Regular readers know that sustainable buildings are not sustainable unless their inhabitants are willing to continue using their features. Nothing is less sustainable than the feature that is uncomfortable, or awkward to use. For the owner of commercial buildings, the desired amenities are ones that reduce costs, or extend asset life while reducing tenant inconvenience.
Building Systems that support agile integration open up realms of integration for everyday use. These functions have been available, at great expense, for those who absolutely required them. Others have been adopted by those are simply driven, like the energy strategies used by those who live off the grid. These functions, and the amenities they offer, will make the the operating efficiencies they also provide sustainable.
So what kinds of new abilities will real sustainable buildings offer? Access to information will allow all service providers to improve operating efficiencies and to offer new and enhanced services. Whether the service providers be life safety related or task (contract) related, operating efficiencies allows improved use of resources while reducing risk and liability. Below are some benefits that intelligent, agile integration will offer to building operators:
- Knowledge Systems for Autonomous Maintenance –Intelligent systems able to determine and communicate maintenance and repair needs based on defined requirements (e.g., reliability predictions/calculations) vs. measured performance and sensed and assessed condition.
- Automation Technologies for Life-Limiting Factors - Able to detect, assess, and repair materials, structures, equipment, and systems affected by corrosion, fatigue, breakage, stress, and other life-limiting factors.
- Automation Technologies for Critical Performance Factors - Able to detect, assess, and repair materials, structures, equipment, and systems with respect to safety, security, health, and environmental issues.
- Facility Condition Knowledge Base & Baseline - Real-time human and machine access, both locally and remotely, to as-built/installed configurations, maintenance/repair history, and material/equipment life predictions.
- Uniform Equipment/Process Information Standards - Digital documentation and sharing of data on material and equipment properties and characteristics (including simulation models) and O&M best practices.
- Sharable Standard Equipment/Process Models - Mathematically accurate 3-D simulation and performance models for all forms of material and equipment, such that vendor-provided models can be "plugged together" into the master facility simulation model.
- Facility O&M Advisory System - Intelligent advisory systems able to process status information from all facility sensors and systems in real time and make optimum recommendations for proactive and corrective actions (including emergency response) and which is able to implement the desired actions through automated command and control systems and through communication with O&M personnel.
- Integrated Safety/Security Systems - Continuous monitoring for safety/security hazards and threats from personnel, equipment, and materials and provide automated tracking and alerting capability when a hazard is detected or suspected.
- Facility O&M Systems Integration – Connection of the facility O&M system to higher-level enterprise management systems, enabling passing of status and activity information to enterprise functions such as business planning, labor allocation, resupply, and other site support functions.
- Enterprise O&M Systems Integration –Connection of the facility O&M system to customers, equipment/material suppliers/manufacturers, and automated design advisory systems, including the feedback of maintenance/repair results/data to the master facility simulation model.
- Enterprise Control Model Linkages - Feedback of maintenance and repair results and data to process-level, facility-level, and enterprise-level knowledge systems, enabling visibility of performance and issues, real-time updating of operational control models, and extension of the planning and design knowledge bases.
- Shared O&M Knowledge Bases - Accessible databases of maintenance and repair experience for different kinds of capital projects/facilities, enabling the sharing of expertise across the industry with appropriate provisions for anonymity, security, and intellectual property protection.
These higher order activities require common building semantics (naming of things) BuildingSmart looks to be the only game in town for capital asset semantics. These semantics will unify the information coming from the sensors below into objects intelligible to the building owner.