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A new type of contractor is developing who needs to understand the mechanical, electrical and the IT side of a building’s needs. Much of it has to do with the fact more systems including energy, HVAC, automation, security and, of course, corporate networks now run over Ethernet and IP.

Smarter

Smarter&Buildings

12 CNS September / October 2011 www.cnsmagazine.com

www.cnsmagazine.com September / October 2011 CNS 13


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By Lawrence Cummer

Smart buildings, in which automation is used to make the management and operation more efficient, are becoming more popular

because of the potential to reduce energy con-sumption and ultimately cost.

According to Natural Resources Canada, most buildings including those that are already highly efficient can generate energy savings between five and 15% when actions are taken to ensure opera-tion at peak efficiency.

“Energy is a huge issue today,” says Savitri Ballai, business development manager at Graybar Canada’s Mississauga, Ont. location. “Because we are spending so much on power and energy, any kind of smart building has to be related to reduc-

ing it. It is so much on the forefront and everyone is looking closely at how much they’re spending.”

As energy prices continue to climb, Ballai says she has been seeing more facilities managers being tasked with reducing spend on power, and re-cently has seen three very large customers looking towards smart building-related technology.

More systems including energy, HVAC (heat-ing, ventilation, and air conditioning) automation, security and, of course, corporate networks now running over Ethernet and IP are creating new opportunities for improvement, unavailable when all these systems had proprietary protocols.

In particular, it allows management software to more readily capture data that is key for efficient facility management, says Bernard Oegema facili-ties services specialist at IBM Global Technology Services in Markham, Ont.

“With IT-based analytics there is a very low cost to monitor just about anything in a building, so sensors are becoming ubiquitous. And, we are seeing Moore’s Law start to apply to sensor tech-nology, so we can affordably pick up temperature, humidity, air-flow, noise, video, motion, equip-ment, UPS, power — lots and lots of information.

“And all this information, if used intelligently, allows us to be proactive in order to allocate cost and be predictive.”

And some very sophisticated automation can take place with that level of intelligence and ana-lytics. Oegema gives the example of facilities con-nected directly to data from weather networks. If

temperature is going to drop, facilities managers can prevent engaging air conditioning either through automation or decision-based alerts.

“IT and facilities are converging more every day,” he says. “Having a converged network allows facilities managers to get a bigger picture of what’s going on.”

Greater facilities information being shared over existing networks can, with analytics, result in three benefits, says Oegema: cost-savings from operational efficiency, more intelligent resource allocation and better capital decisions. He notes also that the addition of highly predictive model-ing tools, facilities managers can instantly deter-mine the benefits of, for example, upgrading a particular building’s insulation or reducing power to a particular underused facility, removing guess-work.

One network to rule them all: Once managed over disparate networks, a movement exists to move more facilities systems over one IP-based network, and even to incorporate some cloud-based services, says Rick Huijbregts, vice-presi-dent of smart and connected communities at Cisco Systems Canada Co. in Toronto.

“The network has already become the plat-form for all kinds of communications from people to people, to people to machines, to machines to machines,” he says. IP, already the network of choice for IT, has emerged as an easy method for more integrated physical security, and is making inroads into building control systems, adds Huijbregts.

Not only are building management systems starting to incorporate IP-ports, but those very management systems are starting to act more like IT devices. “The building controller that is decid-ing whether I have warm air or cool air in my space is starting to act just like an IP phone or a printer,” says Huijbregts. “It becomes just another edge device on an IP infrastructure.”

He says pulling together these systems over one network makes sense, because through stan-dardizing on IP lower-cost systems can be built, and communications problems between disparate networks can be eliminated.

While that makes sense, according to Robert Horne, executive vice-president at the Ottawa-based consultancy The Attain Group Inc., a single network infrastructure for IT and various facilities functions is great in theory, but is harder to do in practice in many office-based businesses.

He notes that since many typical businesses lease rather than own their facilities, they are not going to be comfortable running their corporate

The role of facilities managers is becoming more dynamic and, at times, strategic. They are being tasked to work with

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networks over the infrastructure set up by their building management. “Ideally, if a large company owned the building, and therefore had a vested interest in the energy management they could have a single infra-structure and then partition a VLAN for security cameras and card access, and an-other for HVAC management and things like that.”

Still, he adds that even when the com-pany owns the building, for practical and li-ability reasons many choose not to move to a single shared infrastructure for facilities, security and IT.

Horne says security policies generally dictate that these systems are kept separate. VLANs in theory act as separate networks for these services to run on the same infra-structure, but Horne says it remains an area of dispute.

“That’s where the big debate remains, and people always err on the side of caution. Imagine if someone could gain access to everything (on the network) through some-thing as simple as temperature monitor.”

Meanwhile others, especially in IT, side with Huijbregts. “For enterprises, the net-work is becoming kind of the nerve centre of the building,” says Jay Borer, marketing manager for the Communications Markets Division at 3M Corp., based out of Austin, Tex.

“Communications networks are being looked at as every bit as important as plumb-ing and gas in the building. Those wireless and in some cases wired networks are going to be utilized for every aspect from door

alarms, security monitors, controlling win-dow blinds and lights, every potential sys-tem you can control.”

Borer says this is driving an increase in extending fiber further into the enterprise, even as far as the desktop or devices being used for facility monitoring and control, and for finding more cost-effective ways to drop fiber, extending its use within facilities.

Borer says due to what he calls “the green effect,” organizations are looking for ways to reduce the use of high-cost copper enterprise cabling solutions, and turning to fiber optic networks or passive optical LANs to extend fiber from the entry of the build-ing all the way to the desktop.

“The energy consumption is reduced,” Borer suggests, “If you look at it from an Ethernet-type switched network, where you’d traditionally have wiring closets on each floor, you can now have all of your electronics on a ground floor and can split out that signal on up to 64 separate lines. On a single strand of fiber you are serving up to 256 desktops.”

Ballai says from the perspective of facili-ties automation she is not yet seeing a dra-matic shift to fiber; however, she notes that economic caution could be holding back application of some technologies.

Today, she adds most building automa-tion networks are still running and being built using UTP copper cabling. She is see-ing fiber for building automation systems more frequently in some instances, like fac-tories, where reduced interference is impor-tant.

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“As they improve on trying to make buildings more sustainable and have better management capabilities we may see more movement, but the economy is doing this up-and-down, up-and-down thing. When things are more stable we may see more migration to IP-based building automa-tion systems.”

Despite the debate over whether to share ser-vices over a single network, Horne is seeing the communication networks being more frequently incorporated into the building design process at the same time as HVAC and other systems.

Since it is an area in which building designers often have little expertise, this trend has their en-gineering firms calling on cabling professionals and installation firms to boost their expertise dur-ing the building design and set-up stage.

Wi-Fi adoption and pathway concerns: In ad-dition, Horne says he is seeing property managers use a building-wide communication network for the purpose of property management, and in-creasingly build in networks that incorporate Wi-Fi and cell extension.

Such networks are being used to provide ten-ants with a Web portal for service requests, for property management staff to use network-con-nected tablet devices for efficient work, for public Wi-Fi access and to extend mobile phone access to parts of the building cell towers higher floors where service will not reach. (Since, cell towers signals are directed downwards, once a building reaches about 10 stories they begin to lose service, Horne notes.)

In addition to these benefits, property manag-ers are finding that having extensive cellular cov-erage or free public Wi-Fi in common areas is being seen as a marketing advantage when attract-ing tenants. The same network built for cell exten-sion through the building also act as a LAN, car-ries Wi-Fi, and fire, police and emergency service signals.

Of course, extending cellular coverage or building a network of Wi-Fi end points still re-

quires plenty of physical wiring on the back-end to support it, and that means pathways through the building.

Facilities systems and communications systems being developed simultaneously provide a better opportunity to build pathways into the building design, reducing interference. While communica-tions used to be lumped in with electrical work, if considered at all, changes in the Construction Specifications Institute’s MasterFormat division to include communications networks as its own specification makes these networks less of an af-terthought.

While communications systems are being seen as more important during the building process, the lion’s share of space and consideration in buildings design typically goes to HVAC systems, says Horne. Still, it’s an important step that the groups are sitting down together at the design table often before ground is even being broken.

Collaboration and new skills: All agree integra-tions between facilities and communication, whether on a single, shared infrastructure or not, calls for greater collaboration and, in some cases, new skill sets.

It can be generational, Huijbregts says. He gives the example of a customer visit he recently conducted in which he met the operator of the building’s mechanical and electrical systems, who was sitting monitoring four or five dusty CRT screens, each handling a different building func-tion.

“He sits there and he plays Angry Birds on his iPad. He was probably 23 years old. As we started to talk with him, he actually said, ‘I wish I could control these systems from my iPad upstairs in the daylight rather than stare at four screens in the basement where nothing happens.’”

Huijbregts says the world of facilities manage-ment is in a transition stage right now, where a large segment of managers are used to traditional methods, which they know like the backs of their

Power-over-EthernetPower over Ethernet (PoE) allows electrical power to travel alongside data over a network’s

Ethernet cabling. The power level offered by PoE is appropriate for various end devices from IP

phones, WLAN access points and Ethernet switches, cameras, LCD monitors and thin client

computers.

In addition, PoE can be used to power building controllers. For example, Surrey, B.C.-based

Delta Controls last year became the first building automation company to launch a PoE IP HVAC

controller to the market, which it premiered at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Continues on page 21


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To help prevent the 90,000 residential electrical fires that occur in North America each year, Eaton pioneered affordable circuit interrupter technology and helped incorporate it into electrical codes. In a plant, an arc flash event can generate temperatures that are four times that of the sun. In 2007, Eaton introduced the

FlashGard® Motor Control Center—an industry first—with features engineered to help prevent injuries from electric shock, arc flash burns and arc blasts.

Eaton leads the way with over 40 arc flash prevention solutions and engineering services teams that provide training and arc flash hazard analysis.

Safety firstDelivering innovation to improve electrical safety where you live, work and play.

To deliver the highest quality backup power protection for your home computer, network, server and data center, Eaton is applying the knowledge that developed the first AC power inverter and commer-cial UPS combining battery charges and inverters.

To keep clean, uninterrupted power flowing, Eaton delivers the industry’s most efficient UPS—the Eaton 9395 boasts a 99% efficiency rating and the highest reliability on the market. It is the first power-quality product to receive SMaRT© Gold certification.

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Eaton is building on the expertise that enabled development of the first automat-ic motor starter and threephase, oil-insu-lated contactor to deliver motor control that lowers total cost of ownership and enables processes to run more efficiently.

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commitment that extends far beyond its own facilities. The Department of Energy recognized Eaton for meeting the highest standards in managing energy-saving performance projects. Today, Eaton is a certified energy services company (ESCO).

Sustainable by designReducing energy consumption to use resources more effectively.

Eaton is leveraging the engineering exper-tise that pioneered the use of vacuum tubes to control heavy currents nearly 80 years ago by continuing to offer vacuum interrupters and circuit breakers with long mechanical and maintenance-free lives.

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Continued from page 16hands, but an emerging wave of facilities manag-ers are seeking new ways to work and that will drive greater integration between facilities man-agement and IT.

It will also lead to greater use of cloud-based facilities management services, he says, but he confesses that a lot of investment has gone into existing legacy systems and he calls the move to more integrated systems “a work in progress.”

He says a new type of contractor is developing who understands mechanical, electrical and the IT side of a building’s needs. “They are becoming the orchestrators of bringing together what has tradi-tionally (existed in silos).” While a common term for these advisors has not emerged, Cisco is calling them “master technology contractors”, and points to companies like Johnson Controls Inc. as lead-ing the way in their development.

Oegema says facilities management and IT often don’t work well together in traditional sce-narios, but that the smart building systems with analytics can provide benefit to them both and can bring them together. For example, break-glass detection being monitored by software could be

shared with security, but IT and network manag-ers would also want to know if a controlled space is being accessed.

Ballai says the role of facilities managers is be-coming far more dynamic and, at times, strategic. They are being tasked to work with IT teams to find better ways to measure operations and look at the long-term sustainability of their buildings.

That is demanding of them a greater business and technology acumen than ever before, and col-laboration with IT departments.

It’s not just buildings getting smarter, Ballai suggests that facilities managers are learning new tricks to follow suit.

“What you are seeing is businesses looking for facilities managers who also have the technical knowledge for every aspect of the building sys-tems (including communications). It will not just be the engineer and staff anymore, but everyone and the question is being asked how will that con-tribute to us having more efficient buildings?”

CNS

Lawrence Cummer is a Toronto-based

freelance writer. He can be reached via e-mail at

[email protected].

mailto:[email protected]

www.megger.com

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