Show Notes
Why this episode matters
Power problems do not always show up as obvious outages. In this episode of Built, Wired & Secured, Alex Morgan sits down with Michael Harrington and James Rogers to explain how poor power quality can quietly undermine building systems long before anyone sees a breaker trip or a full shutdown. The conversation starts with a vivid example: a BAS platform rebooting multiple times in minutes, initially blamed on firmware, until a power logger revealed voltage spikes tied to elevator starts. That framing sets the tone for the rest of the discussion. The issue was not whether the building had power. The issue was whether the power was healthy enough for modern electronic systems to operate reliably.
The episode makes a practical case for bringing power quality into the same operational conversation as facilities and IT. The guests explain that teams often chase software bugs, controller faults, or vendor problems when the real cause is electrical. That disconnect costs time, creates false narratives, and allows repeat failures to continue.
What “dirty electricity” looks like in operations
One of the strongest points in the episode is that poor power quality creates symptoms that look random until someone starts correlating events. The examples are familiar to anyone managing commercial property or connected systems:
- Building automation controllers drifting or glitching without a clear cause
- UPS batteries cycling more often than expected
- Access control systems dropping for seconds at a time
- Nuisance alarms with no confirmed root cause
- Equipment appearing unstable even when utility power never fully fails
Michael and James make the point that tenants notice the operational symptoms first. Security blips, inconsistent controls, and unexplained alarms become service issues fast. Meanwhile, the underlying electrical condition keeps doing damage in the background. The conversation repeatedly returns to a simple but important distinction: present power is not always healthy power.
Common root causes teams should look for
The guests give a practical shortlist of usual suspects. Nonlinear loads sit at the top of the list, including VFDs, LED drivers, and dense racks of server power supplies. These can inject harmonics into the system and create instability in connected equipment. They also call out grounding and bonding problems such as loose lugs, mixed neutrals, and missing equipotential connections. These issues can create stray currents and subtle behavior that looks like calibration drift or software inconsistency.
They also highlight UPS and generator interactions. Poor transfer settings or mismatched impedance can produce sags and transients during transfers, creating problems that only appear during tests or switching events. Installation choices matter too. Undersized feeders, long neutral runs, and asymmetrical panel loading may not trip protection devices, but they still increase temperature and equipment stress over time.
A memorable example involved chillers drifting on humid afternoons. The initial blame went to software updates, but portable logging showed elevated harmonic content during pump runs, lining up with the installation of new VFDs. That kind of measured correlation is a major theme in the episode.
What to document before escalating
For on-call technicians and facilities teams, the guests offer clear guidance on what information matters most before bringing in a consultant. Timing and correlation are everything. If a problem happens when a large load switches on, during generator tests, or at specific times of day, that context is valuable. Teams should document whether the event is a subsecond blip, a sustained sag, or a repeated brief outage.
- Note when the problem happens and what else was operating at the time
- Track whether multiple systems are affected together, such as BAS and security
- Identify which breakers, panels, racks, or circuits appear involved
- Record whether the problem aligns with generator testing or major load changes
- Preserve alarm histories and operational logs from sensitive equipment
The guests recommend starting local and isolating common electrical paths when multiple systems hiccup together. They also emphasize that a 48- to 72-hour portable power logger is often the cheapest and least disruptive first diagnostic step. Rather than opening panels blindly or jumping immediately to a capital project, teams can gather evidence on harmonics, sags, and transients with minimal operational disruption.
Who should own remediation
The conversation handles an important organizational question: who should own the remediation budget and decision-making? The answer is pragmatic rather than rigid. Facilities should lead scoping and low-cost fixes because they own feeders, panels, and grounding. IT needs to stay engaged because its equipment is often the most sensitive and its logs can help correlate the issue. When the problem points toward design-level conditioning or larger system changes, a qualified electrical engineer should be brought in.
But the guests are clear that engineering should be a measured escalation, not the first spend. They argue that low-risk, high-value diagnostics reduce liability rather than increase it because decisions become evidence-based. They also recommend documenting the sequence: measured diagnostics first, engineering involvement when data indicates capital work is justified.
A practical phased approach
The episode lays out a strong phased framework that property and operations teams can act on without overcommitting early.
- Phase 1: Monitor and maintain
- Phase 2: Apply targeted suppression or filtered UPS solutions
- Phase 3: Execute capital rework when the data supports it
This matters because some fixes are inexpensive and fast, while others deserve a formal capital plan. The guests warn against masking a wiring issue with conditioning alone and note that filters can affect behavior during generator transfers. Any capital fix should include a verification plan and a maintenance update.
The top actions to start this month
If a team wants immediate progress, the episode gives a concise starting checklist:
- Deploy a portable power logger on circuits feeding BAS, security, and critical IT for 48 to 72 hours
- Run a full UPS health check covering battery condition, runtime, firmware, and alarm history
- Perform a visual grounding and bonding audit, especially looking for loose lugs and mixed neutrals
The guests also recommend selective surge suppression at panels where transients appear and standardized preventive maintenance tasks for VFDs and UPS systems, including thermography, torque checks, and scheduled battery replacement. Their message is consistent: preventive maintenance beats emergency repairs.
Examples that show the range
The episode closes the loop with two examples. In a small downtown office, access control repeatedly lost sync during elevator starts. Logging revealed spikes at those exact moments, and localized surge suppression at the door controller panel resolved the issue with minimal downtime and low cost. At the other end of the spectrum, a medical campus experienced persistent UPS failures. Monitoring revealed harmonics tied to imaging suites, leading to active harmonic filters and feeder rebalancing. That was a capital project, but the reliability and lifecycle benefits justified the investment.
The 30-, 90-, and 180-day roadmap
The final guidance is especially useful for owners and operators who need to convert a technical issue into a manageable plan.
- 30 days: deploy loggers on critical feeders and run UPS health checks
- 90 days: analyze the data, perform a grounding visual audit, and add selective surge suppression where needed
- 180 days: use the evidence to scope conditioning or feeder work and place justified items into the capital plan
The guests stress that context turns numbers into decisions. Timestamps, tenant activities, and load changes all matter. The takeaway is simple and actionable: monitor first, maintain consistently, then remediate based on evidence. For building owners, facilities teams, and IT leaders, that approach reduces false alarms, improves reliability, and helps extend equipment life without wasting money on guesswork.
Dirty Electricity Is Often a Building Operations Problem Disguised as a Technology Problem
When building systems behave unpredictably, most teams start by blaming software, firmware, or device failure. That is understandable. If a controller reboots, an access control panel drops out, or a UPS begins acting strangely, the symptom looks like a technology problem. But as discussed in this episode of Built, Wired & Secured, the root cause is often electrical. Not a total outage. Not a breaker trip. Just power that is present, but unhealthy.
That distinction matters more than many owners and operators realize. Poor power quality can create enough instability to disrupt building automation systems, shorten the life of UPS batteries, trigger nuisance alarms, and generate intermittent security issues. These failures are hard to diagnose because they come and go, and because the affected equipment may report errors that point teams in the wrong direction. A firmware bug gets blamed. A software update becomes the suspect. A vendor gets pulled into a troubleshooting cycle. Meanwhile, the real problem continues in the electrical path.
The episode opens with exactly that kind of scenario. A BAS platform rebooted multiple times within minutes in the middle of the night. The on-call technician initially believed it was a firmware issue. A power logger later showed voltage spikes every time the passenger elevator started. That example captures why this topic deserves more attention: electronics can look broken when the real issue lives upstream in the power.
Why Power Quality Belongs in the Same Conversation as Facilities and IT
One of the clearest messages from the episode is that power quality should not be treated as a niche electrical topic that only matters during outages. It directly affects uptime, system stability, and asset life. You can have continuous voltage and still see controllers glitch, batteries cycle too often, and sensitive systems drop for seconds at a time. Those brief disruptions are often the first issues tenants and staff notice, even when no one can point to a dramatic failure event.
That puts power quality squarely at the intersection of facilities operations and IT operations. Facilities teams own the infrastructure: feeders, panels, grounding, and distribution. IT teams often own the most sensitive equipment and the logs that reveal what happened during a disturbance. If those teams are not working from the same timeline and the same evidence, the diagnosis becomes fragmented. The result is wasted effort and delayed remediation.
The episode frames the prioritization question in a useful way: what breaks if this goes down? That question helps teams focus on the systems where poor power quality creates the highest operational and business risk. In many buildings, that list includes BAS, access control, security systems, UPS-supported network infrastructure, and critical tenant-facing systems.
The Most Common Causes of “Dirty Electricity” in Buildings
The discussion breaks the problem down into several recurring causes. Nonlinear loads are high on the list. VFDs, LED drivers, and dense racks of server power supplies can inject harmonics into the system. Harmonics can distort waveforms and create instability that does not necessarily trip protection devices but still stresses connected equipment.
Grounding and bonding issues are another major source of trouble. Loose lugs, mixed neutrals, missing equipotential connections, and similar installation defects can produce stray currents and subtle interference. In the episode, one example involved a mistied neutral that created a ground loop and caused sensors to drift. That kind of symptom reads like a calibration problem, which is exactly why electrical root causes are often overlooked.
The guests also highlight UPS and generator interactions. Poor transfer settings or mismatched impedance can create sags or transients during transfer events. Those conditions may only appear during scheduled generator tests or specific switching conditions, making them easy to miss unless someone is correlating the timing carefully.
Installation choices matter as well. Undersized feeders, long neutral runs, and asymmetrical panel loading may not cause immediate shutdowns, but they still raise temperature, increase stress, and reduce long-term reliability.
Why Correlation Changes the Story
One of the strongest operational lessons in the episode is that timing and correlation often reveal what raw symptoms do not. The guests describe a site where chillers drifted during humid afternoons. Software updates initially took the blame. What changed the diagnosis was pattern recognition. The drift only happened during peak pump load, and a portable logger showed elevated harmonic content that matched the run times of newly installed VFDs on a rooftop pump bank.
That is an important point for owners and managers. Good diagnostics do not begin with a large capital spend. They begin with better observation. When does the issue happen? What large load was switching at the time? Does the problem appear during generator tests? Is it a subsecond event or a sustained condition? Are multiple systems affected together? Those details are often more valuable than the first round of assumptions.
What Teams Should Document Before Calling in Outside Help
The episode offers practical guidance for facilities managers and on-call teams who need to collect useful information quickly. Before escalating, document the timing, duration, and correlation of the event. If a large load switches on and a control issue happens immediately after, note it. If BAS and security hiccup together, that is a clue that they may share an electrical path. If the issue occurs only during tests, seasonal loads, or certain times of day, that matters too.
The guests recommend starting local. Identify the affected breakers, racks, panels, or circuits if possible. Preserve alarm histories and equipment logs. Most importantly, use a portable power logger for 48 to 72 hours on the circuits that feed sensitive systems. That step is presented as one of the least disruptive and highest-value moves available early in the process. It can reveal harmonics, sags, and transients without jumping straight into invasive work or speculative repairs.
Who Owns Remediation and When Engineering Should Enter the Picture
Ownership should be practical, not political. Facilities should lead scoping and low-cost corrective actions because the issues often involve feeders, panels, grounding, and related infrastructure. IT should remain engaged because their systems are frequently the first to show symptoms and their monitoring can help pinpoint when the disturbance occurred. When data points toward design-level conditioning or larger infrastructure changes, a qualified electrical engineer should be engaged.
Importantly, the episode does not advocate delaying expert input indefinitely. Instead, it recommends measured escalation. Low-risk diagnostics first. Evidence collection second. Engineering involvement when the evidence supports capital work. That sequence helps reduce guesswork, build a better business case, and document that decisions were made responsibly.
A Realistic 30-, 90-, and 180-Day Action Plan
The conversation ends with a clear roadmap that property teams can put to work.
In the first 30 days, deploy power loggers on critical feeders and run UPS health checks. That includes checking battery condition, runtime, firmware, and alarm history. During the first 90 days, analyze the data, complete a visual grounding and bonding audit, and add selective surge suppression where transients are confirmed. By 180 days, use the evidence to scope any conditioning, filtering, or feeder work that belongs in the capital plan.
This phased approach is useful because not every building needs the same answer. Some sites can solve the issue with targeted surge suppression at the right panel. Others may need active harmonic filters or feeder rebalancing. The key is that the solution should match the measured condition, not a generic assumption.
The Business Case: Reliability, Fewer False Alarms, and Longer Equipment Life
For owners and asset managers, the biggest value in this episode is that it translates an electrical topic into operational decision-making. Poor power quality creates costs even when it does not create a headline outage. Batteries fail sooner. Controllers live shorter lives. Alarm noise increases. Technicians lose time chasing symptoms instead of causes. Tenants experience avoidable disruptions. Over time, those costs become real operating expenses.
The examples in the episode make the range clear. In one downtown office, access control lost sync during elevator starts, and localized surge suppression at the controller panel solved the issue at low cost with minimal downtime. In a much larger medical campus, persistent UPS failures led to monitoring, harmonic diagnosis, active filters, and feeder rebalancing. That was a larger project, but the lifecycle savings and uptime improvement justified it.
The takeaway is not that every building needs a major retrofit. It is that measured instrumentation and disciplined maintenance are often the highest-return starting point. Once the data is in hand, teams can make smarter choices about what to maintain, what to suppress, what to filter, and what to rework.
If your building systems have been acting unreliable in ways that seem difficult to pin down, this episode offers a strong reminder: stable operations depend on more than whether the lights stay on. Healthy power supports healthy systems. If you want the full conversation and the practical checklist that goes with it, listen to the episode and use the framework to guide your next 30 to 90 days of action.