Building Automation (BA) : Basics

Building Automation (BA) is defined as a set of monitoring, control and optimization facilities in buildings for functional independency. From corporate rooms, presentation and lecture halls to a DataCenter lobby, Operation Theatre; Building Automation (BA) is used, where the operation of the large number of devices that define the room function that of videoconferencing, video projector, lighting control systems etc. might make a manual operation very complex. Domotronics deals with the interdisciplinary approach.

Building Automation (BA) : Basics

Building Automation (BA) is therefore an important part of the technical facility management. All the sensors, actuators, controllers, consumer and other technical units in the building are connected. Processes can be combined. The characteristic feature is the decentralized arrangement of the control units (DDC-GA) and continuous networking via a communication network or bus system.

In order to implement the facility, a management system for variety of information is required to operated buildings. The support of the administrative facility management is through IT, which is a computer-aided facility referred as CAFM. Thus, the software management level can be linked to computer-aided facility management (BSM). The tasks of building automation can  go beyond the mere provision of information by active control of HVAC systems.

Building Automation (BA) : Buses and Protocols

Components in the construction of a system for building automation are:

1. Automation devices
2. Cabinet
3. Field devices (sensors and actuators)
4. Room automation system
5. Wiring and bus systems
6. Servers and Gateways
7. Management and control devices

Nowadays, the trend of application of Building Automation (BA) is not only limited in the classic building automation, but also on various trades. There is a continuing trend toward networking. The representation of the network or the devices are controlled in this case usually via a Web browser, and sometimes integrated with other building automation solutions. The situation is similar for devices in consumer electronics. The intelligent networking in building automation is driven by technological progress, which combines the different areas. Increasing flexibility of the systems and decreasing cost structures increase the demand for appropriate solutions – both on a professional as well as private sources.

The goal of networking is to increase the added value, the device shall and new (remote) to provide control options. The underlying technology as a protocol -Stack is usually LON, UPnP or KNX standard Powerline, the embedded software -Stack often rests on OSGi (Java). BACnet protocol has become globally an overall solution with uniform operation.

Modern systems can use SNMP to track events with the usual SNMP-based protocols in the computer networking world.

Connectivity between devices provided by dedicated optical fiber, ethernet, ARCNET, RS-232 or RS-485. Many systems rely on heterogeneous networking specified in the IEEE 1905.1 standard.

Building Automation (BA) : Possibilities

Possibilities of building automation (BA) are as follows :

1. Lighting demand – time of day and season to season and motion-dependent switch
2. Heating , ventilation and air conditioning control needed and on time
3. Shading devices in response to sunlight and wind time and control needs
4. Security by monitoring window and door contacts as well as motion detectors, Access control systems
5. Capture and display all the control processes in the central building
6. Switch with radio or infrared remote control
7. Remote monitoring and remote control via the telephone network or via the Internet ( Remote Control )
8. Data acquisition from heat meters , water meters , gas meters and electricity meters
9. Load control based on consumption data collection by sequentially activating lights
10. Controlling media devices, multi-room systems in the training, seminar and media rooms
11. Control of electrical devices of everyday life such as coffee or radio
12. Simulation of the presence of increased security

Advantages and disadvantages

• Advantages

1. Reducing energy consumption through intelligent control.
2. Gain in comfort through intelligent control: for example, can be produced for a keypress a predefined lighting situation without multiple lamps must be individually switched or dimmed; or logic operations of switching states alternatively defined actions can be triggered.
3. Protection against intrusions by the presence simulation.
4. Safety for the residents by alerting at critical situations.
5. Monitoring by an external security service by automatic paging.

• Disadvantages

Higher initial cost compared to normal building installation. First, it is often cost is amortized by the energy savings in the operation, on the other hand are not possible to afford much more expensive features with classical building installation.
At high complexity qualified personnels are necessary for the operation of the plants. Increased susceptibility to failure compared to normal building installation due to hardware or software errors. In systems with centralized control, this can have a single point of failure and if no redundancy is present, have a defect or failure of the entire system configuration.