Building Automata
Issue 41 - May 08

Building Automation should be acknowledged as a tool that serves the FM industry rather than the other way around. Claire Saeki talks to Albert So, Council Member, Chair of Advisory Board and CABA Co-ordinator, Asian Institute of Intelligent Buildings.

Modern Modern building automation systems improve tenant productivity, issue financial performance information, determine whether to replace or maintain equipment, detect and deter intruders, and before long will be serving the Facility Manager a cup of tea while she reads through its reports. Building Automation is a tool that serves the FM industry rather than the other way around. In fact, the recent advances in BA technology require less experienced and technically minded FMs to successfully manage their facilities. Whereas when 'intelligent' buildings were first developed, the Central Control & Monitoring System (CMMS) was often clunky and limited in application - apart from requiring a degree in electrical engineering to operate.

Modern systems are much simpler to operate yet support a far more complex infrastructure. They generally require only basic IT skills and, even better, they use 'open source' technology, freeing companies from being locked to only one supplier for maintenance and new devices. Modern building automation systems support everything from energy efficiency and asset management to emergency preparedness and handling.

According to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) "Facility management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology". The association has identified nine core competencies, and the benefits on the management of intelligent building automation can be found throughout. Some are directly related to building automation.

Finance
Financial benefits of the well-managed BA system span sub-sectors. Obviously the BAS can look after all the assets and account for depreciation of their value over time as well as other accounting and financial functions. This extends to being able to help FMs decide whether to replace equipment or to simply carry on maintaining it, saving money in a number of areas.

In times past, property management was about keeping the building in good condition but today it is expected to support the business that takes place within the building in a more proactive way. FM are not separate from the businesses operating in a relationship with the building alone - they manage their operations and projects with the core business in mind helping tenants make more money.

How so? Through direct and indirect means. For example, in new buildings, tenant's own FM software can be supported by the system directly. Intelligent control systems can alter the air-conditioning automatically to set the building temperature to compliment the outdoor air temperature. Indoor air-conditioning at 22ºC degrees is likely to be painful for people entering a building from outdoor temperature of 35ºC and can be too cold to produce a productive workplace. Similarly an indoor temperature of 26ºC will negatively impact upon productivity in tropical countries. Individuals can even send a request from their own PC to automatically change the temperature in their zone - this used to take significant amounts of time when done manually via phone calls, request sheets and manual operation.

FMs in senior roles, especially those who have financial control, are able to take advantage of the new building controls environment for maintenance repair and management, and achieve significant cost savings for the building owners and occupiers. Previously only long serving FMs could judge when a system needed to be replaced based on experience. Now, manufacturer's recommendations, calculations of rate of use and maintenance schedules can confirm when equipment is too old to be maintained and is wasting materials, time and money it may even automatically ensure that that it is not used past its safety and efficiency date.

Technology
The technology connection is very clear, yet the details are worth explaining. One of the key roles for the FM, according to IFMA, is to "monitor information and trends related to Facility Management technologies". One of the defining trends is that new BASs are based on open systems (or open protocols more precisely), meaning if one vendor goes bust, or the FM wants to choose devices from a different vendor, that option is open to them. That said, like MS Windows and Apple Mac in the desktop computer world, there are two main protocols or sets of standards: BACnet and LonWorks.

The BACnet protocol seems to be taking a lead right now. The reasons for this are cost and government support. Supported by ASHRAE, governments prefer this standard. From a cost perspective, the BACnet systems will become more affordable because there is no proprietary microprocessor involved. On the downside, as it is a project led by a professional society, whose members have other projects they are working on, the development of BACnet is slow.

LonWorks is supported by a private firm, meaning that the pace of development is faster but more expensive. Developed by Echelon Corporation, US$5 per device may go to the company during the design stage. One lamp switch with six buttons may therefore cost more than HK$1000. This is due partly to the fact that the neuron chips and transceivers use proprietary microprocessors that cannot be cheaply produced in China and must come from higher price point companies Toshiba and Cypress. BACnet processors, on the other hand, require a higher capacity processor but there are no proprietary requirements.

The artists way
With all the advanced technology being installed in buildings, people managing them could come from any background, and in many cases non-engineers are more suitable than people who have been trained to learn engineering's limits. Arts, economics and humanities graduates are taught to think laterally and beyond the scope of traditional building management systems. In the US this will be necessary as only 15 percent of graduates come from technical disciplines of technology and engineering. IT graduates are also declining. In the Eastern economies such as India, Singapore and China around 50 percent come from a technical discipline but these people are still likely to be the creators and developers of technology and specifications rather than the people using it on a day to day basis.

Communication
Communication is one of the FM's key job duties and encompasses everything from giving directions to using communication technologies. New buildings use the same backbone super-high-speed infrastructure for tenants or users' IT applications as they do for the BAS, including voice, computers and other communications systems. This allows for an unprecedented level of communication between businesses and the people managing their facilities to forward business goals. Premium grade buildings such as Taipei 101 or IFC 2 already have this technology in place.

Leadership and Management
There are some direct and indirect ways that FM leadership can be promoted through good automated controls systems. Other than allowing the FM to focus on the people side of the business it also means that reporting processes allow for strategic decision-making. For example, a complete order issuing system means that a maintenance order can be generated online, filed and an order automatically placed. Once the order is fulfilled by a member of staff then the time quality and any comments are automatically filed so that the manager can track the order on a near to real time basis. The education levels required to operate this type of system are minimal with staff being hired with basic computer training from local technical colleges to fill the staffing gap. Companies such as Johnson Controls, Honeywell and Siemens use this method. More important than a technical background is a basic understanding of English.

Human and Environmental Factors
Safety, health and the environment are often viewed as systems requiring the personal touch, but fire-fighting and detection best practice is leaping ahead with advances in BASs. For example, once smoke is detected in a room, various levels of alarms are triggered. The BAS then automatically turns off the air-conditioning slowing the circulation of smoke, the most dangerous killer in a building fire, to unaffected areas. Then lift systems are triggered to return all cars to the ground floor.

CCTV is now also primarily digital with smart cameras reducing the numbers of guards required and making it virtually impossible to hide out in any of the public areas of buildings. BAS infrastructure acts when it detects a change in view in, for example a usually empty staircase, and rather than relying on a guard noticing the change it will automatically be logged.

From a health perspective in colder drier climates the BAS can automatically conduct something called "Night Purge" where after a large drop in air temperature cool dry air from outside the building can be drawn in for a variety of benefits. Not only does this night purge cool, refresh and dry the inside air it also keeps air moving through the ducts, reducing the risk of bacteria forming. It is less likely to be used in very humid dry environments where the day to night air temperature changes little.

We are still only at the tentative stages of realising the benefits that BASs can bring to our built environment. As the personalisation of the internet and mobile communications technology has sped past building automation on the IT highway, the general public have become more technically savvy and, correspondingly, more demanding. Soon, people will expect to control their work environment with the same ease that they video chat with friends on their PC. Harnessing the power of BASs for customer needs, while simultaneously leveraging the systems to provide "invisible" services, is perhaps one of the FM industries greatest challenges. RFP

One of the defining trends is that new building automation systems(BASs) are based on open protocols

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