3 C's Melt Traditional Building Lines

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While attending the Building Automation & Sustainability Conference & Expo in Phoenix, Arizona the view from our hotel window provided a real reflection that reminded us that the traditional hard building lines are becoming quite soft and pliable in the new order of the three “C’s” Conservation, Connectivity, and Convergence. Deep integration was talked about in every session and how the new converged model of our industry includes close, near and far integration. With all this growth in web based capabilities the hard traditional lines of our building industry are melting into softer identities that closer reflect the virtual nature of our web based ways. This radical growth and blurring of traditional lines brings with it a responsibility for us as an industry to better document our value statements and present ourselves as ready and willing partners in the new converged, connected, and conserving world.

In Wednesday’s opening session the attending group gave our industry a “D” report card rating, Paul Ehrlich noted that this seems to be getting worse as a few years ago the general perception was closer to a “C”. Industry, we can do better and those that do will become our new industry leaders.

The feeling at the conference was very positive and that we are all ready to do better. Education, leadership, and the 4th “C” communication are essential parts of moving forward.

Tom Hartman and I compare notes in the interview BAS and EGB and the State of the Industry 
Sinclair:  I just got back from the Building Automation and Sustainability (BAS) Conference in Phoenix and you’re back from presenting a keynote and a seminar at the Engineering Green Building (EGB) Conference in Las Vegas. I’d like to compare notes and try to assess what the state of the industry is right now and where we each feel we should be moving from here to help drive our industry to become more sustainable.

We also talk about a new way of leading with “collaborative leadership” so be sure read our views and provide us your comments.

I have prepared a review of the BACnet ES Building Automation and Sustainability conference. The concurrent sessions limited the amount of presentations I could attend but have included what I feel are some of the key messages and power points slides from the conference.

Anto writes; The Killer App is here; it’s called DR (Demand Response).
A killer app is defined as being a product or service that is so useful that people will buy particular piece(s) of computer hardware and/or an operating system simply to gain access to the application, one that is so valuable that it transcends any concerns, risks or need to learn something new.

Jim Sinopoli, PE RCDD, Smart Buildings answers the question -How can designers and contractors reduce the cost and streamline the process of installing cabling for building technology systems? in his article 9 Tips On How To Obtain The Best Value In System Cabling.

Following are more great articles for our October issue.

The Soft Side of Automation  Integrating Window Shades into Automation Systems  David Parrett, Electronic Solutions, Inc. a Hunter Douglas Company
Redefining Wireless for Building Systems  ......is it rather “no-new-wires”? The Viconics Sales Team
Truth About Megapixel  This is the second in a series of three articles separating fact from fiction with regard to the fast-growing megapixel camera technology. - Megapixel Network Cameras, Can They Really Save Bandwidth and Storage?  Paul Bodell, Officer, Vice President Sales & Marketing, IQinVision
Turning The Vision of Buildings 2.0 Into Reality  The vision of the Buildings 2.0 white paper states, we "must define tangible tools for Buildings 2.0 to evolve" and it is with this in mind that he communicates this experience.  Bradley Hemphill Pr.Eng, B.Sc.Eng, Electrical Engineering Solutions
Connecting ARCNETÒ to Ethernet Infrastructures - Case Study   Contemporary Controls’ AI-SRVR is the Solution for Distance Issues in Multi-Building Installations  Debra Biela, Marketing Communications Specialist, Contemporary Controls
Pressure Independent Valves  - Case Study  Pressure Independent Valves Make Cost Effective Alternative to Reverse Return System for US Census Bureau  Lisa Hickey, BELIMO Americas
Johnson Controls Metasys Enhancement Prevents Building Disasters  Complete One Step Backup for a JCI Metasys Operator Workstation (OWS) and Network Control Module (NCM) using the new MetaBAK™ product insures reliability. David Hagemann, Custom Computer Systems
Turning Buzz into Bucks  Now is the time to get involved; learn what the buzz is all about and better understand the opportunities being presented to you with demand response.  Ken Sinclair, Editor Owner AutomatedBuildings.com

Plus our October Column Electric Duct Heaters Steven R. Calabrese

Also as usual lots of new products and our constant flow of industry news

Of course the news just keeps flowing thru our web site and RSS feeds daily, and of course the only way to truly find what you are looking for in the vast quantity of information on our site is with our site search engine http://www.automatedbuildings.com/search/sitesearch.htm

Be sure to check our event calendar to see the number events we have in our future.

Lots of information and links in this issue use the menu on your left to explore.

We have been working on improving our web site by reorganizing how we handle the great number of news release we receive daily.  We now provide a News Feed ( Which Needs a RSS Feed Reader ) and have provided a New Our RSS news feed rendered into HTML

"Demand Dollars fuel our New Economy”

Our Building Automation Industry can now demand dollars for giving back kW of electrical peak demand to the grid. This new reality is changing everything, while creating a new and very demanding Demand Response Industry. This new industry comes with new dollars for our industry which were previously spent on providing electrical generation and distribution. We have a tremendously resource in our September issue about this incredible opportunity. Please make time to read these insightful articles.

Peter Kelly-Detwiler, Senior Director of Energy Technology Services writes; Constellation NewEnergy is increasing its efforts to work with systems integrators and merchants to introduce demand response onto existing open IT platforms. This shift to a new energy paradigm will position both systems integrators and their customers to fully participate in the emerging energy marketplace of the 21st century.

Leighton Wolffe, Principal, Wolffe Technology Consultants announces the formation of the NewEnergy Alliance, an organization founded by Constellation NewEnergy that includes leading equipment manufacturers, building automation companies, system integrators, and software application businesses. The purpose of the new alliance is to work with Constellation to drive innovation and create Energy Responsive Buildings^SM.

While Anto Budiardjo, President, Clasma Events Inc. provides us Four steps to make money from DR Understand - Internalize - Plan - Execute

Jack McGowan answers the question how do you turn Buzz into Business?

Bob Coppenhaver, Director Product Management and Marketing, Novar tells us about Multi-Site Demand Response Technology

A building operator is paid to voluntarily reduce or shift electrical use based upon individual decisions in response to market price levels and current building operating flexibilities and/or constraints. Under these next generation plans, the building manager is regularly advised when market prices are high, expected to be high, or exceed a pre-defined price advises Steve Schaefer, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, EnergyConnect Inc.

Ed Richards President and CEO, Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, Inc. answers the question “Can buildings really be dynamically responsive based upon real time pricing of electricity?”

Buildings that have BACnet-based building control systems are particularly well positioned to participate in DR programs confirms Jim Butler, CTO, Cimetrics Inc.

Patrick Mazza Research Director Climate Solutions tell us; Automated buildings rich in digital control systems are ideally positioned to supply DR services to utilities and gain benefits in the form of reduced power bills.

Peter M. Schwartz, Principal Peter Schwartz & Associates, LLC advises us that energy resources will continue to become increasingly scarce, however, their scarcity and attendant price escalation drives technological improvements in buildings.

Trojan Battery Company made record-setting investments in technologies that essentially enable them to buy less energy from their utility. What's unusual about that? The utility paid for the technology, and pays Trojan Battery to use it. Read more

Tom Hartman in his open letter to the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), states; “for the CCI to be effective for buildings it must become much more engaged with electric and gas utility regulators, and through them the utilities themselves.”

Roy Kok VP Sales and Marketing Kepware Technologies shows us A New Way for Building Automation to Leverage Real-time Weather Information by using forecast data for managing energy production.

I finish up the Demand Dollars supplement with my September Engineered Systems Building Automation column which states “The opportunities surrounding Demand Response (DR) cannot be underestimated. These opportunities are available today for building system contractors, integrators and owners.”

Be sure to put the Demand Response DR-Expo in Chicago October 16 17 on your agenda.

The upcoming DR-Expo will be the first time a conference is convened that focuses on how building owners, contractors and integrators can participate in DR. The DR-Expo provides an agenda of practical and immediately actionable information on participating in DR programs.

In Paul Ehrlich’s article Delivering Sustainability he writes; In short the solutions we have been developing are what is required “behind the scenes” to deliver on sustainability. So how do you learn more? Sources like AutomatedBuildings.com and Engineered Systems are always a great source. We would also encourage you to attend the fourth Building Automation Conference being held in Phoenix on September 25 – 27, 2007. This event is co-located with BACnet International and will provide a broad variety of information on automaton, controls, protocols, and of course the delivery of sustainability. For more details visit http://www.bnpevents.com/ES/BAC/index.htm. We will be there will you?

In addition to the above Demand Dollars articles we have more articles on BAS integration which demonstrate yet more significant opportunities.

September Articles
Delivering Sustainability
Paul Ehrlich PE,  Building Intelligence Group
Commissioning Forever
Jim Sinopoli PE, RCDD, Sinopoli and Associates
Parking Lot Gets Smart with ZigBee
Alex Leonov, Marketing Manager, MeshNetics
Designing a Daylight Harvesting System - Part 2
Craig DiLouie, Lighting Controls Association
Truth About Megapixel - Part 1 of 3
Paul Bodell, Officer, VP Marketing, IQinVision
Graphical User Interfaces
Alper Uzmezler, Systems Integrator, BAS Services

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Be sure to check our event calendar to see the number events we have in our future.

As I always say, it is a great time to be in the news business for our industry. 

Send comments and suggestions to news@automatedbuildings.com

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