Building Automation & Control

Today's healthcare providers face a daunting challenge: sustaining or improving patient care levels despite shortages of clinicians and nurses, increasing competition, and financial pressure.

During the energy crisis of the 1970’s there was a sea-change in the building industry when it paid more attention to the idea of conserving energy and introduced the terms Building Management System (BMS) and Building Automation System (BAS). Continuing rising energy prices and carbonreduction issues have also further spurred the development and deployment of BMS in recent years. However, the early systems were bulky, not user friendly, unreliable, and very expensive. With the advent of computerization, BMS analog signals became digitized so as to be communicated over long distance as well as facilitating the building management process these issues became less.Due to the multiple many management functions and wide range of expertise, modern BMS is quite complex. Successful building management not only needs to link to a multitude of devices but also take account of the suitability of the software for the intended application. Equipped with a web browser-based software package for human-machine interfaces (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) which provides automated, centralized and unattended management with a high degree of electronic accuracy, the BMS can fully control the building’s mechanical and electrical equipments and thus effectively monitor energy consumption so that it provides a comfortable, safe and secure environment.Property management is facing various and complex challenges and reducing operating costs have become increasingly important for building owners. As a result, a growing number of new and refitted buildings are being designed to use less energy and focus on the building’s performance. A System Integrator was helping a builder implement advanced BMS for its newest construction project in a creative park in Asia. The construction, a 14-storey building with four underground floors, covers an area of nearly one hundred thousand square meters and contains three distinct sectors - shopping mall, hotel guest room floors and office floors. In order to provide optimal energy management, this BMS needed to be capable of monitoring and controlling a variety of facilities, including air conditioning, power system, plumbing system, fire system, ventilation, elevator, lighting, garden watering and so on. Meanwhile, using one system with an adequate number of nodes in a main control room to manage three different places was a key requirement but each place had to have their own dedicated system and can be controlled independently without mutual interference so as to saving the implementation costs. Due to the need to monitor many areas, there would be tens of thousands of detection points, and the new system also needed to offer remote control capabilities so that building managers or patrol staff can view the status of various facilities in real-time and deal with issues using handheld or mobile devices.

Star Refrigeration’s TELSTAR control system uses the LonWorks® network. This fieldbus network has become the standard for the building management industry, which encompasses refrigeration and air conditioning. Star’s Electronic Systems Manager and Senior Development Engineers needed to source a SCADA HMI which would fulfil their data acquisition and monitoring requirements and match their networking needs. The ability to fit into LonWorks was a key requirement for the project. Adroit adopted a close, co-operative approach and adapted their SCADA HMI by writing a comprehensive interface to the LonWorks network. The Adroit SCADA HMI monitors data and performance of industrial refrigeration plants manufactured and installed by Star. In addition, the system provides an operator interface for altering plant control, with appropriate levels of security, using the TELSTAR system. The software is now the main data monitoring operator interface for TELSTAR, and is used in applications ranging from ice rinks and air conditioning to pharmaceuticals, distilling, fish processing and food storage. Star’s Development Engineers received training from Adroit, attending Adroit 2 + 1, a fast track course designed for system integrators and experienced end users, and the Adroit Advanced course. Star Refrigeration staff are now able to carry out their own in-house Adroit training for operators.