Special Feature The changing building landscape
What is an ‘intelligent building’ and what will it mean for facility managers, who are increasingly responsible for making sure a building is truly efficient? Steve Harris, sales director, buildings business at
Schneider Electric,
talks about the next breed of smart buildings – which may not be as drastically different as you think.
W
hen we talk about the future of buildings, we often think of sleek pods, automated systems, open
plan workspaces and futuristic design. While the past few years have seen some of these buildings added to skylines across the UK – One Angel Square in Manchester for example, with its unique design and BREEAM outstanding accreditation – in fact, our horizon probably won’t change too much over the coming decades. Indeed 87% of the buildings in use today are predicted to still be here in 2050.
What will this mean for facility or building managers, who are under increasing pressure to stay on top of maintenance, improve a building’s energy efficiency while ensuring a comfortable building environment for tenants – all whilst managing tight budgets? While new buildings are in effect a ‘clean slate’ and can be fitted out with high-tech sustainable technology, existing building stock needs a different approach. There’s no doubt that installing a Building Management System (BMS) can have a dramatic effect on a building’s performance, enabling an increasingly intelligent and automated facility. In an ideal world, facility managers would be able to totally retrofit a building, incorporating the most up to date hardware and software which would enable optimum integration and performance. However, in reality, financial constraints and pressure to minimise downtime are factors that ultimately affect how a building is adapted for the future. For this reason, building managers need to be smart about how a building’s systems are used and integrated. Many medium to large buildings will have some
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sort of BMS installed – though often these legacy systems can be decades old. Similarly, larger buildings will often have several systems installed to control different components, such as lighting and HVAC, which are often disparate – they don’t ‘talk’ to each other. The key therefore lies in making the most of what a building already has installed, and using technology to bring everything together. Indeed, the latest BMS’s, such as our SmartStruxure™ solution and SmartStruxure Lite™ solution for smaller buildings, are designed to maximise building efficiency and improve comfort. These solutions break down the traditional information silos, integrating building information into one place, providing an easy to understand ‘single version of the truth,’ which also makes reporting and indeed simply accessing the data much easier. The pressure to create a comfortable and highly-energy efficient environment within a building will also remain on facility managers over the coming decades. The government has already announced its plans to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, and the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme is just one example of how legislation has affected how a building is managed, with the need for more in-depth reporting of energy use. Additionally, we are seeing an increased focus on user comfort – where control is becoming key. An all-too familiar problem for facility managers is having to manage the heating requirements during winter – where employees themselves often complain about being too cold or hot, and can even take it upon themselves to adjust, without giving any
thought to how this affects a building’s energy consumption. Buildings need to become more flexible – only heating and lighting areas which are occupied, at different times of the day. A university campus is an excellent example of a large estate which demands flexibility, as well as providing a comfortable environment for students to learn. It doesn’t have to be complex either – having the right system means you can program lighting, HVAC, security and even power sources easily. This flexibility can also allow a truly tailored environment, with occupants able to control smaller individual environments through user friendly devices, such as handheld tablets and mobile phones. Incorporating these elements into user friendly devices, data that may have once been lost in a data deluge can be transformed into tangible information, able to be put into action in order to create observable benefits. So the ‘intelligent buildings of the future’ could on the surface not look much different from today’s buildings. Rather, intelligence comes from how a building is managed – taking advantage of big data, and making sure the right systems are in place to encourage a healthy working environment for all. For more information please visit
www.schneider-electric.com/uk
Building & Facilities Management – December 2013
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