Intelligent buildings

- All the technology in the world cannot make a building intelligent unless it works together, integration across disciplines is vital to achieve intelligence, states Niels Friis Nielsen.

His mission is to ensure that all mechanical systems in a building are linked as an intelligent network and controlled from a central management system. In that way, it is possible to avoid many different systems that work independently – and in some cases work against each other.

Define intelligent 
Intelligent Building is of course a relative term. At the moment, there is not one common standard for how intelligent a building can or should be. What is considered intelligent in some parts of the world is considered completely outdated and unintelligent in others. Nevertheless, Building Management Systems (BMS) are becoming increasingly popular worldwide and “Intelligent Buildings” is becoming a household concept.

Core functionality 
The core functionality of a BMS concerns comfort, energy efficiency and safety. The intelligent system keeps the building climate within a specified range, provides lighting based on an occupancy schedule, and continuously monitors system performance and device failures.

BMS systems are a critical component to managing energy demand. Systems linked to a BMS typically represent up to 40% of a building’s energy usage; if lighting is included, this number approaches 70%. Typically, BMS reduces building energy and maintenance costs when compared to a non-controlled building. However, improperly configured BMS systems are believed to account for 20% of building energy usage.

So in an effort to understand how building owners, consulting engineers and contractors work with BMS and current BMS trends worldwide, we asked the Sales Manager of Siemens, Building Automation, to share his expertise.

Read the full interview and more news stories on: BLUEPRINT - the magazine for Thinking Buildings.