Smarter BY DESIGN

Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Michael Fickes

Storming the barriers

The trigger for renewed interest about smart buildings in the United States has been rising energy costs. “In the last two years, higher costs in the United States have prompted owners to think more about the energy efficiency benefits of smart buildings,” RTKL's Orlik says.

At press time, the average price for a gallon of gasoline sold at U.S. pumps was $3.10, about three times higher than three years ago. Other energy costs, including prices for the natural gas and electricity used to heat and cool buildings, have surged as well.

In comparing rising energy costs to the cost of implementing intelligent building systems, owners are discovering that these systems are not, after all, prohibitively expensive.

“Everyone says it costs more, but if you do it right, it will reduce both initial building costs and operating costs,” Russo says.

The trick is using the Internet Protocol or IP network that connects computers in a building to each other and to the Internet.

“You can save a lot of money by eliminating separate cable runs up the building's spine for access control, video surveillance, HVAC and the fire alarm system,” Russo says. “With digital technology, you can run one cable and connect all four systems to it. You will save the labor and materials for three installations.”

Russo notes that an IP spine must also be redundant to ensure that a malfunction by one of the systems on the network doesn't take the rest of the network offline.

While a redundant loop requires a second cable run, such a network will eliminate the need to run separate cables for controllers that manage HVAC, lighting, fire alarm, access control, intrusion detection, video surveillance and other building system components. Each can simply connect to the building's existing IP network.

But will it work? The conventional contracting process has, in the past, failed to ensure the proper functioning of integrated building control systems, Fenski says. The recent proliferation of building technologies that require integration is changing this.

Today, technology contractors, working directly for general contractors at the same level as mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors, are responsible for coordinating the integration of numerous technology systems.

Johnson Controls works as a technology contractor on large building projects. “We manufacture building control systems, but our primary business is technology integration,” Fenski says.

Finally comes the most difficult problem to solve, that of proprietary security technology that slows or even prevents complete system integration.

“Standards for other building automation systems have evolved steadily in recent years,” Fenski says. “BACnet is an example of a standard that has evolved.”

BACnet, or building automation and control networking protocol, is a set of communications rules with which building control systems such as HVAC, lighting and other systems can exchange data and coordinate operations. But it wasn't until a year ago that the ASHRAE BACnet Standing Standards Project Committee SSPC-135 published for public review a set of standards that added physical access control to BACnet.

“Physical access control is the most complex of all building controls,” says Rob Zivney, vice president of marketing with Hirsch Electronics in Santa Ana, Calif., and a member of the ASHRAE committee responsible for BACnet access control standards. “That's why the BACnet committee saved it until last. By April, the final standards may finally be formally published.”

While awaiting BACnet standards, physical access control companies, such as Hirsch, have been working to enable their systems to interoperate with other building systems for several years. Hirsch, for instance, has given its Velocity Access Control software application the ability to use XML for reporting and control along with an application programming interface (API) for personal and credential data interchanges.

On another front, the Security Industry Association (SIA) is developing another set of interoperability standards called Open Systems Integration and Performance Standards (OSIPS). “The SIA standards embrace the federal government's HSPD-12 standards,” Zivney says. “Those standards cover smart cards and readers. The SIA standards will cover the rest of the system and complete that government effort.”

A new generation of security technology

Zivney, who also serves on the SIA standards committee, believes that the new BACnet, SIA and other standards emerging today will lead to an entirely new generation of security technology requiring new system configurations.

For instance, today's Hirsch access control system is open at the host end, the software application side. But the reader and controller ends of the system have remained closed. At least one reason for that is security. A closed reader is harder to attack than an open reader, Zivney notes. System-wide open standards combined with intelligent readers would offer attackers a clear path.

“The new standards will make everything into commodity components that will interoperate at all tiers, including the controller level,” Zivney says. “Today's system configurations put a very intelligent reader at the front door. Because that device is open, it is vulnerable to attack.”

“We see a new configuration that replaces the smart readers with a dumbed-down reader that is nothing but a sensor placed outside the door. The intelligent reader will be on the other side of the wall, the secure side,” he says.

“That's just one example,” Zivney says. “The new generation of security technology will be more than security centric; it will be enterprise-centric and completely interoperable.”

That next generation of interoperable security technology will be able to work with video surveillance, HVAC, lighting, fire and other building systems to produce the kind of intelligent buildings the industry has been anticipating for so long.

Companies Consolidate In Anticipation Of Smart Building Market

While it is true that smart buildings may have to wait a year or two, some large companies are positioning themselves to take advantage of the smart building era. Paris-based Schneider Electric, for example, acquired Pelco in October 2007. A prepared statement announcing the acquisition says that Pelco would reinforce Schneider's building automation business, which encompasses power and HVAC control, electronic security and fire safety.

Then, in December, Ingersoll Rand Co. Ltd., Montvale, N.J., announced an agreement to acquire Trane Inc., Piscataway, N.J. In a news release announcing the agreement, Ingersoll Rand Chairman and CEO Herbert L. Henkel states: “This acquisition represents a significant next step in Ingersoll Rand's decade-long transformation to become a leading global diversified industrial company with strong market positions across the climate control, industrial and security markets.”

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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