Building Systems and Operations
Core Systems
Candidates must recognize major building systems and their operating implications: HVAC (chillers, boilers, air handlers, VAV boxes, controls), electrical distribution (service entrance, switchgear, panels, emergency generators), plumbing and domestic water, fire protection (sprinklers, alarms, standpipes), elevators, and building automation systems (BAS). Understand preventive maintenance schedules, work-order prioritization, energy benchmarking, and the difference between routine, corrective, and deferred maintenance. Know that deferred maintenance raises risk, lowers tenant satisfaction, and depresses value.
Traps to watch
- Preventive vs. reactive: preventive maintenance is scheduled to avoid failure; reactive is after-the-fact repair. Questions often test which category a task falls into.
- Life-safety priority: fire alarm, sprinkler, and egress issues outrank comfort complaints regardless of cost.
- Code vs. standard: building codes are legal minimums; standards and manufacturer specs may exceed them.
- Capital vs. operating: a like-for-like repair is typically operating; a replacement or major upgrade is capital.
Rule of thumb
Triage work orders as life-safety first, then property protection, then tenant comfort, then cosmetic. Document every life-safety finding and its correction.
Worked example
A tenant reports a warm suite. The technician finds a failed VAV actuator. This is corrective maintenance, an operating expense, and a comfort issue - but if the same visit reveals a blocked sprinkler control valve, that life-safety item takes priority and must be corrected and logged immediately, even if the comfort repair waits.