Message From The Editor
The smart home, one step at a time
We talk about smart homes a lot, but it's not a dominant trend yet. We take one step at a time, and the virtual assistant for lighting systems is one of those first steps and an excellent starting point. For electrical contractors and distributors, it is an important selling point for intelligent lighting products and an opportunity to help consumers adopt home automation. With the installation of intelligent lighting, you can immediately see the benefits. There is home automation and there is also aesthetics. Here is a Montreal lighting design firm that has made aesthetics its trademark. Good reading!
Line Goyette Managing Editor
linegoyette@kerrwil.com
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Changing Scene
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BCEA Bursary and Scholarship Program Accepting 2018 Applicants
The BC Electrical Association will award up to $10,000 in $1,000 to $2,000 scholarships to students attending or planning to attend a university, college or post-secondary educational institute on a full-time basis…
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Ontario Budget Creates Apprenticeship, Skills Training Opportunities
In the 2018 Ontario Budget, the province announced plans to launch an Office of Apprenticeship Opportunity, invest in a new apprenticeship strategy, and establish the Ontario Training Bank...
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Houle Electric's Ross McLean Earns 2017 CCA Trade Contractor Award
A partner and regional manager for Houle Electric, Ross has served as chair for the Vancouver Island, Prince George and British Columbia Construction Associations...
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- Westburne Appoints Diane Murray Branch Manager, Listowel, Ontario
The Listowel branch, one of almost 50 in Ontario, opened in November 2017. It has a dedicated delivery truck to service local customers...
- Schneider Electric, Danfoss and Somfy to Create a Connectivity Ecosystem
The connectivity ecosystem planned by Schneider Electric, Danfoss and Somfy aims to speed the adoption of connectivity in residential, mid-size building and hotel markets by making their products seamlessly interoperable at controller level, or at cloud level through APIs (Application Programming Interface)...
- Federal Government Invests in Medicine Hat College Microgrid Demo Project
A $526,000 federal investment will help the Alberta college establish an open-access one-megawatt microgrid demonstration system that will allow students and innovators to test and showcase new products and processes...
- BC Hydro Awards Contract for Site C Substation, Transmission Line
BC Hydro has awarded a $33-million contract to build the Site C substation to Nanaimo-based F&M Installations Ltd. Electrical work will include erecting steel and installing and assembling buswork, power and control cables, grounding...
- Barry Lawrence Named ECAA's New Safety Instructor
Barry Lawrence, Director and founder of Bastion Safety, has already delivered one 2-day Safety Principles course for the Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta, and will deliver two more on April 19-20 in Grande Prairie and May 3-4 in Edmonton...
- Intertek Warns of Safety Concern for "Smart Electrician" GFCIs
Ground fault circuit interrupters manufactured by Huizhou Faith Electric Manufacture under the brand name "Smart Electrician" may fail to properly break the circuit in a fault…
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Enter Philips Real Pro contest, exclusive to Canadian Contractors!
Are you a Canadian Real Pro? Whether it’s outfitting a small mom and pop shop to retrofitting a commercial retail space, we know that jobs of all sizes require real talent and quality product. Enter our Philips contest and tell us what makes you a Real Pro!
With more than 20 Prize Packs (valued at $400 each), three Real Pro Prize Pack winners will be selected every month from May 1st to December 1st, 2018.
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Codes & Standards
Guide to the Canadian Electrical Code, Part I — Instalment 35
William (Bill) Burr
In this article: Section 70 — Electrical requirements for factory-built relocatable structures and non-relocatable structures. This is a supplementary or amendatory section of the code and applies to the electrical installation of factory-built, relocatable, and non-relocatable structures and includes mobile homes, mobile commercial and industrial structures, factory-built residential housing, and factory-built commercial and industrial structures. These rules do not apply to recreational vehicles covered by CSA Z240 RV Series, which will be discussed in Instalment 36.
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Company Profile
d'Armes Unveils Its New Light Fixture Cé
The Montreal-based brand d'Armes, behind which stands the duo of Alexandre Joncas and Gildas Le Bars, has unveiled its latest creation. Cé audaciously blends fringes and solid bronze revealing a well-rounded wall mounted fixture. The unique movement of the fringes brings a fluid effect, distinguishing this piece from previous collections, all the while remaining faithful to the minimalist look of candid lines present in each of d'Armes creations. Cé will be presented to the public next week at Archiproducts Milano during the Fuorisalone, April 17 to 22, 2018.
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Lighting
Voice Control for Lighting
Craig DiLouie
Virtual personal assistants provide many services to consumers, such as Internet lookup, playing music and video, and buying products. The most popular platforms are Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Microsoft Cortana. These assistants use speech recognition technology to execute user voice commands.
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Economy
Value of Building Permits Rose 5.6% in January
Canadian municipalities issued $8.4 billion in building permits in January, up 5.6% following a 2.5% rise in December. The value of permits for three components rose, while industrial buildings (-18.6%) and single-family dwellings (-1.3%) declined. The January increase was largely due to higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings in Ontario.
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Survey Says
Electrical Market Customer Distribution
Electrical and other contractors dominate the electrical market in terms of purchasing electrical products from full-line electrical distributors. Industrial, OEM, MRO, and Automation follow with a combined market share of 24%.
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Survey Says From Recent Issues
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New Products and Solutions
Schneider Electric Premset: Innovation, Safety and Reliability for Medium Voltage Distribution
Your customers' medium voltage distribution needs are always evolving. Prepare for these ongoing changes with Premset switchgear, featuring unprecedented safety, efficiency, and ease of use, embedded smart technology, and simplified design, institution, and management of your medium voltage distribution network.
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Ecopower FPK — Kelvin-Adjustable Flat ComfortPanel
EdgeLit LightPlate technology developed by 3M produces even illumination of the lens materials and an ultra low glare factor. This ComfortPanel provides wireless control of both light level and kelvin temperature: it's fully dimmable and kelvin adjustable from 3000K to 5000K. Use the remote to control one panel, multiple panels, or a whole floor.
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Studio 5000 Software Release Optimizes Productivity and Reduces Design Time
Engineers can more quickly design, build and commission automation systems using the newly enhanced Rockwell Software Studio 5000 integrated development environment. The latest software release includes a new user interface that provides a common, modern look across all Studio 5000 applications, and updates to help engineers improve productivity from design to deployment. Among the updates: a modernized structured text editor with many new features, such as collapsible code segments and inline value monitoring, for more productive programming and editing.
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Osram Wireless Site Lighting Control Module
The Osram wireless site lighting control (WSLC) module extends the Osram Encelium Light Management System's controls capability to a building's surroundings or site such as parking lots and short pathways, via a wireless mesh network based on ZigBee standards. The WSLC installs on top of a light pole via an ANSI C136.41 compliant 3, 5 or 7-pin twist-lock connector.
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Siemens UP 204 Room Controller
Room controller UP 204 Contouch offers extensive functions that ensure effective energy savings. Up to 18 functions can be defined for lighting and shading, scenes, text and alarm messages. The product features a built-in 7-day time switch and temperature sensor. All setpoints, operating modes and fan speeds can be intuitively adjusted and selected. There are six menu languages to choose from - ideally suited for use in hotels with international guests.
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Kim Lighting Pavilion Bollard
Pavilion redefines the bollard category with state of the art design, performance and technology. An integral NEMA 3R enclosure, 2-Gang recessed box, and Bluetooth RGBW accent are just a few of the features. Pavilion can be configured with traditional elements or LED optics to achieve the desired environmental illumination. It features 28 configurable optic and top cap combinations, SiteSync wireless control and motion sensor options, and more.
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From Our Last Issue
- Marking for Maximum Continuous Load
2015 Code — no labelling requirement. 2018 Code — maximum continuous load required to be field marked on equipment. The maximum continuous load determined for a given installation may be substantially less than the equipment rating. However, there is no requirement to communicate this information to maintenance personnel, installers, or inspectors, for purposes of future maintenance or modification of the electrical system. As a result, new Subrule 2-100(4) requires that a caution label be applied to the equipment to indicate the maximum permitted continuous load.
- How to Keep Up to Date with the CE Code
The electrical industry is growing at a staggering rate, which creates a challenge for tradesmen who must keep with rapidly changing codes and new regulations for niche markets or new avenues for existing electrical markets. Training can provide a direct and relevant source on code regulations in a variety of particular areas. CSA offers a wide variety of courses that, depending on the course, are available in different formats: online, classroom or on-site. The courses have been developed by a team of industry professionals, many of whom had direct input into the development of the Canadian Electrical Code and relevant standards.
- How to Create More Consistent Service
Ignore this tip if you manage a multibillion dollar brand like Apple, Coke, or McDonalds. Those companies are so established that customers have an emotional attachment to the brand name itself. If on the other hand you manage a smaller organization, then chances are your customers have little attachment to your company name. Instead, they associate your brand with individual employees with whom they interact. But if your customer interacts with just one employee who is having a bad day, or who isn't fully trained on how to interact with stressed or rushed customers, then your entire brand takes the hit.
- January New Housing Construction Spending Up 9.4% YOY
New housing construction investment totalled $4.4 billion in January, up 9.4% compared with January 2017. Investment was up for all dwelling types. Spending rose in eight provinces, led by Quebec (+$139.1 million), British Columbia (+$128.3 million) and Alberta (+$82.6 million). The increase in Quebec was driven by investment in apartment building construction. In British Columbia, year-over-year gains were posted for all dwelling types, with single homes (+$52.3 million) and apartments (+$52.1 million) accounting for the majority of the increase. Apartment buildings were the largest contributor to the year-over-year growth in residential construction investment, up $232.5 million (+16.9%)
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Current Copper Prices
Monitor daily and 6-month $US prices for copper — the preferred electrical conductor for most categories of electrical wiring.
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The Electrical Stock Market
Track the stock market performance of 25 publicly traded electrical equipment suppliers and electrical wholesalers. Updated weekly.
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Monitoring your human resources
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