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Technology Roadmap for Intelligent Buildings
The Benefits of Intelligent Building Technologies
Table of Contents
- Developers/Owners/Operators
- Occupants/Tenants
- Building Operations
- Ancillary Benefits — Suppliers
- Reference Projects
- Published Documents
This section develops and describes the benefits that intelligent building technologies can provide for the various stakeholder groups. Experience indicates that these benefits are functionally desirable and can be cost effective. Cost effectiveness benefits primarily the developer/owner/operator, whereas the functional enhancements are mainly enjoyed by the Occupants/Tenants. If improved comfort, security, flexibility and reliability can be achieved with reduced costs and increased productivity, thereby increasing return on investment, few would argue against the deployment of such technology.
Many of the concepts which are central to intelligent building technologies have already become fairly commonplace, for example, the ability to access a building independently and securely outside of normal working hours. In general, the dominant attractions of these technologies are as summarized here:
- standardized building wiring systems enable simple upgrade modifications of control systems;
- higher building value and leasing potential via increased individual environmental control;
- consumption costs managed through zone control on a time of day schedule;
- Occupants/Tenants control building systems after hours via a computer or telephone interface;
- occupant/tenant after-hours system use tracked for charge back purposes;
- service/replacement history tracking of individual relay and zone use; and
- single "human resources" (hire/fire) interface modifies telephone, security, parking, LAN, wireless devices and building directory, etc.
Some projects report a reduced overall cost because independent computer systems and independent control rooms have been merged into single systems.
The benefits in projects where these technologies have been exploited are often described. However, the Technology Roadmap has found a scarcity of reference projects that are fully instrumented and documented. Reference projects apply equivalent technologies to new or retrofit projects and draw careful conclusions regarding the proposed investment and the projected return. These projects identify and quantify the risks and the rewards. These evaluations must allow for appropriate substitution.
To date, many intelligent building projects have been showcase projects, demonstrating the "glitz" and attractiveness of specific implementations without seriously quantifying the costs and the rewards. Obviously, the use of room occupancy sensors, which reduce lighting when rooms are not occupied, will save costs for lighting, lamp replacement and heating. Without quantification, it is difficult to know whether the costs and efforts involved can be justified, since the "start-up costs" may be high. Of course, energy cost is a key factor, and changes in energy cost can change the conclusion.
The Technology Roadmap has studied published material and assembled the resulting information into a reference library. It is available to the reader in Appendix A.
Developers/Owners/Operators
Costs of building operations drop significantly because of the ability to better manage utilities, staff and operations. Each stakeholder has a different and identifiable perception of these valuable changes.
Occupants/Tenants
The end users are stakeholders and are affected by all of these activities. Properly automated facilities provide enhanced services, usually at lower costs.
Building Operations
Building Developers
For the building developer, intelligent building technologies provide advanced functionality at modest cost, and integration provides more usable (and revenue earning) space. Intelligent building technologies also make it easy to customize building functionality for specific Occupants/Tenants.
Traditionally, developers create and construct a building complex and subsequently seek Occupants/Tenants, or the developers undertake customized construction to meet the established requirements of an identified customer. The developer generally seeks to meet the market's requirements, with minimum investment. Intelligent building technologies reduce the infrastructure space needs, for example, fewer conduits, control systems and control locations, increasing the usable office space. Also, current trends clearly indicate that Occupants/Tenants value the improved services and environment in the building. This produces a tangible and saleable improvement to the building, which is clearly attractive to any developer.
This improvement is very applicable in retrofit projects, which currently form a large part of construction activity. Partial occupancy is possible if building systems are based on a floor or partial floor control granularity, as intelligent building systems are. In fact, controls are often sufficiently granular to provide different lighting and temperature for each individual. Occupants/Tenants can then occupy some areas of the building, while other areas are still being fitted out. This ability to complete the building on a partial basis is attractive to contractors who are typically paid based on the percentage complete.
Building Owners/Operators
Intelligent building technologies reduce operating and maintenance costs, and allow for more effective and responsive building management. These technologies can also provide a single interface for the integrated building services. The inherent intelligence also allows the owner/operator to transfer some building control to the occupant/tenant, improve telephone services and accessibility for the end user and facilitate security management. All of these changes provide operational efficiencies and the opportunity for increased revenue. These systems also provide owners/operators with greater operational flexibility, for example, the ability to operate several buildings from one control centre, improving effectiveness while reducing cost. Human resource departments of the Occupants/Tenants can control, via one interface, all staff needs for telephones, voice mail, network access, parking access control, office lighting, etc.
An effective intelligent building technology implementation can therefore be operated with fewer operational staff, using these capabilities to monitor conditions and resolve problems more effectively. For example, fixtures can be re-lamped based on actual utilization, not on elapsed time. Since occupants/ tenants can adjust temperatures, lighting conditions and security requirements through suitable interfaces, operational staff need not undertake these activities.
Building Occupants/Tenants
Building Occupants/Tenants clearly prefer the up-to-date bells and whistles that differentiate premium office accommodation from commodity space. What they want and are seeking is what intelligent building technologies can provide. And they clearly perceive that these features bring enhanced value, although, like consumers the world over, they look for the best value at the lowest price. These premium features focus on two areas. One addresses a more comfortable environment (HVAC, lighting, access and security) and the other relates to services and features that will improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Examples include reliable, ubiquitous, flexible and highly featured broadband communications, and the ability to reconfigure office space quickly, easily and cheaply, independent of the owner/operator.
The more comfortable environment enhancements include improved air quality and selfmanaged temperature through enhanced HVAC, on demand lighting and higher quality security that includes parking and elevators and common areas as well as the office space. Enhanced efficiency and effectiveness requires an infrastructure that provides a broadband, accessible communications facility that gives ready access control by end-users to a comprehensive suite of communication services. Another feature, which is desired, is the ability to relocate employees within the building, without reference to the owner/operator, thus reducing the time, cost and disruption.
Building Practices
The developer/owner is concerned with the total cost of ownership of the building, recognizing that higher initial costs are clearly justified if the result is an appropriate payback through reduced operating costs and/or increased building value. Automation reduces the cost of operating staff. Added building functionality results in increased rents and building value.
As an example, quoted figures indicate that supervisory and security staff needs have been reduced by 50 percent. Since each person in this capacity typically costs $100 000 annually, a reduction of five staff saves half a million dollars per year for the life of the building. Other economies come from reduced energy consumption, reduced theft and vandalism and more satisfied Occupants/Tenants.
Owner/Operator and Occupant/ Tenant Information Exchange Opportunities
A well-equipped intelligent building enables the owner/operator to exchange information in real time with Occupants/Tenants. The owner can charge for use of HVAC and electricity, and occupants can check their respective accounts on-line. Security arrangements can be integrated between operator and occupant, for example, visitors can be approved for access to the building, to specific authorized areas in real time, and their location and progress can be monitored by the operator and the occupant.
The result is a building that is regarded as superior, desirable and, therefore, more valuable. Occupants and their employees will enjoy the benefits of such an upgraded facility and are expected to be more productive. Staff will be more willing to work during off hours. Owners will benefit from reduced tenant turnover and increased revenue.
Ancillary Benefits — Suppliers
Design Engineers
For the design engineer, intelligent building technologies provide enhanced functionality, facilitate commissioning and reduce dependency on proprietary vendors. Furthermore, intelligent building technologies provide design engineers with better control of site construction, because of fewer subcontractors and ensure consistent infrastructure options and implementation.
If the infrastructure for intelligent building technologies is covered by a single contract, it is normally undertaken by a single contractor who is responsible for both the integration and the infrastructure.
Contractors
For the construction industry, intelligent building technologies allow interchange of vendors and manufacturers, ensure control of construction costs and make testing and commissioning easier. Intelligent building technologies can allow for building completion in stages, i.e., it becomes possible for occupation of those floors of the building that are complete rather than awaiting full completion of the building project before occupancy may occur.
Equipment and System Manufacturers
The intelligent buildings market provides promising new business opportunities for technology developers. The development of standards is also promoting co-operation among vendors. Many technologies initially developed for other markets are now finding applications in the construction sector.
For building equipment and system manufacturers, intelligent building technologies offer good marketing opportunities through vendor interoperability. Intelligent building technologies decrease costs and increase reliability through the sharing of a common communications infrastructure.
Where vendors adhere to a widely agreed standard, products of more than one manufacturer will be interoperable, and purchase decisions are based on performance, availability and price criteria. Standards permit appropriate substitutions and exchanges, benefiting the end-user community through more choice, better availability and more competitive prices.
Since an intelligent building system records all activities, service related issues, performance concerns and diagnostics are available for all users. This centralized data can be readily evaluated, and the productivity of contractors and users alike is improved.
Reference Projects
Demonstrating the effective integration of intelligent building technologies into projects is an important and very effective way of increasing widespread understanding of the benefits. There have been a number of projects throughout the world that include intelligent building technologies and provide practical examples of how new technologies are being used to benefit all parties. Twenty-four projects are summarized in Appendix A. The relevant intelligent building economics are not included in these charts, because the project economic information is variously reported, and comparisons cannot easily be made.
Many of the buildings in which intelligent building technologies have been deployed use technology to reduce energy costs, but not to provide any direct benefit to the occupants. In others, claims of cost savings are based on anticipated cost savings compared with conventional technology alternatives. Valid economic comparisons are therefore tenuous. Legitimate extrapolation of the savings requires a retrofit building in which the operational costs over a number of years have established a pattern, to which subsequent retrofits then make significant changes. In most retrofit situations, the inherent structure of the building is left unaltered, so that the building only changes from energy inefficient to energy efficient in the context of improved controls, allowing more effective use of scheduled environmental changes.
Published Documents
The Continental Automated Buildings Association website contains a bibliography of some 600 reference articles relating to intelligent building technologies. These publications are largely in English.
The research addressed by these articles and the trends, which are evident, are essential to the development of the Technology Roadmap and to the ability to keep it current. This research will continue to serve the Technology Roadmap by providing:
- a reference source identifying current and future intelligent building technology players;
- quick access to information about many facets of the intelligent building technologies industry;
- information related to innovative products and systems; and
- information for use in the analysis of market trends.
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