Editorial Comments by Ken Sinclair          Editor/Owner, AutomatedBuildings.com

Improving Industry Information Integration

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We have recycled the logo on the cover from an Article - January 2002. The pull quote from this article states;  There has been much attention paid to the relative merits of various protocols in the Building Automation industry. The key to successful integration lies not in the protocol, but in the information model that it represents.....Great insight from over 8 years ago from Eric Craton, Product Development and Dave Robin, Software Development at the time with Automated Logic Corporation.

I love when our articles from the past become the subject of our future. This month's content points to how by using information models we can greatly improve our industry.

In Sarah's article Improving the Construction Process with BIM  The models and intelligent information that BIM can provide offer better visualization of a project as a whole, and allow more information to be included early on in the design stages, ultimately improving the communication among everyone involved in the construction process.

Molding the raw data into client-specific performance reports is the ultimate goal in this article Commissioning for Proactive Energy Management

Our newest contributing editor Nirosha Munasinghe states in this month's article Common Problems of our Industry  "There needs to be standards developed to govern a far greater synergy between original specification and commissioned results."

These are just a few examples please read all our articles.

August Interviews
Another modulating thermostat?  Paul Balazovjech;  Energy Efficiency in Private Sector Buildings  Leland Smith

August Columns
VFD Retrofit Opportunities Steven R. Calabrese;  When Does Building Automation Become Industrial Automation?
Paul Ehrlich & Ira Goldschmidt;  Smart Buildings & Smart Energy Toby Considine;  Energy – How much do we have, how much do we need, and where do we find it? Manny Mandrusiak;  Looking In On BACnet Andy McMillan;  Integrated connected (IC) virtualization Ken Sinclair

August Reviews
Cisco in the News;  The Power of One Screen Full;  HTML5 and Building Automation System Interfaces

The Connectivity of Everything

Connectivity of everything is a growing reality and with each new connection comes new opportunities and new perspectives. Just as low cost powerful connectivity is changing and actually simplifying our personal lives with internet extensions "apps" to our hand held devices, building automation is caught up in the same connectivity growth. Our content this month provides a good overview of the spectrum of industry connectivity.  Let me pull a few examples;

ZigBee allows for the “shower head” analogy to be applied when replacing existing stand-alone thermostats with wireless communicating models as part of a building retrofit.

Energy education dashboards focus more on education about a building’s efficiency and sustainable features than the technical information that operation management would utilize.

Today the concept of a virtual server is real and is used in a variety of industries to optimize their business processes and operating costs.

You need a system to provide enterprise visibility or it will fail (and will likely keep consuming energy) without your knowledge.

Using Real-time Data to Foster Behavior Change  How do you maximize the value of your investment? How do you engage these audiences so that they directly experience, learn from and respond to the environmental consequences of your decisions? How do you make the invisible visible?

These are just a few examples please read all our articles and understand their connectivity to everything.

July Interviews
An Ideal Climate for Retrofit Projects  Joseph Gillespie; Security, Monitoring & Automation (SMA) Market  Jason Domangue;  Monitoring & Analysis of Power Infrastructure  Mark A. Ascolese; Benefits of Smart Grid  John D. McDonald

July Columns
Obtaining LEED Credits With Controls Steven R. Calabrese;  BAS as a Tool for Existing Buildings Operations Paul Ehrlich & Ira Goldschmidt;  Will BAS lead the next energy revolution? Manny Mandrusiak; EMS and Traffic Jam Avoidance Andy McMillan; Smart Energy and the End of Privacy Toby Considine; Building Grid Connectivity Ken Sinclair