Over the last decade, stricter codes, rules, and regulations have all impacted the necessity for Building Automation Systems (BAS) to become more energy efficient. Concurrently, our perspective of technology has rapidly changed. Case in point: consider the incredible technological change between the iPhone 5 (released in ~2013) and the most current smartphone. What used to be pie-in-the-sky dreams are now not only a normal part of our lives but is either expected or even a necessity…but our buildings, in many ways, remain unchanged despite our radically different perspectives. And while we have made vast gains in building design processes (i.e., Revit), at the most fundamental level our approach to design has not been altered.

 

It is not difficult to see how technology of the last ten-or-so years can expand our capabilities around building energy efficiency. In fact, we are often presented with buildings which have made this happen. So, it begs the question: how come every building we walk in has a controls issue (some more major than others)? Why has Commissioning become an absolute necessity, while in many cases only having a temporary effect? Why do new buildings often seem to have more issues than the buildings of old? And despite being frustrated by all of this, how come we simply in many cases accept that this is the way it is?

While there are a multitude of reasons and answers to these questions, perhaps what is more important is how these less-than-a-decade-old technologies that in their infancy were cumbersome, convoluted, and maybe even downright unusable we now simply expect to work, 24/7/365. If your smartphone had sporadic connectivity issues like your BAS, didn’t accept commands, and showed you incorrect data, you would throw it away and get a new one! Even if you could do that with your BAS today, the unfortunate truth is it’s unlikely the new one would work any better for any duration of time. Much of our perspective around “expecting technology to work” stems from a completely different design philosophy in those industries than we use in ours: practice makes perfect. Alternatively worded: standardization makes perfect.

Standardization in BAS is a critical piece for the future of smart buildings, and has the potential to help with demand response, additional energy efficiency techniques, more effective big data analysis, and many other benefits both energy and non-energy related.  Join us in person or online for an interesting discussion about where the Building Automation System world is evolving and a few steps you might take to start migrating your organization in this direction.  

 

 

Walter “Wally” Bright is President of the Institute of Energy Professionals (IEP), whose goal is to provide practical and impactful energy management training backed by expertise in energy efficiency. IEP is also the holder of the Professional Energy Manager (PEM) certification, with members in over thirty states and over fifty-five countries. Prior to IEP, Wally spent time at NC State as an extension specialist, focused on energy audits and student education. From there, he spent five years in the building automation field, designing controls for a variety of facilities, including schools, data centers, water treatment plants and others. Wally has also spent time in the A&E industry, performing MEP design in the healthcare and research/lab sectors. Working on both the contractor side and engineer side has enabled Wally to have a unique insight into the BAS/controls marketplace. Walter Bright is a Professional Engineer (PE, NC) and a Professional Energy Manager (PEM).