Page 16 - Climate Control News Oct 2021

Building Automation
BACnet and LonWorks:
CreatingIbuildings with brains
F ONLY YOUR office lights and comput- mean that we’ll be stuck with “dumb” buildings
er could flicker on every morning when for the foreseeable future.
IMAGINE WORKING IN you swiped your security card in your The good news is that two open communica- A BUILDING WHERE building’s lobby, so that you would be tions standards for building automation are fi-
Manufacturers will be forced to make their systems accessible through Web browsers instead of proprietary workstations.
YOUR OFFICE IS HOW
YOU LIKE IT, ICICLE- your first cup of coffee. known as BACnet (for Building Automation and
COLD, WHILE YOUR NEIGHBOUR TURNS HERS INTO A SAUNA.
Buildings could do all these things and more, if only they had brains.
A few buildings already do, and they’re getting even smarter. The brainiac of buildings, the United States Pentagon, opened for business on 12 September 2001, the day after terrorists crashed a plane into it.
Thanks to a network of digital sensors and controllers that let operators close dampers and turn off fans, the fire from the crash was con- fined to one wedge of the building.
The Pentagon’s costly, proprietary automation system isn’t likely to find its way into ordinary office buildings any time soon. But that doesn’t
Control Networks), has been endorsed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
The other, called LonWorks, was developed by Echelon Corporation (“Lon” stands for local op- erating network). These two standards have the best chance yet to turn the tide of the long, disap- pointing history of smart building control and automation.
In the meantime, technologies like those de- ployed in the Pentagon, along with some even more advanced, are being tested in government and university research labs. Among other things, they’ll let future buildings minimise
ready to work when you sat down with nally taking hold in the marketplace. One,
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