Whether you manage all aspects of your facilities or contract out maintenance and integration services, a fluid operation is essential to the success of commercial properties. This means attending to multiple, evolving, and, often, competing priorities—and compromised productivity can quickly have a negative impact.
Deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in commercial buildings and the universal network connectivity of equipment is increasingly investigated and pursued by owners, facility managers, and contractors. Their impact on building automation systems can be significant, opening up opportunities for improved efficiency, better operational performance, and enhanced occupant comfort. But security concerns should be considered carefully to ensure the introduction of these technologies does not create new vulnerabilities.
In 2019, the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a clear advisory about Optergy’s Proton/Enterprise Building Management System after finding that “successful exploitation of [specific] vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to achieve remote code execution and gain full system access.”
Today’s commercial buildings account for more than 35 percent of the electricity consumed in the United States. And in most commercial buildings, heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems consume more than 30 percent of total energy use.
The past year has been a time of tremendous transformation for many of us, including those who own, operate, or service commercial buildings. COVID-19 has changed occupant priorities and habits. Environmental and economic concerns are increasing the need for efficiency. Emerging technologies are redefining how buildings are designed and managed.
Commercial buildings are one of the major sources of a city’s greenhouse gas emissions. With climate change becoming a global concern and widespread regulations to reduce carbon emissions, sustainable buildings are not just a good idea, but a necessity. Yet, sustainable building operations are usually not among the key priorities of building owners or facilities managers.
As smart building technologies continue to advance, the role and very definition of building management systems (BMS) is changing. Today, a BMS is not just about proprietary protocols and the ability to get alerts about every setpoint change or damper fluctuation. Modern building management systems, also referred to as building automation systems (BAS), or even integrated automation systems (IAS), the focus for owners and facilities managers is on making better and faster operational decisions, increasing automation, streamlining systems, and optimizing overall performance.
As an owner or a property manager of a commercial building, the cost of energy consumption for building operations will always be one of your primary concerns. After all, energy costs likely constitute some of your largest operating expenses.
Traditional building management system (BMS) design results in the capture of a huge amount of data from a complex network of equipment and sensors—data you have to make sense of. This data contains invaluable information about your building, but the sheer volume can make it difficult to filter through and determine what matters, what doesn’t, and how disparate elements of the system relate to the whole. As a result, your goals—energy efficiency, increased occupant comfort, improved operations—often remain out of reach. But the right building management system design can change that and allow you to optimize performance.
Buildings are no longer simple brick-and-mortar structures for living and working. Modern buildings are designed to improve comfort for occupants while optimizing energy spend. As the concept of smart buildings gains acceptance across the globe, there is an increasing need for building automation systems (BAS) designed to meet the complex needs of intelligent buildings.
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