Why the time is right for integration

By becoming a building systems integrator, engineers can ensure successful buildings—and a successful future.

Technology to monitor electrical systems from a computer-based graphical user interface, or front end, has existed for decades. But the cost to monitor these systems used to be high—often prohibitively so—while the features and benefits provided by the solution were often slim. Purchasing a single-vendor packaged solution was often required, creating lifecycle cost problems and owner frustrations. During the past decade, however, a number of factors have converged to remove the traditional barriers to integration.

Changes made by electrical product manufacturers include:

• Lower cost of embedding microprocessors with communication ports into equipment
• Lower cost and complexity of application development
• Continual increase in microprocessor power
• Open, standards-based communication protocols that reduce development costs and increase immediate market demand for individual products.

The combined result is that virtually any manufactured electrical product with a microprocessor can now be purchased with a standards-based open protocol network connection for a small additional cost and quite often includes a standard network connection. Furthermore, to differentiate their products, manufacturers are enhancing the application layer features provided by the software in their microprocessors. For example, it is nearly impossible to purchase a 3-phase power meter without a Modbus connection, and advanced features such as web-based user interfaces, onboard trend collection, alarm e-mails, and alternate protocols are available for small additional costs.

BAS system changes include:

• The demand for standards-based open communication protocols has pushed all vendors to readily support them.
• Modern BAS system architecture relies heavily on standard Ethernet networks and many BAS systems are implemented on owner Ethernet networks.
• BAS software configuration/development environments now commonly provide tools to speed integration of third-party open protocols and non-HVAC equipment, such as meters and lighting controls.
• Third-party enterprise applications that operate on top of a modern BAS are now more prevalent and can offer powerful specialty enhancements to a standard BAS.
• As single-vendor proprietary BAS implementations become obsolete, BAS integration personnel have become better trained and have developed deep experience in integrating electrical systems.

The result of these changes means that any modern BAS can easily be expanded to integrate with electrical and mechanical systems. Vendors and integrators are integrating these systems regularly. The applications that are available can deliver powerful new value from additional data.

Owners and engineers may have been burned in the past by the cost, complexity, and disappointing results of electrical system integration attempts, and may now be reluctant to repeat a lesson learned the hard way. But progress by both electrical equipment and BAS systems has now passed the point where the cost/benefit is more strongly in favor of integration.

To learn more about integrating your building or facility contact an account manager at Setpoint Systems Corproation

Article By:

Anil Ahuja has 30 years of experience in building systems design, design management, construction management, commissioning, and operations and maintenance. He has project experience including commercial, institutional, educational, residential, industrial, and airports. He is a member of the Consulting-Specifying Engineer editorial advisory board.

Intelligent Building Management Emerges As Big Opportunity

IT partners have identified IBMS as a big opportunity because of a strong trend to integrate once-separate systems like access control, fire safety, video surveillance, rodent control and incident response.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the Indian intelligent building management system (IBMS) market is expected to reach $1,891 million by 2016 at a CAGR of 25 percent from $621 million in 2011.

Many IT partners have identified IBMS solutions as a big opportunity because of a strong trend to integrate once-separate systems such as access control, fire safety, video surveillance, rodent control and incident response.

Says Manoj Bisht, CEO of the Delhi-based MK Infosystems, “Many corporate hubs in metro cities are going in for IBMS solutions. We are also seeing demand from segments like PSUs, hospitality and real-estate.” 

Partners who have ventured into IBMS says it’s a natural progression and is very profitable compared to the IT business. “While the IT systems integration business offers about 15 percent margins, IBMS solutions provide 25 percent margins or more,” reveals Moin Shaikh, Director of the Surat-based Innovative Telecom & Softwares.

He says that partners can leverage their systems integration skills to target existing large customers demanding centralized control to enter the IBMS space. “Partners need to gain skills to develop software interfaces to integrate various components of IBMS. It’s essential to add skills around electrical systems, instrumentation and process control. Also, it’s better to target customers before they execute their building plans.”

During the last fiscal, Innovative implemented eight IBMS projects which contributed about 20 percent to its Rs 115 crore revenue in FY2012-13. While most customers were from the gems & jewelry vertical, some were from manufacturing and infrastructure companies. “In the last two years large gems & jewelry exporters have been compelled to deploy IBMS solutions for Kimberley Process compliance,” explains Shaikh.

For MK Infosystems, the IBMS business is expected to grow manifold. “Our IBMS business has grown 100 percent YoY in the last fiscal. This fiscal too we expect 100 percent growth,” says Bisht.

MK Infosystems executed four large IBMS projects in the last fiscal including one for C-DOT and another for ONGC. “We have partnered with a large SI to do the installation and integration work for their IBMS projects,” informs Bisht. “We are also doing projects for our own customers. In the current fiscal we are working with the SI partner on a large IBMS and data center project for UIDAI in Bengaluru where the installation services revenue is Rs 2.5 crore. We are also implementing IBMS for Duet Hotels and a large real-estate player.”

 By: Amit Singh

 

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Three Steps To Successfully Integrating Systems In Existing Buildings

Three Steps To Successfully Integrating Systems In Existing Buildings: By Jim Sinopoli

Many existing building owners find the concept of systems integration persuasive, but they struggle with moving from the concept to actual deployment. Three steps can help achieve successful integration of systems in existing buildings.

1. Gather information about the capabilities and features of the existing systems.There is no such thing as having too much information and documentation about the building’s subsystems. By the end of a systems integration project the facility manager will have to know every system in detail; the sooner that is done, the faster the project will be completed. Information to be gathered includes as-built drawings, control drawings, points’ lists, model numbers, versions, system server locations, network architecture, energy data, a profile of past work orders, etc.

2. Identify opportunities for systems integration that will provide additional functionality and automation. Describe possible systems integration that can add functionality and detail the sequence of operations. Prioritize the recommended systems integrations. Here are four examples:

• Off-hours system activation. Have the card access system trigger the activation of lighting and HVAC zones during off hours, based on reading and validating the card access information and then issuing override, enable, start/stop, or other commands to the lighting control and DDC system.
• Demand response. Use a power monitoring and control system to provide data that could trigger demand or energy reduction sequences. For example, the building KW load data from the power monitoring and control system could trigger a reduction of lighting levels via the lighting control system, then issue commands to the DDC system to raise the space temperature setpoints for selected zones to reduce the cooling load, or turn off a selected piece of equipment to represent KW load reduction, or raise the chilled water discharge setpoint for reduced cooling load as an energy reduction sequence.
• Shades, lighting, and HVAC. If a building has exterior shading, typical lighting controls, and a DDC system, there’s probably a need to optimize several variables within the systems. It’s really about controlling the penetration of sunlight. Too much sunlight may result in heat gain and trigger cooling from the HVAC system. Too little sunlight or daylight harvesting may result in greater use of the lighting system. The position of the shades affects thermal loads in the space via the amount of sunlight the shades let in as well as potential heat from the lighting system. At the same time there’s a need to use daylight harvesting. An integrated approach among the different systems can be used to control active and passive sources of heating, lighting shading, and ventilation via a preset sequence of operations.
• Event management. Many large buildings or campuses have scores of meeting and conference rooms, and they manage the rooms via an event management scheduling system. If the scheduling system is integrated with HVAC, lighting, access control, and even the AV system, the integrated system can automatically set up the room prior to its scheduled use (turn on lights, unlock doors, change the HVAC set point, etc.) and based on occupancy sensors can return the room environment to its unoccupied state afterwards.

3. Integrate building system data into a database and link to other business systems and facility management systems. The most innovative building management systems read or write to data points in building control systems and create a database of enterprise system data. This allows one software platform and a human-machine interface to access a broader range of building data and more importantly improves the capability to analyze data. The use of analytic tools for building control systems (especially the HVAC system) has been shown to reduce energy consumption as well as to improve operations.

Building system data need to be integrated with the facility management applications for work orders, asset management, preventative maintenance, and more. Also, integrating this data into business systems such as accounting, budgeting, and purchasing enables the financial side of facility management.

How Facility Managers Can Integrate Systems In Existing Buildings

How Facility Managers Can Integrate Systems In Existing Buildings: By Jim Sinopoli

When it comes to the idea of integrating systems in existing buildings, facility managers may find themselves torn. On the one hand, there are solid, bottom-line reasons to integrate systems in existing buildings. On the other, there is a range of problems that don’t exist in new construction, from legacy systems to missing information. But those problems don’t mean that facility managers should forget about integration in existing buildings. Good planning can go a long way to getting around those challenges.

It’s important to keep in mind that systems integration can deliver tangible benefits in existing buildings. For example, by functionally linking two systems, facility managers can obtain system capabilities that neither system could do by itself. The best example of this process is the integration that takes place with the fire alarm system. The fire alarm triggers the HVAC system to control smoke and ventilation, the access control system to provide egress for occupant evacuation, the elevator system to either bring the cabs to the bottom floor or, depending on the height of the building, provide elevators for evacuation in a high-rise. Without the automated systems’ integration, each of these components would have to be separately and manually adjusted. The integration provides functionality that no one system can, does so automatically, and the facility and its occupants benefit. The theory is, essentially, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Another reason to integrate systems is to combine the system data. The facility manager isn’t limited to simply looking at data from one building system; rather, a database with multiple systems is created so holistic data can be analyzed and correlated, and useful building metrics can be developed that will lead to enhanced operations. This type of unified database is generally used in a truly integrated building management system. Bringing all the facility data into a unified database architecture and putting into practice standard methodologies and processes to manage the data has multiple benefits. Building data are more widely available, sharable, and accessible. There’s also improvements in archiving, preservation, and retention of data, as well as improved integrity of the data. From a cost basis, a single database considerably reduces the cost and support for synchronizing separate databases. It provides a common platform for data mining, data exchange, and enterprise data access.

Today’s systems integration includes all of the control systems in a building, but also encompasses facility management systems and business systems, and eventually will extend to utility grids.

Integration in Existing Buildings

For new construction systems, integration is addressed in MasterFormat Division 25, created in 2004, with the resulting product being construction documents for integrated automation similar to specifications and drawings from other design disciplines.

While new construction may have higher visibility, the fact is that there are many more existing buildings than new construction projects, and there is no reason why existing properties can’t benefit from systems integration. The financial impact of improving the performance of an existing building and adding appropriate technology amenities can be compelling. The investment in an existing building is returned in reduced operating and energy costs, lower cost for tenant improvements, higher rents, higher asset valuation, and a positive impact on capital planning.

Existing buildings come with baggage, however. They already have building systems installed. It’s likely that older buildings may have automation systems using proprietary or legacy network protocols which will need to be migrated to open protocols. Typically this means the use of gateways or some middleware to translate protocols.

There are other challenges. Sometimes the documentation on the building systems — such as the original as-built drawings — may be unavailable. Cable pathways, if needed, may be difficult to find. And there may be organizational issues involved with coordinating facility management and IT.

Welcome To Setpoint Systems Corporation Blog

Welcome!

We are so pleased to see you here, and to have the opportunity to connect with you. We are so excited to have this new blog, and looking forward to the conversations it creates. The goals for this blog are simple. We want to engage with you, our audience in a new way. We want to provide you with content that really means something to you, and you can read time and time again.

Here at Setpoint Systems we have a very diverse and knowledgeable workforce, in which we are very proud. Our workforce is full of passionate and driven individuals that breath the building system integration, and HVAC industry.

We are taking that passion and utilizing it to engage and educate you. We believe in transparency, and excellence in our work. We have a lot to share, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to share this with you.

As this blog develops, and our authors grow the wealth of information that will be found here will be an invaluable resource.

I want to take a moment to introduce some content you can expect from our blog:

We have a dedicated training department, that we use to empower our customers. So you can truly learn and understand your systems, and how to effectively utilize it for your building or site. Our trainer, is in our humble opinion top notch. Our Training Department will post content here pretty often. Things like: Delta System Tips, Training Updates, and fantastic articles about the industry.

Training is just the surface, here at Setpoint Systems we have had the pleasure of working on some pretty amazing projects. Projects like: DaVita, eBay Data Centers, Verizon Data Centers, ViaWest, Lockheed Martin, Jefferson County School District, Buckley Air Force Base, and many more. We have solved many problems, and learned along the way. We would love to share these experiences with you, as they have been very exciting.

We also have an amazing in house service department, that always have great things to share about warranty updates, and general service, and part related information. Trust us, you’ll want to follow posts by our service department, they know their stuff.

We pride ourselves on our customer service, and dispatch department. We would love to share some of our best practices, and industry knowledge that has contributed to our success.

I look forward to the conversations we will have. Follow us, Engage with us, Give us feedback, we’re all ears open.

 

Visit us online at: www.setpointsystems.com