LoRaWAN Installation Wales
Covid can’t stop us! 46 sites in 6 months
Coleg Harlech – Theatre Ardudwy
3d capture a building being lost, reborn online
In early 2020, a rare opportunity arose to access and capture a rarely seen stage in the decline of an iconic building.
Coleg Harlech was established on the north Wales cost in the early 20th century. With its mission to deliver a route to higher education for students who for whatever reason hadn’t succeeded at school, Coleg Harlech welcomed generations of students from across the world until it sadly closed its doors in 2018. By 2020, with the building having been empty for a year an a half, the effects of the years of tight budgets and perhaps a neglect of property maintenance can bee seen, evidenced by the rapid decline of the majestic educational buildings.
West Wales Data Cabinets II
The Revisiting
Following our success in delivering the data cabinet swap-out project in the first quarter of 2019, by the autumn we were invited back to deliver more of the same, to a mix of primary and high schools this time.
A different set of challenges occurred this time, with multiple swap-outs on each site working out-of-hours wasn’t an option, fortunately half term arrived and we were able to access sites during working hours to blitz each site.
West Wales Data Cabinets
Primary school swap-out
In January 2019 we were appointed to oversee the swap out of 23 data cabinets, as the local authority needed to fit larger fibre-enabled networking equipment to primary schools. Whilst swapping 23 data cabinets in itself isn’t a major task – in an urban setting this would be relatively straightforward – in this rural region 23 cabinets meant travelling the length and breadth of the county.
Working with each individual school and the county IT department we drew up a schedule that split resources into two teams working in parallel, in schools close to each other to provide mutual support if required. Working out of hours, in all weathers we delivered the whole programme to time and exceeded the quality expectations of the county – They didn’t expect our teams to have a clean up around the data cabinet before installing the replacement and take such pleasure in getting the patch cables just right!
Hotel Compliance – Not Always What You Expect After A Quick Inspect
Last week saw me stay at a popular hotel chain near Heathrow in preparation for an Electrical Safety seminar on Friday morning. Arriving late I was keen to get my head down ready for an early start next morning so impressions of the hotel were put off until the morning. As always the body could easily sense this was not my usual bed and needless to say my eyes were open early ready for the day ahead.
Legionnaires’ disease. The control of legionella bacteria in water systems
After watching a little early morning news the usual routine kicked in and off for a shower I went. As habit goes I am rarely “off duty” so to speak, often on the look out for little things which indicate the level of property compliance within an establishment. As many would imagine, this habit often aggravates my wife! Anyway, back to the shower which was struggling to get up to temperature even when set to the hottest setting. Now this automatically started the alarm bells ringing and I then find myself looking at the shower head which doesn’t look like it has been part of any cleaning regime for some time. This was replicated by the basin spray tap which didn’t look like it had ever been dismantled for cleaning. All these observations point to a lack of housekeeping and raise the question if a risk assessment has been carried out? Experience would tell me it is likely a risk assessment has been undertaken, but like many organisations I suspect this is sitting on a shelf somewhere with no consideration given to the content and necessary property compliance procedures.
Electricity at Work – Portable Appliance Testing
Anyway off to breakfast I saunter, watching the many planes flying in and out of Heathrow, something I found very relaxing with my morning coffee. Returning to my room I decided to check the portable appliance labels which were clear to be seen on my kettle, TV, and trouser press. Now there is reason for a “tested date” and an “expiry date” on these labels, and I expect it’s not to be ignored! In the particular case the contractor which shall not be named had decided to ignore the expiry date and instead completed the tested section which indicates it had been tested in January 2015. This raised doubts, and you may wonder why. Firstly the labels looked to have been in situ for sometime, certainly not one month. Reason two was the condition of the cord which ran from the trouser press to the iron, clearly showing clear signs of wear and tear with the external insulation breached and individual cores showing.
Next was another pet hate of mine, the fuse size. Many moons ago I once attended a Portable Appliance Testing(P.A.T) course and one of the fundamental checks required was the fuse rating, and its suitability for the appliance. Now the TV in the room was a nice looking flat screen, delivering a good quality picture and consuming 120 watts. Any suitably qualified, responsible tradesman would usually quickly note a 5 Amp fuse is in fact to large, and simply swap it for a 3 Amp replacement in a matter of seconds. However it seems Portable Appliance Testing can often be a case of seeing how quickly one can get a label on the appliance as cost it usually measured on the quantity of items tested. Prices are often as low as £1 per item and there is a tendency sometimes to rush the process and this is where oversights are made. Ultimately this can result in higher level of property compliance risk for the client and also the client has not been delivered what he paid the contractor for.
Later that day while attending the Electrical Safety seminar later in the day, a talk given by the Health and Safety Executive reinforced the dangers of electricity, and the risk of death from 230 volts. We often don’t hear of many fatalities from low voltage, this presentation however highlighted many incidence of tradesmen such as plumbers suffering serious injury and death from 230 volts in domestic environments. Looking back on the hotel observations, it’s not clear what part of the process has broken down. There could be many contributory factors but it does highlight the importance of checking and auditing your property compliance activities and your contractors to ensure your legal responsibilities are being discharged.
What are the Benefits of Independent Property Compliance Audits?
Property owners often spend copious amounts of time managing their building compliance. The primary tool for recording and reporting usually comes in the form of paper or electronic information either held on site or on a CAFM system. Property owners usually rely on a contractor’s expertise and advice as a method of ensuring they remain compliant with the raft of M&E compliance legislation. As experts in the field many would expect that any advice is given in the best interest of the client, but time after time the effectiveness of the advice can be questioned. Whether going beyond what is required for legal compliance or not reaching the required level of compliance, independence is key to how clients can verify their effectiveness.
Property owners can use external audits to review their compliance and test the current effectiveness and value for money. Time after time when looking into compliance activities and frequency, contractors do what is asked of them not what is required. One recent example of this was quarterly cleaning of kitchen extract system and associated ductwork. When questioned on the sampling which is used to drive the frequency, the contractor openly admitted the results of the monitoring indicated the frequency of cleaning could be cut thus saving money for the client. Unfortunately, in reality a recommendation to reduce ones own work is infrequent and one could argue this is potentially a conflict of interest. Professional consultants will interview the site occupier, discuss the contractual relationships and test the outputs for compliance offering several benefits for business owners.
Provides Validity
External audits provide an objective opinion on building compliance for both large and small business. Many business owners do not have an in-depth understanding of the various building compliance legislation and guidance to make such an informed judgment. They simply procure a service to the best of their ability in accordance to basic needs of the business. Professional independent consultants can review this information and provide business owners with insight on the accuracy and validity of the compliance information. Valid information can help business owners ensure they remain compliant while cutting out activity not required.
Discovers Errors
Property owners can use external audits to discover errors in their compliance activities. Errors in compliance information may prohibit business owners from making the informed decisions and while initial inspections are often undertaken there are numerous occasions that recommendations are not processed resulting in non-compliance. Business owners can also find it difficult to review historical information and discover trends if errors are in place. Trends allow business owners to plan future contract outputs and take a view on compliance.