BSEE BUILDING CONTROLS
For many, integration is still an afterthought. For others, integration is at the very core of what they do. Can this create new ways of thinking about how buildings are controlled? James Palmer, who has been in the controls industry for 23 years and heads up sales and business development at North Building Technologies, reports.
T
he skills needed to specify and install an electrical system for lighting are different to those needed to provide a mechanical system for heating. And I’m sure we can all appreciate why there are separate contracts for the provision of primary systems such as: air handling units, fan coils, lighting ballasts and power sockets. Does that mean the control and user interaction with these disciplines should also be separated?
This separation of control into mechanical and electrical sides is a legacy – electrical engineers would create a building-specific system for lighting, and mechanical engineers would create a building-specific system for heating, cooling and ventilation. As control requirements need more than just switches and valves, each side has produced dedicated control systems, and therefore controls engineers.
The use of pre-engineered plant such as packaged air handling units and the ubiquitous Japanese air conditioning systems has increased dramatically. On the electrical system, fire panels and lighting controllers have increased in function. Today’s control engineer, whichever side they work in, has seen some simplification in terms of control yet have had to learn new skills to integrate packaged systems. Integration is now a much larger part of all projects, yet many BMS manufacturers either ignore it or rely on third parties to provide the connectivity.
Standardisation
If all control systems talked the same language we could link them together to produce a simpler system for the occupier, as well as make things more energy efficient. The problem is, we still don’t have a single protocol for all building systems. Standardisation has happened, but standards vary from sector to sector. BACnet is prevalent in HVAC, DALI in lighting, Modbus in power systems, then there are outlying protocols such as MBus, KNX, Lon. Systems such as fire detection, access control and enterprise systems such as room booking don’t have any high level communication standards.
‘ The abundance
of standards makes integration more difficult than it needs to be, especially as many popular BMS rely on expensive gateways from third parties to handle these various protocols.
’ Standard BMS method
The abundance of standards makes integration more difficult than it needs to be, especially as many popular BMS rely on expensive gateways from third parties to handle these various protocols.
A new breed of controller
The market is now waking up to a new breed of BMS controller that has integration at its core. These controllers not only connect with their own inputs and outputs, but also directly with third-party systems, without the need for third- party gateways.
Integration controllers remove an entire layer of complexity from the project, reducing project management costs, hardware costs and engineering costs. Packaged systems are installed and commissioned, the integration controllers connect to them and strategy is written to bring all of the relevant information to bear on the building’s performance. Occupancy signals from lighting, damper positions from the fire system, temperature sensors, valve positions for heating circuits and the operating mode of an air conditioning system can all be seamlessly included in the control strategy.
Integration controller method
Advertising: 01622 699116 Editorial: 01354 461430
A NEW BREED OF BMS CONTROLLER A fresh look at how buildings are controlled
Similarly values from energy meters, hours run on pumps, outside air temperatures and occupancy data can all be logged and analysed through a simple, common user interface. There is no need for an engineer to program a gateway and map hundreds, or even thousands of points into the BMS.
Making life easier
The integration controller approach also simplifies the day-to- day tasks of the occupier. For example, a single calendar for the building, controlling timers for all systems, from the car park lights to the HVAC plant, reduces complexity and increases efficiency.
The user interface is simplified. The ways in which values are accessed are varied, from web browser to wall mounted touch-screens. The key improvement is that all interfaces access the same values in the same devices. Everything is always up-to-date with no clashes. The user gets the interface most appropriate to them, rather than two or three PCs sat next to each other in a basement doing little but confuse the issue, or in many cases, gathering dust!
One controller, one contract
This creates the potential for a single controls contract which spans all disciplines. In the high-end residential market this sort of contract is gaining ground, quite often the integrated controls team install IT infrastructure, AV equipment, AV control system, underfloor heating controls, lighting controls and then integrate all of those controls with package systems such as air conditioning, and provide some simple controls for the plant room, all under one contract and all with one type of integration controller.
These buildings are relatively small and simple. However, scaling this solution to larger projects can bring massive benefits, with fewer contracts to manage the contractor has an easier time. As the controls integrator has only itself to rely on, it is able to deliver quickly and efficiently, with fewer hold- ups from third parties.
http://www.northbt.com/
Traditional method Specification
Integrated controls method
uIntegration controllers like Commander provide all of the functionality of a traditional BMS without the need for gateways.
Specification Mechanical Electrical Install Install
Mechanical Install
Control Control
Electrical Install
Commissioning Commissioning Commissioning Integration Control Eliminating the need for third-party gateway reduces cost, complexity and engineering time. Integration
Commissioning
30 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER APRIL 2017
VISIT OUR WEBSITE:
www.bsee.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68