Building Management System

Building Management Systems (BMS) ignore nontechnical user requirements.

From: Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB), 2018

Related terms:

Air Conditioning, Energy Conservation, Intelligent Buildings, Energy Efficiency,

Internet of Things, Building Information Modeling, Air Conditioning System

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Facility Design and Process Utilities

John Joseph, in Biopharmaceutical Processing, 2018

Building Management System

The building management system (BMS) is an overarching control system that
is responsible for the automatic regulation and control of non-GMP facility sub-
systems, maintaining predefined parameters (or set points) and the control of
their functionality. The major aim of the BMS is to guarantee the safety of facility
operation, while also monitoring and optimizing the use and efficiency of its
supervised subsystems to allow more efficient operation. Examples of the major
subsystems controlled by the BMS are:

1. HVAC System. The duct temperature, pressure, and humidity, as well as

exhaust temperature are connected to the BMS, and if their value exceeds
defined limits, an alarm is generated.
2. Central Fume Collection, Laminar Flow Units, Dust Collection System, Central
Vacuum System, Heat blowers. The BMS monitors the performance of these
systems, allowing for early identification of units requiring maintenance.
Sudden breakdown would signal via alarms and then appropriate action can
be taken to protect the product.
3. Technical Steam System. Should, for instance, the pressure or temperature in
the piping system fall below the defined regulatory values for clean steam, the
BMS shall trigger an alarm, indicating a threat to product quality.
4. Hot Water System and Central Heating. Temperature and pump control mon-
itoring via the BMS allows for a proper functioning of hot water distribution
through the facility.
5. Chilled Water System. Control of the facility chillers could be supervised by
BMS to monitor proper behavior of the system in terms of water/coolant
temperature control or pump control to assure proper distribution within the
distribution loop.
6. Sprinkler System (for fire safety).

7. Electrical Monitoring System. The BMS may monitor the consumed electrical
power and the state of main electrical switches.

The number of subsystems connected to the BMS and the level of control is related
to the investment decision. However, the two main subsystems, which are usually
accounted for in a BMS are (1) HVAC control and (2) electrical systems monitoring.

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Best Management Practices

Md. Faruque Hossain, in Sustainable Design and Build, 2019

7.3 Building Management

Building management system (BMS) also known as building automation system
(BAS) refers to a computer-based control system that needs to be installed within
buildings to monitor and regulate the building's electrical and mechanical equip-
ment such as power system, lighting, and ventilation to confirm sustainability
[46–48]. Given that the systems connected to a BMS usually represent a building's
energy use of 40%, this percentage will approach 70% in case lighting is included
[49,50]. It is essential for a BMS to be set up because they are critical elements to
intelligently manage the energy demand, for example, electrical system, plumbing,
fire alarm system, heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), electric power
control, and illumination control. As a result, through BMS, building management
requires to have electronic centralized regulation of a building's air-conditioning,
ventilation and heating, lighting, and other building systems [51,52]. Bearing in
mind enhanced utilities' life cycle, decrease in energy operating costs and consump-
tion, building systems' efficient operation, and comfort of the occupant, the BMS
objectives require to be enhanced. Consequently, distributed control system's great
work on the computer networking of automation instruments should be struc-
tured to control and monitor the HVAC and humidity ventilation, control systems,
lighting, flood and fire safety, security, and mechanical systems within a building
[53–55]. Therefore, the core functionality of a BAS should be retained within the
building climate in a specified range, offer malfunction alarms to the maintenance
staff of a building, monitor device failure and performance in all building systems,
and lighting to rooms based on an occupancy schedule. Compared to uncontrolled
buildings, a BAS reduces building energy and costs of maintenance, hence most
industrial, institutional, and commercial buildings constructed after 2000 include
a BMS that should be restructured for a timeworn building [56–58]. Normally,
several timeworn buildings have been retrofitted with a novel BAS, financed via
insurance and energy savings, as well as other savings linked with fault detection
and preemptive maintenance. So, it is regarded that a building regulated by a
BMS is frequently termed as an intelligent building, a “smart home” in case of
residence or just a “smart building.” When proprietary procedures were used in
homes, industrial and commercial buildings must have in history depended on
healthy recognized procedures such as BACnet. Current IEEE standards and groups'
efforts have offered a standard-based grounds for different networking of several
instruments in several physical networks for varied purposes and service quality and
failover, which promises proper support to human safety and health [59,60].

Designing building to accommodate a BAS for energy, water, and air preservation
characteristics, as well as appropriate electrical instrument demand response in a
typical BAS function, is necessary. This is due to the fact that it is the more refined
ventilation and moisture monitoring needed of “tight” insulation for achieving
environmental sustainability.

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Monitoring and control of thermal en-

ergy storage systems
Patrick R. Davis, in Advances in Thermal Energy Storage Systems (Second Edition),
2021

18.5.7 Web-enabled control and monitoring systems

BMS in combination with wireless monitoring and control systems will provide a
significant improvement over the current systems in use. However, these systems
do generate significant amounts of data that must be monitored, logged, and
analyzed. In a commercial or industrial setting, the data gathered is presented to
the facilities manager who analyses the data and makes operational decisions based
upon the information that has been gathered. There is a growing market in software
tools that provide an analysis of the monitored data and present it in a format that
is easy and quick to understand. This is where technologies such as web dashboards
are finding a market.

Web dashboards can monitor data from a wide variety of sources and then display
these on-screen, much in the same format as the dashboard on an automobile
presents information to the driver. The data is typically presented in a graphical and
colored interface such that the facilities manager can quickly identify and address
any issues or abnormalities in the operation of the system under their control.
These dashboards present the gathered data in esthetically pleasing interfaces that
are simple to use and easy to understand. In general, the effectiveness of these
dashboards at enabling their end-users to make informed decisions about the
energy usage patterns and requirements is still somewhat of a moot point (Turvey,
2013) as it is still the decisions made by the facilities manager that will be the main
factor in determining how the system is operated.

Future developments in this area will see the decision on the optimum operation of
the system being decided upon by the control units and the SMART control software
that is incorporated within the units.

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Facility Management Systems

James Sinopoli, in Smart Building Systems for Architects, Owners and Builders, 2010

Building Management Systems

A BMS monitors, supervises, controls and reports on smart building technology
systems. These systems may include access control, video surveillance, fire alarms,
HVAC control, programmable lighting and electric power management. Its basic
functions include:

▪ Providing information on supervised building functions including, but not

limited to, current status, archived historical information, summaries, analysis,
displays, and reports on control and management functions
▪ Detecting, annunciating, and managing alarm and other conditions

▪ Diagnostic monitoring and reporting of system functions, nodes, devices, and

communication networks
▪ Interfacing between individual smart building applications

These systems typically display the following responses on an operator's workstation:

▪ Alarm summary
▪ Event summary

▪ Trend set displays

▪ Group control and group trend displays

▪ Communications status

▪ System status

▪ Configuration displays

▪ Communication links status

▪ System parameters configuration

▪ Time schedule assignment

▪ Holiday assignment

▪ History assignment

▪ Events archive and retrieval

▪ Time period summary and configuration

▪ Point details for every configured point

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App programming and its use in smart

buildings
S. Makonin, in Start-Up Creation, 2016

18.1.2 From building automation to smart buildings

Before 2003, building management system providers such as Johnson Controls,
Siemens, Honeywell, and others have developed and distributed building automa-
tion products and services that were closed and proprietary (Mitchell, 2005). Building
managers needed to choose between one of these companies and were locked-in
to their products and services. Apps only existed on a building control server, which
was locked away in a communications closet or server room. Only the building
manager had access to these apps. If the occupants of a building found it too cold
they would need to call the building manager and ask for the heat to be raised. If
this was during the weekend and the building manager was not reachable then the
occupants would have to work in an uncomfortable environment.
With the standardization of the communication protocols (BACnet, LonTalk, etc.)
starting in 2003, building managers could start to choose different building automa-
tion products and services. This allowed them to pick the best sensors and actuators
that suited their building's needs. Apps were still very much an unaddressed issue.
Little existed in the way of innovation in this area. App advancement remained on
the central building control server. Such advancements centered around the storage
and analysis for sensor and actuator data.

After 2010 with a well-established iPhone and App Store, the iPad was introduced.
The idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) (Want et al., 2015) also started to become
a focal point—all sensors are web accessible. The advent and popularity of mobile
devices created new app markets. Apps for smart buildings and building manage-
ment systems is one of these new markets. There is opportunity for third-party
app developers to create apps that allow occupants to have more control over their
environment. There is also the opportunity for advancement in innovation as more
nimble start-ups create niche apps that reside out of the thinking paradigm of these
older, monolithic corporations. There is also the possibility that these corporations
will outright buy start-ups with innovative apps rather than building their own apps.
These acquisition scenarios are quite prevalent in the software industry. As of April
16, 2015, Google alone has acquired over 180 companies and has spent “$17 billion
on hardware, software, and ad-tech companies in the last two years” (D'Onfro, 2014).

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What Comes After the Low-Hanging

Fruit?
Glenn Platt, ... Josh Wall, in Energy Efficiency, 2013

2.2.3 Human Comfort

In recent years, while BMS control strategies have remained relatively constant and
simple, our understanding of how people experience the environmental conditions
inside a building has increased dramatically. Following seminal research from sci-
entists such as Fanger [3], we now understand how factors such as temperature, hu-
midity, air flow, light levels, and even color, can affect the comfort level an individual
experiences in a building. Importantly, our experience of comfort is not fixed – for
example, on a particularly hot day outside, individuals can find a temperature of 25°C
quite comfortable, whereas on a cooler day this would be slightly warm for many.
With the latest science and “human comfort factors” models, it is now relatively
straightforward to predict how the majority of people will respond to a particular
building environment.

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Electrical consumption forecasting in

hospital facilities
A. Bagnasco, ... A. Vinci, in Machine Learning and Data Science in the Power
Generation Industry, 2021

9.7 Practical utilization

The resulting model was deployed in the Building Management System (BMS) of
Clinica Cellini and put into real-time operation. It has been in use there since 2010.
The overall electricity consumption at Humanitas Cellini has been reduced from
3100 to 2100 MWh (32%) per year from 2010 to 2019. In the same timeframe, the
sister hospital Humanitas Gradenigo reduced its demand from 5100 to 3700 MWh
(27%) per year.

These reductions are partially due to engineering changes like HVAC maintenance,
replacing lightbulbs with LED lights, and retrofitting refrigeration and heat exchang-
er systems. A major aspect was the creating of air handling unit scheduling and
thermal compensation curves. The proper scheduling of air-conditioning can flatten
the curves visible in Figs. 9.4 and 9.6. Scheduling these HVAC activities is only
possible if there is an accurate and effective forward-looking system as presented
here.

The biggest contribution was the behavioral program that convinced staff and
patients to be content at different temperatures than before. This was made possible
by the forecasting system that allows people to look ahead at scenarios in the future
and make choices about them. Being made aware of future repercussions of today's
choices enabled objective decisions in favor of less electricity use.

Changing peoples’ minds is hard work. Change management is a slow process

and must be taken seriously whenever many people are expected to do something
differently that they are used to. Good early results and the experience of retained
comfort at different temperatures helped to convince them to follow along and adopt
the system.

In conclusion, a load forecasting system as discussed here combined with change

management can lead to a reduction of a building's electricity consumption by
one-third.
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Multicriteria Selection Factors for Eval-

uation of Intelligent Buildings—A Nov-
el Approach for Energy Management
Elnaz Asadian, ... Ali Vakili Ardebili, in Exergetic, Energetic and Environmental
Dimensions, 2018

3.1 Phase I: Identify the Decision Criteria

The first step in collecting effective indicators to apply in building management
systems is to choose appropriate decision-making factors. In order to achieve a
complete and comprehensive set of key elements in the first step, the fundamental
selection factors were collected through an extensive literature review [3,4,16,24].
For this purpose, a thorough study of previous research on the concept of intel-
ligent building definitions, various IB selection models, as well as the evaluation
models for performance assessment of these types of buildings were conducted. The
findings help us to determine the primary decision criteria. According to the broad
range of intelligent building systems, the BMS was chosen as an integrated system
of intelligent subsystems for this study.

The challenge that faced us in the next step was how to choose correct selection
criteria considering all the influential and involved factors while not having it ruin the
integrity of the investigation. Moreover, the multiplicity of identified factors would
not result in the decision maker's confusion. It is noteworthy to mention that since
most of the collected criteria gathered from the literature are mostly related to the
developed countries such as the United States, Britain, and China, the localization
of selection factors and assignment of them to Iran's context and culture is of great
importance.

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NZEB Case Studies and Learned

Lessons
Shady Attia, in Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB), 2018
8.6 Design Flexible Building Management Systems With Open
Communication Standards
Lessons learned from case studies indicate the importance of selecting a flexible
BMS. This requires open systems protocols and a scalable platform to allow the
building operation team to change and modify the operation of the building HVAC
systems and controls. Depending on the occupant behavior and usage changes,
BMS requires to be flexible and adaptable to new operational situations. Building
automation and control of appliances, HVAC and RES systems, storage systems,
and electric vehicles offer great energy savings and flexibility in response to the
grid distribution system and price signals, and to balance renewable energy. There-
fore, BMS should be based on open communication standards in compliance with
IT compatibility. Also, BMS installation and commissioning should be quick and
easy. BMS components should be tested by independent certification authorities
(meeting international BACnet standards and European recommendations) to offer
measurable reliability from the automation to the management level of the building
systems.

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Commissioning, control, and mainte-

nance of ventilation systems
Howard D. Goodfellow, ... William Norris, in Industrial Ventilation Design Guide-
book (Second Edition), 2021

6.3.4.6 Operational commissioning

OC, or dynamic testing, expands component and subsystem level testing to integrat-
ed testing. OC increases utilization of system automation to demonstrate operating
function. Controls are cycled under predefined conditions to verify that the system
performs as designed without full loading. The commissioning plan should outline
the sequence in which parts of the system are engaged, the control settings at each
step, and the expected response from the system.

An important aspect of OC is anticipation of failure modes that may arise during

tests. Failure modes that have the potential to injure personnel should be addressed
in a predefined job hazard analysis. Those that might cause damage to components
should have a predetermined testing sequence that retires failure risk as the test
progresses.
 Recall that the goal of OC is to validate the basis of design. It is a confirmation that
pieces of the system can operate as a whole and that the system responds to known
inputs in the right way.

For instance, a large ventilation system with three air handlers integrated through a
building management system might have a prescribed OC sequence as follows:

1. Energize air handling unit #1, including all heating, cooling, and associated
control components.
2. Manually cycle each control component through the building management
system interface and verify response (e.g., valve movement or blower opera-
tion).
3. Using control panel, force blower to low and high airflow and check pressure
drop against design values. Verify values are being tracked within building
management system.
4. Set thermostat at bottom of temperature range and verify that system is
providing chilled air at registers. Repeat at high end of temperature range and
check for warm air. Verify that temperature trends are being properly recorded
in the building management system.
5. Check building management system to verify that process values (flows, pres-
sures, temperatures, speeds, alarms, etc.) are accurately displayed, trended,
and recorded.
6. Repeat steps for air-handling unit #2 then #3 followed by combinations of
units (when multiple units are designed to run simultaneously).

Some equipment may require a break-in period to confirm stability of operation and
initial reliability goals can be met. For instance, OC may include an endurance test
of blowers and pumps or a large number of valve cycles.

Any issues observed during these tests must be resolved or results observed during
PC will be confounded. The tests to confirm that the overall system is capable of
meeting conditioning requirements for the applicable space is to be performed in
the following step, PC.

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