Exceptional benefits of Enhanced Building Automation are now offered by many of the controls industry’s newest developments. Business owners and property managers of hotels, hospitals, office buildings, schools, colleges, even   grocery stores, conserve energy as well as increase the capabilities of the existing energy and building management systems. Of course, the most immediate and measurable benefit of enhanced automation is the reduction of energy costs through more control over facilities and equipment. Examples include temporary load reduction during high-priced peak periods, response to real-time price signals, and greater zone control to better balance occupancy and usage patterns. Moreover, the financial benefits of enhanced automation go well beyond energy savings and energy conservation. Greater comfort and satisfaction, improved facility management translates into increased revenues, productivity and lower labor costs.

If requested, Enerconsult will initially evaluate how your building presently employs automation. Then, Enerconsult will assess the optimum level of enhanced automation and recommend the necessary sensors, monitoring systems, and processors. A survey of existing lighting and HVAC sensors will be undertaken. Peripheral data to be automatically gathered such as weather, meter readings and real-time utility prices will be identified and collected. The local controllers of lighting, HVAC and communications modules will be outlined.

Then, Enerconsult’s control engineers, together with allied partners, will define the overall control system and prepare the Technical Specifications and the RFP documentation. In fact, the package will have two major sections: 1) The Energy Management System providing information and controls through sensors ad controllers for operations inside or outside the facility; and 2) The Energy Information System designed to provide the Property Manager with real-time information on energy use, utility and fuel pricing and system-wide aggregations.

Enerconsult intends to use one of the two open communication standards for building automation that are finally taking hold in the marketplace, namely: 1) ASHRAE’s  BACnet (Building  Automation and Control Networks); and 2) Echelon Corp.’s LonWorks (Local Operating Networks). It must be understood that neither of the two is yet capable to provide free data exchange through proprietary protocols used by many vendors’ equipment. So, a careful approach in reviewing the proposed equipment and communication systems will be in order.

Remote control via Internet is nowadays readily available using communication protocols such as BACnet and LonWorks which are compatible with IP (Internet Protocol). If you need further information, contact us directly to info@enerconsult.net or Tel. 773-401-6261.