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A building automation system (BAS), also known as an energy management system, is an automated, computer-controlled method of managing energy usage in a building to reduce and optimise energy expenses. At the same time, it helps maintain a comfortable environment.
In todays scenario everyone is becoming very conscious about rising energy costs and the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment. Building automation is very effective in reducing both the energy costs and environmental costs of a building. Because of this, most systems start by automating the heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems operations.
Automating the interior and exterior lighting systems usually provides the next-biggest gains in energy efficiency, but there are other potential benefits as well. Modern building automation systems provide remote monitoring and alerting capabilities that can warn operators of a failure or abnormal condition in a building.
Benefits overview
The cost of a BAS is not significant compared to the savings and benefits a BAS brings to the business. Moreover, BAS is not only looked from savings point of view but there are other factors too:
o Its more expandable and easier to manage.
o Its extremely flexible.
o It can easily be integrated with future building automation technologies such as XML and IP
o It saves power / energy
o It leads to less manpower usage
o It offers better security
o It provides connectivity to any point any time, from anywhere
o It supports interoperability
Research studies performed over the past decade have shown a wide range of energy savings for BASs. The average energy savings are estimated to be between 5% and 15% of the buildings overall energy consumption. The savings can be greater for older or poorly maintained buildings.
Guest delight
At a minimum, guests need to feel safe and comfortable. An automatic welcome light, an in-room privacy button, and precise, reliable temperature control can achieve a basic sense of security and comfort at low-cost.
Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan of the North American hospitality BAS market found that when building and hotel owners become aware of the availability of open and interoperable solutions, they are no longer apprehensive about investing in rapidly evolving building automation technologies. The most critical part of a hotel managers job is to ensure maximum guest experience and retention while minimising energy consumption.
Analysts said integrating controls saves costs as operators are better able to view equipment performance and be more proactively involved in preventative maintenance.
Through this converged network, hotel staff gain further value from the BAS to exceed guest expectations by determining and resolving problems before guests are affected. With the ability to reduce energy consumption, analysts said BAS is a huge asset in positioning a hotel as a green building. An advanced BAS enables hotel operators to view systems in real time, analysts said, allowing them to maintain equipment with greater ease. Similarly, wireless sensor networks in BAS can help end-users achieve unprecedented levels of functionality.
The guest room automation system enables hotel guests to experience enhanced comfort through microprocessor-based smart bed-side consoles, which allow them to operate all the systems in their room such as lights, air-conditioner, TV, music system etc., from the comfort of their bed with a touch.
The integration of the guest rooms with the hotel property management system enables hotel staff to monitor and control HVAC based on occupancy to reduce energy costs, attend to guests requests instantly for improved services, provide fast cool room air-conditioning for comfort when the guest checks-in, and monitor guests departure for cleaning services.
Use of open standards
Todays facility managers are faced with many challenges, from rising costs of resources (fuel, electricity, manpower) to tighter facility management budgets. Building automation advancements in the last few decades have solved many problems, but have often been fragmented into specialty systems that require much specialised hardware, software and training to manage the resources.
More of these systems have recently migrated to a common physical layer (IP technology) and some have extended their openness to the protocol layer. Proper planning for a new building or for an existing building upgrade can save money on both upfront and ongoing costs.
Following are the challenges one foresees in implementing BAS in existing buildings:
1. Use of open standards like TCP and IP
2. Systems design and evaluation of products and testing them as per the sites conditions
3. Infrastructure to support additional wiring
4. Device integration like interfacing with PMS, third party software, monitoring and alert tools
5. Training costs
6. System redundancy and scaling as per business needs
7. Telecommunications infrastructure, allowing alternative paths to support data, voice and video communications
8. Return on investment
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