BAS upgrades: What's in it for me?

Building Operating Management, May 2000 by Scholl, Rita, Piper, James

Getting the most out of integrated building systems requires a control strategy that will cut costs and improve occupant comfort

STAFF AND TENANT COMPLAINTS about comfort conditions are on the rise. You've taken a good, hard look at the number of overtime and on-call hours your maintenance staff is putting in - and you're appalled. Your HVAC system's energy-use performance is below par - maybe even failing. You're annoyed that there's only one local contractor capable of fixing your building management system - and you're tired of paying noncompetitive prices for run-of the-mill repairs. You want to investigate the multiple efficiencies you've heard can be achieved by integrating all building systems - or even by running building and data/ telecommunications systems over the same LAN infrastructure.

Choose one of the above, or any combination. There are plenty of very good reasons to consider upgrading your building automation system. Upgrading your BAS can make your facility's occupants a whole lot happier; dramatically reduce operating costs; help you achieve more efficient preventive maintenance routines; and let you monitor building systems at one or multiple facilities from a remote location, thereby diagnosing and solving problems with minimum legwork.

The process of deciding whether - and how - to upgrade is not without its perils, however. Before examining those, consider some of the advantages offered by digital building automation systems.

Benefits of Advanced systems

For the past few years most building automation systems have had the capability to perform the following functions, even though these features have been widely underutilized:

Energy-saving control strategies

Advanced systems typically incorporate or can be programmed to perform a number of features that reduce energy consumption, such as outside air reset and demand limiting.

Paging software and remote access

These features can greatly reduce maintenance staff overtime. When a problem occurs, the building automation system sends an alarm to the pager of the maintenance person on call. The maintenance person can then access the system remotely from home. Many problems can be dealt with remotely, but, even when a site visit is necessary, the maintenance person can pinpoint the trouble spot precisely and make the necessary repair arrangements, eliminating the hours of drive-time and searching that locating and fixing the problem might otherwise require.

Other software features

Detailed, three-dimensional graphic displays of the facility's specific HVAC configuration make today's building automation systems easier to grasp. Many BASs are capable of creating records of every action performed on the system by each member of the maintenance staff. This allows facility managers to easlity identify an amployee's area of weakness and to address specific training needs.

Integrated Maintenance Management

Most systems can incorporate an integrated maintenance management program. When maintenance management software is an integral part of the BAS, work-orders are generated based on actual maintenance needs, as calculated by the BAS, versus preprogrammed time periods. This feature not only cuts overtime costs but also may actually reduce the number of maintenance hours needed to operate the facility.

The type of building automation system in place will play a large part in determining the right kind of upgrade. For instance, if a facility still uses pneumatic or electric controls, "upgrading" to a building automation system effectively amounts to a full control system replacement. Some components may be reused, but all controllers will be replaced.

On the other hand, the BAS you're currently using might already be fairly sophisticated. BAS software being produced by a major control system manufacturer today is likely to be a later version of software that's been around for a long time. If a BAS was purchased from a major manufacturer anytime after about 1985, it may not have to be scrapped to enhance the system's capabilities significantly or to integrate HVAC operations with other functions.

That does not mean, however, that performing a BAS upgrade is ever a simple matter of just installing the newest software. Planning a successful upgrade even when a fairly sophisticated system is already in place - requires consideration of a number of variables. And, in fact, a good strategy demands careful evaluation of the current system to see whether every advantage is being utilized.

The Open Protocol Option

The building controls industry has undergone a major, if quiet, revolution over the past decade. At the beginning of the 1990s, virtually all building automation systems utilized proprietary protocols; purchasing a BAS from a particular manufacturer meant that the facility would be locked into a permanent relationship with that manufacturer. In most instances, if the facility owner wanted to add new features or to expand the BAS to accommodate a facility addition, there was only one source that could perform the retrofit.