Minimizing risk for owners, investors and operators
BACnet Forum reveals a quantum leap on the user market
BIG-EU and AMEV establish competence circle - new version of the standards is imminent
Dortmund, November 24, 2010. - BACnet remains the key technology for the processing of building information. Building planners, facility managers and system developers met in Frankfurt on November 10, 2010, for the second German BACnet Forum. The BACnet Interest Group Europe (BIG-EU) stressed the viability of ISO 16484-5 open communication standards. "The cost per data point has fallen significantly since our first conference ten years ago," said BIG-EU President Volker Röhl. Rüdiger Schröder from Frankfurt Airport, Fraport AG reported about "a flat curve" in the operating costs through BACnet. Jürgen Hardkop of the Ministry of Economic Affairs NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) wants to help public building operators to discover intelligent building operation via BACnet.
BACnet has secured the Frankfurt Airport facility management since 2004. It has been selected as the most comprehensive and powerful data communications protocol for building automation. The fact that BACnet is an open and royalty-free standard was also impressive. As described by Rüdiger Schröder from Fraport AG, the aim was to minimize the risks to owners, investors and operators. It was the right choice. BACnet was a clear entry into energy efficiency. Today, Fraport is very happy about energy savings of up to 60 percent in comparison to the previous stock balance.
Christopher Zeller from Sauter AG still expects the new version of the American BACnet standard ANSI/ASHRAE 135 this year. The head of the BIG-EU Working Group Technique described the technology standards process. With the increasing use, the demand for adaptations grows as well. The functions of the BACnet protocol are constantly expanded by many parallel ASHRAE working groups. Thus, the use in Asia and South and Eastern Europe has been simplified with the UTF8 character set. Extensions such as energy management will soon be available also in the ISO standard, whose new version is also being prepared.
The public sector counts on BACnet
In April the BIG-EU founded a joint BACnet competence circle with one of
the largest user groups - building operations for public administrations.
The group is represented by the Working Group of Mechanical and Electrical
Engineering for State and Local Governments (AMEV) of the German Federal Ministry
of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs. "BACnet is a complex standard
for building management," said Volker Röhl. "Together we develop
solutions with proper regards to the degrees of freedom."
AMEV representative Jürgen Hardkop of the Ministry of Economic Affairs
in NRW pointed out the role model function of public authorities. The growing
number of municipal BACnet projects, such as in the city of Cologne and the
Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb (BLB) shows that the implementation for BACnet
applications has been successful. Hardkop sees "BACnet's immense talent"
in its sustainability. "All at once, its neutrality achieves a new quality
and service awareness."
The revised BACnet recommendation 2010 of the AMEV is available online free of charge. It describes minimum requirements and detailed functional profiles for automation stations and workstations. In order to continue to promote the development of networked systems an AMEV Certificate for BACnet devices will soon follow. It is issued only for certified products, which additionally meet the standardized AMEV profiles.
Herbert Guethner (Sauter), GAEB representative Joerg Balow (Hosch Building
Automation) and Frank Schubert (MBS) completed the positioning of the BACnet
standard and the BIG-EU. Application reports rounded off the forum. Madjid
Madjidi (Planungsgruppe M+M), reported from the planning, Franz-Gerhard Stuckmann
(SWG Stuckmann) showed integration potential, Andreas Ecker (NH Hoteles) spoke
about cross-site control and Graham Martin (EnOcean Alliance) presented interoperability
with battery-free wireless technology. Karl-Heinz Belser (Johnson Controls
Systems & Service) shone a light on future tasks. BACnet and the BIG-EU
will play a key role in the upcoming massive changes on the way to the Internet
of energy.
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Presse contact: MarDirect, Dortmund,
Bruno Kloubert, E-Mail: kloubert@mardirect.de, Phone +49 231 427867-31