Laws, Laws and Mother Nature's Laws
Happy Birthday, America… and new AB1103 benchmarking…oh, and new Title 24 Codes… and El Nino intolerant roofs! Huh? What and who are those last three?
July 4th has cool traditions like celebrating America, throwing horseshoes, eating BBQ and potato salad, a slice of apple pie and ending the day with a 3 hour drive home from the beach after fireworks are over. The next business day however we will be having to deal with the new “Laws of Nature” that July 1st will have brought.
Title 24:
After delaying the new codes for 6 months, because the bureaucracy and inspector “sector” were not ready, the 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards law WILL BE activated. It’s onward and upward toward common sense (and some not-so-common sense). Green solutions to our building operations and construction standards wrapped around the idea of making our buildings consume less of mother nature’s resources. As droughts go, this is not a bad thing, because the new code’s goals are to make us use less energy in peak times. The “bad” of it, is it takes time and money to find the right vendors/experts to utilize and know how to implement these new solutions to gain the best results.
AB1103:
July 1, 2014’s law now mandates that any non-residential buildings 5000 SF or greater and entering any financial transactions (buy, sell, lease, etc…) must be benchmarked by an Energy Star Portfolio Manager, for its energy using capacities. Here’s the cool thing, though; anyone can apply to be an Energy Star Portfolio Manager and go through their online training. The “bad” of it, is that it’s more paperwork/documentation and will make your buildings subject to public scrutiny on Energy Star’s website.
El Nino Storms:
This is not a law to follow, but rather Nature imposing it’s Law’s on us. The forces of Mother Nature’s El Nino’s can be very wet, in great volumes, at short torrential bursts, and water intrusive in places you least expect. At RSI Roofing, we are currently in “PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE” mode with many of our Property Management/Facilities clients gearing up for the inevitable wet Fall and Winter. Predictions of a, “major El Nino event” are now in the 90% range by many climatologists (it’s true!...just “Google” it).
A good ROOF MAINTENACE PLAN can make for very “quiet” tenants during a rainy season. A poor ROOF MAINTENACE PLAN can make for a long, very interrupted, highly expensive (wet drywall, insulation, flooring, etc…) and potentially smelly (mold and mildew) winter. Batten down the roof hatches; seal those roof flashings; call for roof inspections; and start using those operational funds, because capital improvement monies are hard to come by these days.
July 4th has cool traditions like celebrating America, throwing horseshoes, eating BBQ and potato salad, a slice of apple pie and ending the day with a 3 hour drive home from the beach after fireworks are over. The next business day however we will be having to deal with the new “Laws of Nature” that July 1st will have brought.
Title 24:
After delaying the new codes for 6 months, because the bureaucracy and inspector “sector” were not ready, the 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards law WILL BE activated. It’s onward and upward toward common sense (and some not-so-common sense). Green solutions to our building operations and construction standards wrapped around the idea of making our buildings consume less of mother nature’s resources. As droughts go, this is not a bad thing, because the new code’s goals are to make us use less energy in peak times. The “bad” of it, is it takes time and money to find the right vendors/experts to utilize and know how to implement these new solutions to gain the best results.
AB1103:
July 1, 2014’s law now mandates that any non-residential buildings 5000 SF or greater and entering any financial transactions (buy, sell, lease, etc…) must be benchmarked by an Energy Star Portfolio Manager, for its energy using capacities. Here’s the cool thing, though; anyone can apply to be an Energy Star Portfolio Manager and go through their online training. The “bad” of it, is that it’s more paperwork/documentation and will make your buildings subject to public scrutiny on Energy Star’s website.
El Nino Storms:
This is not a law to follow, but rather Nature imposing it’s Law’s on us. The forces of Mother Nature’s El Nino’s can be very wet, in great volumes, at short torrential bursts, and water intrusive in places you least expect. At RSI Roofing, we are currently in “PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE” mode with many of our Property Management/Facilities clients gearing up for the inevitable wet Fall and Winter. Predictions of a, “major El Nino event” are now in the 90% range by many climatologists (it’s true!...just “Google” it).
A good ROOF MAINTENACE PLAN can make for very “quiet” tenants during a rainy season. A poor ROOF MAINTENACE PLAN can make for a long, very interrupted, highly expensive (wet drywall, insulation, flooring, etc…) and potentially smelly (mold and mildew) winter. Batten down the roof hatches; seal those roof flashings; call for roof inspections; and start using those operational funds, because capital improvement monies are hard to come by these days.