Networked Building Controls: Open or Proprietary?
Energy Minute: Systems in a facility can be networked so they can interoperate. Just stringing a wire between a security system and a lighting controller isn't enough. Your choices will affect the life cycle cost of your building or campus.
February 04, 2008
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Music by Chris Keister
Transcript
Systems in a facility can be networked so they can interoperate. Just stringing a wire between a security system and a lighting controller isn't enough. These systems need a protocol for communicating with each other.A protocol is just an agreement on how to converse. When you're talking with someone on the phone, you take turns talking and listening, sometimes indicating understanding. This is a protocol that keeps conversation from becoming just noise.
There are various data communication protocols for connecting devices within a building. Some are proprietary, provided by only one vendor. Others are open, meaning any vendor can choose to provide products that support it.
The proprietary option might offer more advanced capabilities within that vendor's system, but not communicate with others, which tends to lock owners into one vendor. The open option lets owners choose who will provide and maintain each one of the building's systems, and to change vendors for any piece of equipment, whenever they wish.
It's not necessarily a difficult choice. Many systems now support both the vendor's proprietary protocol and one or more open protocols.
LonWorks, BACnet and Internet Protocol -- IP -- are examples of open data communication protocols. Each is put forward by an organization that doesn't sell equipment, so they tend to be vendor-agnostic -- although not all protocols are created equal. One might be better at connecting air conditioning-related devices, while another might have strengths related to lighting, or wireless sensors, or handling large amounts of data.
When you choose an open protocol to network the systems in your building, you're leaving the door open to replace equipment -- like boilers or chillers -- from any vendor that supports that protocol. You also make it possible to install a centralized control console that efficiently manages many systems -- lights, air, security, even sprinklers and signage -- while still choosing the best-in-class provider for each of those systems.