Technology Roadmap for Intelligent Buildings
Conclusions and Recommendations

• Developers/Owners/Operators
• Occupants/Tenants
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• In Closing

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This report proposes actions to promote and advance intelligent building technologies. The conclusions drive the recommendations. There are two major conclusions and recommendations:

• Intelligent building technologies are generally available, but not yet widely adopted; and
• Many changes and initiatives are needed for use of these technologies to become widespread.

The Technology Roadmap recommends numerous actions, many requiring co-operation among organizations. This is the nature of progress in technology applications in today's world. The adoption of intelligent building technologies, like many other processes, faces significant challenges, and is making progress because of the vision and dedication of individuals and organizations. These visions need to be encouraged, adopted and exploited. The recommendations are designed to do this.

Developers/Owners/Operators

The key factors that need to be modified to encourage progress in the industry, and suggestions on how to undertake these modifications.

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Occupants/Tenants

The changes that are needed to take more advantage of intelligent building technologies and how to make these happen.

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Conclusions

The research that developed this Technology Roadmap led to the following conclusions:

1. There are a significant number of intelligent building technology products currently on the market that are capable of automating and integrating all major building systems.
2. Building automation systems can both reduce costs and increase productivity and comfort.
3. The degree of confidence in intelligent building technologies is inadequate largely because of a lack of awareness and understanding, of its value.
4. There is a lack of properly assessable intelligent building technology reference projects.
5. Reduced energy costs are seen as a major benefit of intelligent building technologies equated to HVAC. However, other benefits, for example, reduced staff levels and improved occupant satisfaction, are often overlooked.
6. Economic analyses of intelligent building projects are often flawed. Typical errors: including construction cost increases but not savings, incorrectly reflecting operational cost savings over the project's expected life, and ignoring additional rent and sales revenues.
7. Many developers, owners, architects, engineers and contractors use only old, tried and proven products, methods and technologies, and show little initiative to consider valuable and economically attractive advanced alternatives.
8. Widespread use of the Internet and wireless communications improves worker productivity and increases the cost effectiveness and marketability of intelligent building technologies.
9. Air quality measurement and other sensors work well to control HVAC and other building automation systems.
10. There is a significant shortage of trained, knowledgeable and certified professionals in the design, installation and integration of intelligent building systems.
11. Intelligent building technologies require the co-operation of the entire design team including owner, developer, architect and engineers.
12. An integrated communications infrastructure is the essential foundation in the effective deployment of intelligent building technologies.
13. New and evolving technologies enable the gradual enhancement of functions and features, via upgrade of the electronics, throughout the life of an intelligent building.

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Recommendations

The recommendations resulting from these conclusions follow. These recommendations are intended to increase the widespread, successful and valuable application of intelligent building technologies:

1. Increase awareness of the benefits of intelligent building technologies, to stimulate research and development and, most important, usage. Techniques to increase awareness include the following:
   • Document the substantial economic advantages of implementing integrated intelligent building technologies through well presented rigorous cost/benefit analyses, and circulate these studies widely;
   • Develop instrumented reference examples for both retrofit and new construction;
   • Stimulate demonstration projects, which must be properly managed, instrumented and monitored. The resulting knowledge must be useful for comparative evaluations of the benefits of these technologies, and widely available;
   • Economic results from instrumented examples must distinguish among the many technologies, the areas and disciplines, and short-term and longterm savings; and
   • Develop effective links with this technology in other countries and with all disciplines.
2. Emphasize the total benefits, the overall positive picture, of intelligent building technologies.
3. Education must be provided and promoted at all levels. This includes architects and engineers, developers, owners and all those involved in the construction, operation and maintenance of intelligent building technologies, and also the real estate industry. Education will include traditional universities and schools, and information, workshops and seminars provided through manufacturers and suppliers. On-site training and union participation are also required.
4. A disciplined approach to standards and protocols is needed, to ensure system interoperability, and maintenance and operation without proprietary information.
5. Develop partnerships among knowledgeable design engineers and traditional electrical and mechanical designers. This follows the practice of the architect selecting electrical, mechanical and other design and engineering groups.
6. Develop partnerships among suppliers to promote intelligent building technologies, for example, utility companies partnering with intelligent building technology manufacturers, service providers and systems integrators to extend high value functionality to the customer.
7. Design intelligent building technologies systems to include redundancy and resiliency, with no single points of failure. Systems operate in redundant or degraded mode after a failure.
8. System integration should evolve gradually, i.e., evolution and not revolution.
9. Standards and protocols must evolve to promote interaction and interoperability among the multiple computer-controlled systems common within modern buildings.
10. The controllers and electronic components must incorporate diagnostics and reporting capabilities, to report failures or performance degradation before users become aware of them.
11. Protocols used by suppliers in proprietary solutions must be available to contractors, engineers and service personnel as required. These protocols must enable the required interoperability.
12. Warranty-related recommendations include the following:
    • Warranties must ensure that individual systems interoperate with other systems. Other vendors' components and sharing data among devices must not void warranties;
    • When commissioning or validating systems, suitable test procedures must be documented which are acceptable to all parties; and
    • Authorities having jurisdiction and building codes must recognize that integrated systems can and do provide improved safety and functionality. Appropriate Certification of these systems must be acceptable for authorities having jurisdiction and for warranties.
13. Contractual recommendations include the following:
    • Service and maintenance contracts must permit interoperability, nonexclusivity of service requirements, sharing of communication facilities, and provision of parts and service documentation to third parties;
    • Service contracts and maintenance agreements require non-confidentiality agreements so that vendors may share and distribute needed proprietary information;
    • Responsibilities among service organizations may be shared but must avoid competitive or conflicting requirements, for example, transducers and communications facilities may be shared among more than one system;
    • Service agreements must guarantee overall system reliability and availability in terms that are both measurable and enforceable; and
    • Service and maintenance agreements should recognize the need to upgrade systems and avoid obsolescence. Exchange of service records among suppliers ensures proper functionality of integrated systems.
14. A key recommendation is the adoption of a single communications infrastructure with an integrated design. This requires a new division within the construction administration document process, commonly referred to as the Division 17 or the Division 25 initiative. Key elements include the following:
    • recognize that the communications infrastructure is a utility within the building comparable to the electrical risers or the plumbing infrastructure;
    • have a single contractor install all communications infrastructure;
    • certify the communication cables and infrastructure against demanding and common criteria;
    • co-locate equipment within communications rooms in order to provide versatility when additional devices, for example, paging amplifiers, security systems, etc., are added to the common communications backbone; and
    • remove all Class 2 type services from all construction administration document divisions except in designated divisions, such as Division 17.
15. The construction divisions, which are normally included in documents provided by the CCDC or the AIA, are beginning to move to a Division 17 — Communications Infrastructure. The well-proven benefits to the developer/ owner/operator have been:
    • a single, common, universal infrastructure;
    • lower costs because of the single communications utility;
    • an ongoing ability to easily relocate equipment as and when required;
    • a reduced number of different cabling options since a proper cable design allows use of a single cable type or low variation in cable types;
    • established pathways which eliminate unsightly and costly conduits dedicated to particular applications; and
    • identification of responsibility for cabling and end-to-end communications problems.

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In Closing

This Technology Roadmap reflects the state and status of the intelligent building technologies industry, primarily in Canada and the United States, in mid–2002. The activities involved in developing the Technology Roadmap have resulted in a great deal of enthusiasm among some practitioners who recognize a tremendous opportunity for the expansion of related activities. In many cases, these will occur by evolution and not by revolution as the technologies are gradually placed into service and more people come to understand the benefits and opportunities that can be exploited from using these technologies.

We thank all of those who have contributed to date and look forward to further, exciting contributions from readers in the future.

A complementary document to the Technology Roadmap, has been developed by the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) under contract to Industry Canada and Public Works and Government Services Canada. This document is a checklist of intelligent building technologies intended as a guide for all of the major stakeholders in IBT projects. It is available at the Continental Automated Buildings Association website.

For further information and investigation, and to contact those who were involved in the development and preparation of this Technology Roadmap, please refer to the following appendices. Comments and suggestions will be most welcome.

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