Per the U.S. DOE, commercial buildings account for 35% (13.6 quads) of electricity consumption in the U.S and generate 16% (826 million metric tons) of total carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. Automating your building's control system can maximize your climate control making your staff much happier & more productive, while also increasing your energy efficiency. By having equipment run more efficiently, you'll be decreasing your energy usage & costs while also helping to decrease CO2 emissions which has a positive impact on global climate change.

A Building Automation System acts as the central nervous system of your building. By utilizing digital controllers & components connected on wired or wireless communication networks, building-wide systems such as: HVAC, lighting, alarms, security access, etc. can all be converged into a centrally-managed network infrastructure.

Our team of BAS specialists can work with you to guide you through the design process, and inform you of key factors to consider and other things that you should try to implement into your buildings to help streamline the automation process.

Whenever someone hears wireless controls, their ears perk-up and they immediately think that they can have an entirely wireless system, and save a ton of money on installation to avoid the costs associated with having a wired network infrastructure. However, what customer's don't realize is the reliability issues that can come with wireless systems. Designing and implementing wireless systems is an extremely complex task, and will never be as reliable as having a hard-wired communication back-bone. There are a lot of environmental factors that have to be accounted for when laying out a wireless system such as: controller signal strength, mesh network coverage, battery replacement, signal degradation due to walls and other obstructions, etc. At the end of the day, the last thing you want to have when it comes to your building automation system is reliability issues. It is our view that while wireless technology is rapidly improving, and can be a great choice, it should be utilized as more of a back-up plan to that of traditional hard-wired networks and hard-wired controls.

In years past (and even still today), it was very common for building automation manufacturers to design proprietary systems that only they had access to. This left customers hand-cuffed in who they used for servicing their system(s), and greatly restricted their ability to upgrade anything due to financial constraints. Thankfully, with the innovations in building control technologies and a major paradigm shift in the industry, open-source systems have largely become the industry standard for more commercial markets. Utilizing open-source controllers that talk on open-protocol communication systems (LONworks, BACnet, Modbus), the customers finally have the ability and leverage to find the right system that suits their needs; and to ensure that they're getting top-level service from their BAS contractor.

Choosing the right control system (i.e. Honeywell, Johnson Controls, ABB, etc.) depends on a variety of different factors. For instance, do you already have an existing system in place? If so, there may be advantages in sticking with the same manufacturer but simply upgrading to their open-sourced system to give you more flexibility. You'll also want to look at whether the manufacturer's controls are programmed using 3rd party software. Even though they may communicate on open-protocol networks, you may still be required to use proprietary software to program the controllers. That's why our team of specialists is here to guide you through the process so you can rest assured knowing that you're making the right decision.