The Ultimate Guide to Building Automation System

A Building Automation System monitors and controls the building’s system. The system includes mechanical, security, fire and flood safety, lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. The systems keep the climate of the building within a specified range, the room’s lights are set according to an occupancy schedule, all the systems performance and device failures can be monitored, and in the event of a malfunction, there is an alarm facility. A building that has a building automation system has lower energy and maintenance costs as compared to non-controlled buildings.

Many of the building automation system components may require a little explaining in order to understand it and the benefits of installing them may not be clear until the mechanisms driving these systems are understood. Therefore, an ultimate guide to building automation has been created and designed to be an easy read-through.

How do Building Automation Systems Work?

There are five basic essential components of the Building Automation System:

• Sensors- They are the devices that measure the values such as the carbon dioxide output, temperature, humidity, daylight, or room occupancy.
• Controllers- It is known as the brain of the systems. The controllers take all the data from the collectors and decide how the system will respond to the data.
• Output devices- The commands from the controller are carried out.
• Communications protocols- It can be looked at as the language spoken among the Building Automation System’s components.
• Dashboard or user interface- The screens or interfaces that are used by humans to interact with the Building Automation System. The building data are reported on the dashboard.

Most of the activity that is happening within the Building Automation System doesn’t take place within the building’s occupants. The collectors are discreet and they are hidden from view in the same way the output devices are.

What can a Building Automation System do?

• It can set up the lighting and also the HVAC system in order to operate on a schedule which will make those systems both intelligent and more efficient.
• It can get the components and facilities within the building for them to coordinate and work together to increase the overall efficiency.
• The flow of the incoming outside air can be optimized to regulate the freshness, temperature, and comfort in the building.
• It can tell when the HVAC unit is running in heating and cooling both in order to help reduce the utility costs.
• When an emergency such as a fire breaks out it can immediately know and it turns off any facilities that could harm the building occupants.
• When a problem in the building’s facility occurs it can detect it. For example, if an elevator gets stuck with people inside it will send an instant message to the building’s facility manager to alert him/her of the problem.
• Whenever someone enters or leaves the building it can identify who and when.
• When an activity takes place it turns on a camera and begins recording. An alert and direct camera feed are sent to the security team and the facility manager.

Why are Building Automation Systems useful?

Building Automation Systems are useful because they save the building owners money, the building occupants feel more comfortable and productive, and it reduces the building’s environmental impact.

Saving Money

The building owner saves a significant amount of money on its utility bills through a building automation system. A building that is energy-efficient costs less to run. An automated building can learn and begin to predict the occupancy of the building and room. When a building can know when the demand for lighting or HVAC facilities will wax and wane then the output when the demand is lower can be dialed back. The estimated energy savings from monitoring the occupancy range simply range from 10-30%. This can at the end of each month add up to thousands of dollars that can be saved on the utilities.

For maximum efficiency, the building can sync up with the outdoor environment. This is useful during the spring and summer season where there are more daylight and not much demand for interior lighting. When it is warm outside it allows the building to leverage the natural air circulation which leads to comfort.

The data collection and the reporting also help in making the facility management more cost-efficient. When a failure occurs in the system it will directly get reported on the Building Automation System’s dashboard. This will help the facility professional immediately know the issue rather than having to spend time looking and diagnosing the problem.

Through optimizing the operations of the different facilities in the building the lives of the actual equipment can be extended which means a reduction in replacements and maintenance costs.

The money saved through building automation systems over time offsets the installation as well as the implementation of the system itself.

Comfort and Productivity

Smarter control over the internal environment of the building will lead to the occupants being happy and there will be a decrease in the complaints and the time being spent on resolving those complaints. Based on research it can be concluded that improved ventilation and air quality leads to greater comfort which allows the employees to focus on their work and take fewer sick days. This means there will be an increase in individual productivity.

Environmentally Friendly

By a reduction in energy consumption, building automation can reduce the greenhouse gas output and also helps improve the air quality of the building indoors leading to occupant productivity. An automated building can also monitor and control the waste in the facilities like the plumbing and the wastewater systems.