Glossary
What these terms mean.
Building and power work comes with a lot of shorthand. Here is what the terms on this site mean, in plain words.
- EMP (electromagnetic pulse)
- A sudden burst of energy, for example from a strong solar storm, that can knock out electronics across a wide area.
- MIL-STD-188-125
- The U.S. military standard for protecting buildings and the electronics inside them from an EMP.
- Microgrid
- A local power system that makes, stores, and shares power for a building, campus, or town, and can keep running on its own when the main grid goes down.
- Critical infrastructure sectors
- The 16 kinds of systems the federal government says a community cannot do without, such as energy, water, food, healthcare, and communications.
- Design-build
- One contract covers both the design and the construction, so one company answers for the drawings and the building.
- EPC (engineer, procure, construct)
- One contract covers the engineering, buying the major equipment, and building it, and that company answers for how the finished facility performs.
- Design-bid-build and CMAR
- Traditional bidding methods. In design-bid-build you hire a designer first, then bid out the construction. In CMAR (construction manager at risk) the builder joins during design and commits to a maximum price.
- Permits and approvals (entitlement)
- The zoning, permits, and local government approvals a piece of land needs before anything can be built on it.
- MEP
- Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing: the heating and cooling, power, and water systems inside a building.
- Self-perform
- Doing the work with our own crews instead of hiring another company to do it.
- Cold formed steel
- Light steel framing shaped at room temperature in a factory, used for trusses, wall panels, and complete building frames.
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