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Smarter controls for smarter buildings


INDUSTRY COMMENT BSEE ASK THE EXPERT


Variable speed drives: Are you missing a trick?


Don’t make the mistake of dismissing VSDs as nothing more than motor controllers, says ABB’s Carl Turbi. To use a drive merely to start and stop a motor and alter its speed is to miss the huge cost saving potenal built within the product.


uCarl Turbi, HVAC Drives Sales Manager, ABB Ltd.


igitalisation is set to disrupt the status quo, through the mainstream adoption cloud computing, the rise of the Internet of Things, and more and more connected technology. In fact, the value of the global Internet of Things market is expected to rise substantially to well over £1 trillion annually in the next three years,


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With the rise of the Internet of Things and connected devices, what can we expect from Building Management Systems (BMS) in the years to come? ECA Director of Technical Steve Marn shares his thoughts.


according to market analysts IDC.


However, just 20 per cent of the UK’s commercial buildings are considered to be ‘smart’ at present. As a result, it’s likely that as this vast market grows, many building clients in the UK may not be ready for this technological revolution. Arguably one of the most significant areas of opportunity with clients is building energy management systems (BMS), which can quickly provide financial returns to clients, due to their ability to effectively monitor, measure and assess energy use. BMS are at the heart of any truly smart building. The idea of controlling and monitoring building services, out of sight, out of mind, is rarely considered by occupants – until it goes wrong.


And ‘going wrong’ often occurs because BMS requires human input to function. The designers and commissioning engineers ultimately decide on its parameters. They consider variables such as occupancy rate, temperature, air quality, light sources and even


differences in individual behaviours. Achieving an optimal building environment in this manner is difficult if not near-impossible. In addition, when


integrating building services we continue to be hampered by siloed working. Systems designed, installed and commissioned independently vary widely in their complexity. But all would rely on BMS (another potential stand-alone network) to bring them together. Where BMS exists,


connected technology has the potential to make it better. With an installed BMS, the building already has many of the necessary features such as sensors and devices in place necessary for the


connected technology to work. This technology can often sit on top of the existing infrastructure and control these devices according to the behaviour of the building.


With the right infrastructure in place, BMS can deliver what is needed to achieve a truly smart, connected building. Demand for BMS will only increase, and those contractors that are ready to provide clients with the right advice, systems and support could be in a position to capitalise on the opportunities this increased demand will create – and build long-lasting relationships with clients seeking smarter homes, offices or buildings. u ECA provides a range of tools to help members with BMS. See web address below.


www.eca.co.uk/business-industry-support VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.bsee.co.uk BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER NOVEMBER 2018 11


anels containing control gear for air handling units, fans and pumps are used extensively throughout modern buildings. Within these panels are VSDs and a host of additional components including thermostats used for controlling cabinet fans to save standby losses, timer relays, contactors and door-mounted HMIs. The panel might also include a mini PLC for decision making or for controlling the system to behave at different times of the day. Yet all these components, and more, are not needed as they are already built within the VSD. You don’t need the thermostat as the drive will tell you when its own fans are running, thereby switching on additional cabinet cooling fans automatically, if installed. Timer relays are not required as the drive has a real-time clock, from which timers can be set to either start or stop an application running, depending on operating conditions.


P Clampon meter


Energy monitoring via a clamp-on meter is no longer necessary as the VSD’s inbuilt energy counter displays in real time how much energy the drive is saving compared to direct-on-line operation, in kWh, MWh, CO2 even money saved.


emissions and


The VSD also removes the need for external HMI displays to be cut into the door of cabinets. Today’s VSD keypad offers 21 variables, displayed via graphs, charts and meter readings that speak the language of any application. There is no need for any analogue meters as the keypad has a view that looks like an analogue moving iron meter, scaled and labelled in the correct customer units. The keypad negates the need for cabinet furniture such as start/stop buttons, as these can be programmed into the keypad. Text editing means that if you are pumping water, for instance, you don’t need to read the motor’s speed in rpm but rather the actual flow rate in litres per second with scaling factors. The VSD can be customised to present the language of the application or industry and change warnings and trips into plain, simple language – “Pump 2 failed in bay 6, top floor”.


Substanal savings


This eliminates the need to connect an HMI to Modbus, saving substantial costs. It also simplifies technical support as the language of the customer is one the drives engineer can easily relate too.


Using the drive’s fieldbus means you can utilise un-used drive I/O to gather telemetry onto the fieldbus system, without having to purchase additional remote I/O stations. Users need to ask what are they doing with the VSD? Why install a host of additional components in the panel when they are already contained in the drive? Why struggle to manage the cabinet cost, when understanding what’s inside the drive could save up to 50 percent of the cost of cabinet components?


www.abb.com


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