Articles

Interviews

Releases

New Products

Reviews

Editorial

Events

Sponsors

Site Search

Newsletters

Archives

Past Issues

Home

Editors

eDucation

Training

Links

Software

Subscribe

Every month there is a blizzard of information contained in the emails and newsletters that cross my desk on their way to AutomatedBuildings.com. Some of this information is not in the form of any type of content we can publish but I feel I should share with you these snippets, blog bits, and url links that are about to fall off my desktop.

applying an “Internet of Things meets Big Data” approach, the team invented a data-driven software solution that is slashing the cost of operating the campus’ 125 buildings. The software, which is saving Microsoft millions of dollars, has been so successful that the company and its partners are now helping building managers across the world deploy the same solution. And with commercial buildings consuming an estimated 40 percent of the world’s total energy, the potential is huge. For more detailed information read this month's interview with Darrell Smith.

Microsoft Campus All Switched On  Switch Automation is a proud Microsoft solution partner and the Switch Platform is hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. So when we were asked to bring the Redmond Campus online, we jumped at the opportunity. Peter Rake worked collaboratively with Darrell Smith and Puget Sound Energy to deliver two years of fifteen minute interval data onto the platform providing the Energy and Operations staff at Redmond with an invaluable layer of visibility across ninety eight buildings and one hundred and fifty eight metering points. For more detailed information on this read this month's interview with  Darrell Smith.

Over the past 36 months, the industry has gone through an awakening of sorts with regard to building automation, automated fault detection, and diagnostics. In essence, these technologies have moved along the technology adoption curve to the point that we’re seeing the Early Majority users take advantage of the most effective advancements the industry has to offer. During this time, we’ve “Leapt the Chasm” from Early Adopters toward the Early Majority. How will the Early Majority make their buying decisions in this rapidly changing marketplace?

Has Anyone Seen A Real Internet of Things Ecosystem?  Smart Systems and the Internet of Things is real and many, if not most, of its silicon, software, and network pieces are finally beginning to fall into place.  But creative business development among technology developers has not kept pace with their technology innovations. The tech tools may be 21st century, but the business thinking of the tool “creators” has too often remained in the 20th. Yet, despite considerable progress in many areas, the potential for Smart Systems is still largely untapped - potentially billions if not trillions of nodes could be connected if the right technology and business architectures were in place.Download the Future of Internet of Things Ecosystems Infographic Here

Energy Efficiency Requires Merging Technology and Occupant Behavior Written November 7th, 2013 by Denis Du Bois
Categories: Energy Efficiency, Energy Policy, News Technology continues to advance and save energy. But a funny thing happened on the way to the technological future: Occupants showed us that their behavior is crucial to energy savings.

Researchers from the University of Bristol Interaction and Graphics group in the U.K. have developed what is essentially a force field that allows for haptic feedback with interactive technology — without a user actually touching the screen.  The system is called UltraHaptics and it relies on the principal of acoustic radiation to project sensations through a screen directly onto the user's hands in mid-air.

Next generation product from Ninja Blocks. Taking all of the experience working with our community over the last 2 years, we're now taking a giant step forward in the world of connected devices.  We've got a beautiful new gateway with a ton more radios, and some really great new technology including gesture control and in-home location of you and your devices. But to do it justice, we invite you to view the project on Kickstarter

Each asset tag is linked to powerful facility management software, accessible from any smartphone or tablet device, providing field based access to documents, drawings, equipment information, schedules and equipment service history, when and where you need it BuiltSpace recognizes that facilities management involves people, and we help you collaborate with those building stakeholders. Engage building occupants, or invite your service contractors to improve customer service.

Reinventing Fire should be a required watch for all so they understand how important and useful our contribution to our future is.  Amory Lovins: A 40-year plan for energy  I had the opportunity to be part of a think tank several years ago with Amory and find still today using his words and ideas. I had not seen his Reinventing Fire TED talk.  He has an amazing ability to make; complex simple while making sense of it all. A great big picture why we are all in the correct place with our believes and careers.

Freedomotic is an open, flexible, scalable and mashups oriented software that can interact with well known standard building automation protocols as well as with "do it yourself" solutions. It treats the web, social networks and frontends just like any other sensor or actuator in your automation system. For example you can twitt your washing machine to start the washing cycle.

nHaystack is a software module that enables external applications to get data out of Niagara stations quickly and efficiently. Once a system is tagged many new and exciting things become possible.  Imagine graphic pages that auto generate based on the meaning of the data by reading the tags, or summary screens that “just work” as a result of the queries.  Now analytics and rules engines can easily be run against a nHaystack station to dynamically find operational inefficiencies and help perform continuous commissioning.

The KMC Product Resource App is designed to provide quick and simple on-the-job access to critical product information and resources. Our Product Resource App features a fully functional user interface optimized for tablets and smartphones. With it you can:
•    Quickly and easily find and access detailed information on KMC core products
•    Download Data Sheets and Installation & Operation Guides directly to your device
•    Store critical product data natively on your device for offline retrieval at a project site
•    Email product documentation directly from your device

Get all the latest KMC product information on your mobile platform today. KMC Product Resource is designed for both iOS and Android devices.

LCA RF Wireless Controls Survey By Craig DiLouie, on November 18, 2013 Radio-frequency (RF) wireless lighting controls are control devices such as manual switches, occupancy sensors and photosensors that communicate via radio waves. Eliminating control wiring may reduce total installed cost while facilitating application of automatic lighting controls in existing construction where installing new wiring would be costly or problematic. As investment has favored existing over new nonresidential construction in recent years, RF wireless lighting controls have grown in popularity, with numerous products now available

Honeywell has introduced its next-generation technology to control and optimize heating and cooling equipment in facilities.  The ComfortPoint Open building management system reduces energy costs with built-in utility meter management tools and advanced energy reporting, and is easy to use with web and mobile accessibility. The new tool provides flexibility to grow and expand with end-to-end BACnet® standard protocol network integration

Virtual Building Browser™  Cloud-based software that gets you to your building information right now.  Instant access to archived and real-time building information.

“We want VIA to be simply adaptable to any building type, easy and quick to install and hardware independent”, said Zdenko Gacar, VIA Project Manager and Lead Developer. “To achieve true hardware independence, we decided to support all three major communication protocols: KNX, BACnet and Modbus. This means you can use VIA as a partner system to other subsystems that use different communication protocols or you can use VIA as a standalone system.

YouBIM is a tool for improving, minimizing and making their building as efficient as possible. A user friendly Cloud-based solution which extends all the value of BIM through building lifecycle