Since 1999 AutomatedBuildings.com has had a long history of industry support as the Building Automation Industry’s free source of information and connection.

In our redesign & reinvention, it became apparent that we not only need the support of a few, edited by Jane and I, but we also need to include as much of the industry as we can to provide an industry-edited dynamic library/landing/launch pad where we all can write on the walls for the world to see and the industry to exchange ideas.

Posted dynamically daily by Contributing Editors and our Sponsors

Exchanging and presenting our ideas in their correct context of how they make the world better, the sponsors’ words and images will connect to articles, interviews, videos, and any media they wish, without hostile controlling annoying ads in an available informational format. Because each sponsored post is governed by the Sponsors, all information is posted in near real-time—the work of many, not just a few. A timeline is automatically shown for each post. Curation by contributors and editors is continuous. New Products, Events, and Industry News are posted by each sponsor when they are relevant.

Our industry is driven by the trust of who is writing. The new AB2.0 site is your place to build this trust. Our Contributing Editors and Guest Editors will also develop their posts on the site in near real time.

Most of our sponsors’ posts on social media are created by their multimedia-skilled folk who also create amazing newsletters and other blogs posted on time-sensitive social media or accessible by going to the sponsors’ website. This will become the virtual gathering place to present to the world our craft.

AutomatedBuildings.com believes we need this industry library/landing/launch pad for us all to display and provide the context of our hard work constantly updated. Your posts will be displayed as submitted and posted online in a timely manner, not held for a monthly issue.

New sponsors will be introduced as they come online to celebrate their support. This is your opportunity to add valuable dynamic content to our library resource for our industry. We believe that your sponsor page controlled by you should include at least a link to your about/mission/context page and social media posts. We are open to any ideas on improving the new resource.

As always, AutomatedBuildings.com is a quiet library that we can all go to any time for free in our own time. The noise of the discussion will occur outside on the social media of your choice using the AB2.0 URL. When this discussion becomes significant, we or any contributors can post and link to that social media post.

We need to change our marketing focus and engage in creating the context for communicating our change and our new value.

In AB’s reinvention, we are exploring how we can Collectively, Collect, Contain, Communicate, and CONCISELY, Present The Context of our Industry’s Value.

Connecting, Contexting COPs

For our industry’s survival, we must tell our stories better and demonstrate our value, separated from all the technical mumbo jumbo.

We all are members of several communities of practice. Our COPs’ value needs to be put in a better context, one in which it may be appropriately considered.

In the last few years, the remote everything revolution has us interfacing virtually within our VCOPs. We now zoom about creating virtual teams talking funny using our own COP lingo. This makes it even harder for the outside world to understand our purpose and value. For our industry’s survival, we need to better tell our stories and demonstrate our value, separated from all the technical mumbo jumbo. 

“Contexting Our Value” Contexting Our Value has us focused on the fact that context may be more important than value.

We have stopped publication of the old site http://www.automatedbuildings.com/ and switched to the new site.

The legacy site will be frozen with its 23 years of archives and maintained as a linkable, searchable subset of the new site.

We have the last seven years of content connected to Pinterest pins at this address https://www.pinterest.ca/kens0684/_created/

Pinterest is a social media platform that requires you to join to use.

What does Ken know about Automated Buildings & Facility Operation?

Most know me as the Editor/Owner/Founder of AutomatedBuildings.com for the last 25 years,

I have spent over 50 years optimizing operating procedures utilizing lead-edge DDC systems in existing facilities and large buildings.

Johnson Controls in Milwaukee originally trained me as a service/sales engineer. I left my service manager position with JCI to operate several buildings for a local developer. After that, I accepted a contract position as the Assistance Energy Analyst for the Province of Alberta. This gave me exposure to the new and exciting world of computer-simulated energy performance, although the program did run on paper cards on a mainframe computer in Ottawa over a very slow modem.

For over 25 of these 50 years, I operated as Sinclair Energy Services Ltd providing energy simulations, conservation, and automation consulting for existing large buildings in Western Canada.  This company evolved to be SES CONSULTING.

While working on a computer simulation for a 60-acre solar heated bubble that was to bring a mild environment to a northern Alberta town for both the construction and finished town-site Don Holte of Nova Engineering taught me that the scope and approach to environment control engineering were unlimited. Don went on to be the International President of ASHRAE. Several of my industry mentors share a good understanding of computerized large-building simulation principles.  I started Sinclair Energy Services Ltd to do computer simulations, energy conservation, and identifying computerized controls-related opportunities in large existing buildings.

The University of Alberta (U of A) started a total Direct Digital Control system in 1975. I was lucky to be part of this project, installing large campus buildings with only a total DDC without conventional controls.    The computers were as big as refrigerators, and we had a system analyst and a team of code monkeys. Plus, we had to create and build most of our own software and sensors as most had not been invented yet or were too costly.    Being part of the team that created these exciting leading-edge systems spawned many life mentors for me. I was amazed at the quantity and variety of people required to build what had never been built.    This project and associated mechanical/lighting energy conservation projects for over 15 million square feet of the facility helped me gain insight into large complex operations. A central chilled water plant with over 15,000 tons of cooling and miles of distribution allowed us to hone our hydraulic skills and let the DDC system prove us wrong or right. 

 In the early 1980s, I moved to Vancouver Island. Sinclair Energy Services Ltd started providing similar services for the British Columbia Buildings Corporation, which had over 22 million square feet of space in over 700 buildings. The DDC revolution had begun, centred on the lower BC Mainland and Vancouver Island. Most of our energy studies on existing buildings ended in retrofitting the existing controls to the new DDC systems. Working with the industry to make the new DDC as powerful and flexible as possible further increased my team of industry mentors.

I still had time to be a founding member and president of the local chapter of AEE and the Vancouver Island Chapter of ASHRAE. I was fortunate to be on the teams that won the ASHRAE international energy award for existing buildings Robson Square for BCBC and Vancouver Art Gallery for the City of Vancouver and several AEE energy awards, plus local BC Hydro Power Smart awards. 

Sinclair Energy Services worked with the local utility BC Hydro’s “Power Smart Program,” which allowed us to identify, document, and oversee the implementation of many million dollars of energy conservation projects. Several clients, as well as several large hospitals, allowed us more insight into special application projects. All of our work was done in existing facilities and buildings, and identifying these operational opportunities gave me insight into the existing operation team. 

In all our projects, much of our time was spent retrofitting, rebuilding and training building operators to the point that we created a High-Performance Building Operator’s Course. I wish the Web had been invented to share this with you now. It included the essence of room load calculation, building simulation, thermal and energy analysis of various types of air handling type, control strategy development, power optimization, and more.  The best part was the creation of a personnel network of high-performance operators that could share ideas and help each other solve problems.  I hope to achieve the rekindling of this valuable network of super operators online.

Our original mission statement

http://automatedbuildings.com/about/mission.htm

Since 1999 AutomatedBuildings.com has been an online magazine and web resource.  We provide the news and connection to the community of change agents, creating our present definition of smart, intelligent, integrated, connected, green, and converged large buildings. Our virtual magazine and web resource provide a searchable platform for discussion and exchange while creating opportunities for B2B for all new and existing stakeholders.

We hope you like what we are doing. If you do, “tell a colleague in the industry.” If you do not like what we are doing or know of a better way for us to achieve our goals, tell us via email, and we will try to incorporate your suggestions into our site.

AutomatedBuildings.com is intended to be an interactive process to bind our industry.

I wish us all luck in the development of your resource AutomatedBuildings.com.