Let's be honest, not everyone really knows what building automation means. Automation encompasses so much and for that reason can be challenging to fully define.

Building automation is the centralized control of a building's "vital systems".   These systems can include one or a combination of all the items listed  above.  In its most general form, building automation is put in place to  improve building occupant comfort, as efficiently possible.

Much like your thermostat at home,  building automation systems can control space temperature.  These systems are so much more capable than simple thermostats.  It would quite frankly be a waste of resources if controlling room temperature was all they did.  In large commercial facilities, building automation systems typically control all of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.  At the same time it also monitors many devices or variables within each of those systems.  Monitoring helps facilitate building maintenance and can proactively  alert users of potential problems within these systems, before occupant comfort is impacted.  This keeps building energy consumption low, and people productivity high.

Some of the more standard and advanced activities of building control systems would be:

• Multi-period daytime set points with calendar override settings for holidays, weekends, etc.
• Programming for air handling units that look at total cooling demand within the building and adjust fan, pump, and valve control to operate more efficiently.
• Occupancy-sensitive programs that use CO2 sensors to compensate for the changing heating, cooling, and fresh air requirements at various human occupancy levels.
• Compensation for changing outdoor temperatures to allow heating and cooling systems to anticipate demand.

To make all this work, building control systems use different levels of controllers, sensors, HVAC devices and computer hardware.  It is the job of your building automation contractor to pull all this information together, decipher the data and develop a pre-programmed sequence of operation for that particular building.

If you would like to learn more about building control systems please contact Daryld Karloff.