Your Business

 

 

Articles in this section are intended to help electrical contractors grow and improve their businesses, from financial and legal advice to creating a service and maintenance department. You’ll find articles on estimating projects and more below. 

Variables affecting electric power quality haven’t changed significantly over the years, but the technological advances of electrical and electronic equipment make the equipment much more vulnerable to power quality events than in the past.

Copper remains a primary carrier for integrated building systems, but fiber optic cabling is assuming an increasingly important role in data, telephone, access controls, security cameras, fire and security alarms, sensors, and other signaling-dependent systems.


As recent storms have proven, extreme weather conditions threaten lives, disrupt the economy, and devastate electric generation, transmission and distribution systems, often resulting in very long power outages.

More than 174,000 workers in the electrical contracting industry—including the most-skilled electricians, linemen and technicians in the world—are covered by pension plans that are financed through contributions from them and their multiple employers, without costing taxpayers one cent.

More on Your Business

 
Designing for Reliability and Maintainability
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A successful design/build project is completed on time and within budget, and meets the customer’s needs and expectations. Customers expect a reliable, maintainable system.

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VDV Design/Build
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Design/build is becoming the project delivery system of choice for many customers because it offers several advantages over traditional design-bid-build project delivery.

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Getting Ready for Boom Times
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Electrical contracting industry leaders’ talk could lead you to conclude that there is never a chance to critically examine your business practices. When the economy is booming and projects are ample, there is no time for it. When business is stagnating, there is no money for it.

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Entering the Strange World of Deductive Modifications
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Change orders can be expected in construction, including error and omission corrections in the contract documents, changes in design, taking account of changed conditions, and change orders for claims (overtime, delays, and interferences).

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Columbo No. 2—Sags and Interruptions from Upstream Events
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Last month’s article focused on power factor (PF) capacitor switching transients. Although most power quality (PQ) disturbances originated from within a facility, we will again focus on an upstream event relative to the point-of-common-coupling (PCC), alias the service entrance.

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Covering the Bases
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Much project estimate information can be readily gleaned from the plans and specifications, but some requirements are hidden in “boilerplate” wording of the contract documents. A typical area that is often left in limbo is the utilities that are to be connected to the project.

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What’s Lurking beneath the Surface?
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Balancing predictability and fairness, in my view, is the principal objective of construction contract law.

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