January 2015
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Invest In Your Building Operator

The best laid plans of design engineers can fall to ruin at the hands of a poorly trained operator with a love of jumpers and manual overrides.

Robin Smith

Robin Smith
Manager of Training
Reliable Controls


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Often, building owners and developers willing to invest extra capital to build a “green” or LEEDŽ certified building with a sophisticated Building Automation System (BAS), balk at the cost of hiring a trained operator using funds from their operating budget. Instead, BAS operation falls to a janitor or “Jack of all trades”. Although Jack may be invaluable for taking care of a myriad of maintenance issues generated by an occupied building, he may not have the training and experience required to take the BAS to the next level by effectively maximizing occupant comfort and minimizing energy consumption and maintenance costs.

The best laid plans of design engineers can fall to ruin at the hands of a poorly trained operator with a love of jumpers and manual overrides. Mechanical and electrical systems in new buildings are often non-standard and complicated. It takes experience and training to comprehend complex, integrated sequences of operation in order for an operator to make positive changes to the system without negative repercussions. In addition to daily BAS tasks, an operator should spend many hours reviewing reports, tuning control loops and programs, and writing new sequences of operation.  It is clear that an individual capable of this type of work must be experienced, well trained, and given the time and go-ahead to do the work.

Finding an operator with experience dealing with both standard mechanical and electrical building systems is the first step.  It takes years to learn these skills, but they are essential to achieving the end goal. Additional building-specific education related to BAS and other installed systems is readily available from manufacturers, including Reliable Controls.

Assuming that a trained and experienced building operator is in place, a building owner should expect reduced energy expenditures, a balance between comfort and cost, the reality of automatic operation, and reduced maintenance expenditures.

The following explores each of these benefits:
 

4 Steps


What Can Reliable Controls Do To Help?

The Reliable Controls MACH-SystemTM is the most flexible control system in the building control industry, allowing operators to make changes to their BAS to reduce energy and maintenance costs, and to create a superior environment for building occupants.

They just need a little training!

Step One:
Every MACH-System operator should sign up as a “Customer” at
www.reliablecontrols.com.  Select “New Customer?” on the left side of our home page and fill out the form, which is automatically submitted to the
Reliable Controls Authorized Dealer of your choice for approval. You will receive a password for the Customer Support Center, where you can access a plethora of material and information.

Control Solutions, Inc Step Two:
Sign up for an upcoming, two-day Operator training session in your area.  Reliable Controls Operator training sessions include hours of hands-on experience using RC-StudioŽ connected to a live control network! This course has been attended by hundreds of operators across North America, and consistently receives approval ratings of over 90%.

Once you have access to the Customer Support Center, the following educational materials are available for free!

 


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