rise residential buildings. Initially focused on the HVAC elements of construction, it has evolved to include the majority of mechanical (escalators, elevators, pumps, etc.) and electrical/lighting systems of a structure, intelligent building management systems (BMS), and even the building envelope itself to maximize energy conservation.
Are you suspending tiers of cable trays from ceiling-mounted threaded rods? Have you thought about installation cost? Not the cost of the rods. Not the cost of the trays. Not even the cost of the hex nuts and washers. Just the labor to properly position the hex nut(s) on every rod for a level cable tray installation. Snake Tray has, and here’s what we found: Snake Nut™ can reduce the cycle time and cost of cable tray fastener installation by a factor of up to 30:1.
Snake Tray’s cable management systems are typically wire basket tray sections that, by design, nest inside each other to pack a lot of product into very little space. This one simple characteristic provides a number of benefits, all while helping builders achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification by minimizing costs and waste even as they improve building aesthetics by keeping cables organized and out of sight:
Our growing appetite for mobile communications is driving the need for wireless networking in places it had never been before. The irony is that installing the backbone to improve wireless network performance actually increases the need for cables and cable conveyance systems. Because at some point, every wireless access point requires a hard-wired connection to a router, server or service provider.
Architects and engineers know that using prefabricated materials when designing and building commercial structures speeds project completion and reduces costs. When it comes to wiring a building for data and communications, nothing gets the job done better, cheaper or faster than the 454 Series Universal Cable Management System from Snake Tray.
Architects and engineers have known for years about the advantages of raised access floors. In addition to creating an interstitial space for easy access to power lines and data cables, raised flooring eliminates the need for HVAC ductwork. Rather, climate-controlled air is pumped under the entire floor and rises up through diffusers.
Besides eliminating the labor and expense of fabricating sheet metal air ducts and vents reaching every floor and room of a building – in itself a major cost justifier – the removal of these obstacles allows for greater flexibility when running power lines and data cables, and contributes to increased airflow for better heat dissipation.
The California Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards require builders to meet ever-evolving criteria for energy conservation and to use green construction practices whenever possible in order to protect our environment. What started in California is rapidly proliferating across the country as other states model Title 24 energy efficiency standards for large-scale commercial structures as well as residential homes. This has given rise to an entire industry focused on eco-friendly building design initiatives and innovations that make buildings smarter.
The National Electric Code (NEC) section 690.110.12 for the mechanical execution of work states, “Electrical equipment shall be installed in a neat and workmanlike manner.” Believe it or not, this is the only current cable management standard for the solar industry in 2019. This is a very subjective definition that is open to liberal interpretation from job to job.
Traditionally, solar plants sell 100% of the energy they produce to utilities as it is generated. There is no storage; every watt sent to the grid is for immediate consumption. When the sun goes down, utilities fire up additional fossil fuel turbines to meet demand.
