In the Spirit of the Season, GBA Staffers Provide Meals to Families at Ronald McDonald House

GBA staffers enjoyed an opportunity to provide an evening meal to families at Longfellow House, one of the two Ronald McDonald Houses in the Kansas City area. The families, whose children are in town to receive medical treatment, find a “home away from home” at the Ronald McDonald Houses, which provide temporary lodging to as many as 60 families each night. 

Both the Longfellow and Cherry Street houses offer a warm and welcoming place to sleep as well as full kitchen facilities, laundry facilities, living rooms, and recreation areas to provide a
comfortable environment where families may relax away from the stresses of the hospital and meet other families experiencing similar crises. Annually, the Ronald McDonald Houses and Family Room provide lodging to nearly 6,000 families and support over 41,000 visits from family and friends of in-patients at Children's Mercy Hospital.

We had an opportunity to help these families through the Meal Program, which involves preparing dinner for guest families. Much of the cooking is done on-site, although some menu items such as baked goods and casseroles can be prepared ahead of time. If you’re interested in helping with meals or providing other support, here’s what you can do:

1. Help pay for a family's stay at the Ronald McDonald House.

2. Drop your spare change in a McDonald's® drive-thru donation canister.

3. Fundraise for us.

4. Shop for items that families need the most.

5. Get a group together and make a meal.

For more information, click here to go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities website.

7x24 Exchange’s ‘Newslink’ Features GBA’s Alan Lehman on “Commissioning UPS Lead-Acid Battery Systems”

Alan Lehman discusses the importance of and steps involved in commissioning UPS Lead-Acid Battery Systems in an article that appears in the Fall issue of Newslink. The publication is produced quarterly by 7x24 Exchange, the leading knowledge exchange for those who design, build, use, and maintain mission-critical enterprise information infrastructures. The goal of 7x24 Exchange is to improve end-to-end reliability by promoting dialogue among these groups.

According to Alan, “For powering critical systems, an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is frequently the last line of defense against power disruptions. When the normal source of power fails, the UPS begins pulling power from its energy storage system to serve the critical loads. While there are several types of energy storage in use for UPSs, lead-acid batteries remain the most common.”

Alan goes on to say that battery systems in these applications sit unused and untested most of their lives. When the normal power source fails, the batteries must immediately begin supplying energy for the loads. UPS batteries are commonly sized to last only a few minutes, so power output during discharge can be extreme relative to their capacity.

Considering the critical nature of the loads they support, this is a very demanding application for batteries. Proper installation, startup, and commissioning of UPS battery systems can greatly improve the probability that they will perform when called upon.  Alan goes on to talk in detail about design review, safety, installation verification, startup, UPS configuration, battery system testing, and documention.

He concludes by saying that batteries are one of the most common points of UPS failures. “Clearly, commissioning can be an involved and costly process. If the load is important enough to warrant a UPS, careful consideration needs to be given to the need for commissioning the batteries. Proper commissioning will improve the probability of the UPS performing when called upon and provide a baseline for troubleshooting and future performance evaluation.”

Groundbreaking at Riley County Public Works Lays the Foundation for 'Resourceful Kansas'

“Resourceful Kansas” generated lots of energy on November 4th, when dignitaries broke ground for four wind turbines to be built at the Riley County Public Works (RCPW) facility near Manhattan. GBA’s Jennifer Gunby, Kim Pearse, and Roman Bachamp were on hand for the ceremony, which marks the beginning of construction of several new renewable energy technologies at the RCPW complex. Riley County partnered with GBA, GBA Builders, LLC, and Kansas State University, to receive a $3 million grant awarded by the U.S. DOE earlier this year to implement the “Resourceful Kansas” program. The program is designed to engage communities throughout the state in making a fundamental shift toward a less energy-intensive, more efficient economy.

The first step involves adding renewable energy features to the recently completed RCPW complex, which is an award-winning model for sustainable design. GBA Builders is providing turnkey services for the installation of these additional technologies, including four wind turbines of 100 kW, 40kW, 20kW, and 2.5kW; solar-powered street lights; a used-oil heater; a thin-film PV system; and a solar under-floor heating system.

When the work is completed, representatives of selected Kansas cities, counties, state agencies, colleges and universities, agribusinesses, and other entities will have an opportunity to participate in seminars hosted at the RCPW facility. They’ll learn about available energy-saving technologies and strategies, tour real-world examples, and learn about public and private sources of capital available. Following those seminars, which will be led by Kansas State, GBA will conduct site energy assessments for selected participants. GBA’s retro-commissioning team will then provide guidance and professional support to facility owners. 

Participants will be selected from applications submitted online at ResourcefulKansas.org. Initial plans call for a total of eight one-day seminars, each involving up to 20 different entities to engage a total of at least 120 communities across Kansas. Apply today!

GBA’s Pat Prendergast Makes the Case for Commissioning When AIA KC Members Meet for ‘Chow & Tell’

How does an architect improve his or her client’s satisfaction? Provide a facility that meets or exceeds that client’s/owner’s needs and expectations. Provide a facility that works. Sounds simple enough, but that was the upshot of a lively and informative presentation made by our own Pat Prendergast before some 50 members of AIA Kansas City at the organization’s October 28 “Chow & Tell,” held at the AIA office at 18th and McGee in downtown KC.

 

According to Pat, architects are the team leaders and the owners’ confidants and, as such, are in a position to bring in a commissioning agent to ensure that the building and building systems work as intended. Obviously not all buildings need the same level of commissioning. Pat used the analogy of a lawn maintenance service. The lawn care needs of a warehouse in an industrial district differ dramatically from the needs of a commercial bank in the city’s financial district. The same is true for commissioning. Consequently, one of the first steps in the commissioning process is to determine the “depth and rigor” with which the commissioning activities should be performed to provide the level of assurance necessary.

Pat went on to talk about LEED, saying that it’s great – as long as the buildings are properly commissioned to work per the operational intent and energy model. He cited an analysis of measured energy use data from 100 LEED certified buildings that found that, while LEED buildings on average use 18-39% less energy per floor area than their conventional counterparts, 28-35% of LEED buildings use more energy than their conventional counterparts. Green buildings must be commissioned to ensure that they work as intended.

These are just a few of the highlights from Pat’s presentation. To learn more, contact Pat directly at 816.842-9225 or email at pprendergast@gbateam.com.