August 2016

Welcome to the newest edition of the Cornerstones enewsletter. The BACnet International community benefits from information and education shared through Cornerstones, the organization's monthly electronic publication. This publication is disseminated to members of the BACnet community, connecting corporate, integrator, site, student and individual end users.



Cornerstones is a unique publication because it speaks not only to the engineer and contractor communities, but also to facility professionals, building managers and owners, and other personnel.

This is where you come in. We need you to connect! If there is a best practice, company news, product news or BACnet Success Stories you want to share, please send them to us. And don't leave out the photos! 



All submissions should be sent to Natalie Nardone, BACnet International's Association Manager.

Opportunity
Opportunities

PlugFest 2016 Registration is Now Open



The BACnet International BACnet Testing Laboratories Working Group (BTL WG) invites manufacturers of BACnet products to attend the 17th annual PlugFest, an interoperability workshop at The University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.  The 2016 event will run from Sept. 26 through 29.  



The deadline to register for PlugFest is September 15, and the deadline for hotel reservations is September 9.  


To discover more event details and register, visit the event web page today!



Next Stop: World Energy Engineering Conference (WEEC)



WEEC is the largest energy conference and technology expo held in the U.S. specifically for business, industrial and institutional energy users. It takes place September 21 - 23, 2016 in the Walter E. Washington County Convention Center in Washington, DC, and BACnet International will be in Booth 837.



To obtain complimentary tickets for the show, contact David Nardone today.



Learn More About the WEEC

National Facilities Management & Technology Conference (NFMT): Vegas



BACnet International will be exhibiting in Booth 707 at the NFMT Conference & Expo at the Mirage Event Center in Las Vegas, November 1 - 2, 2016



This NFMT show alternates east and west locations each year and so for 2016 will be west in Las Vegas.  To obtain complimentary tickets for the show, contact David Nardone today.



Discover More About the 2016 NFMT Vegas Conference

Success
Success Story

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong




The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was founded in 1963 from an amalgamation of 3 tertiary colleges dating back to 1949. Most of the 137.3-hectare (340 acre) campus is covered in greenery, which is nicely carved out of rocks on three plateaus. In addition, there are more than 150 buildings nestled among the greenery, featuring a mix of historical Chinese and contemporary Western architectural styles, including world-class libraries, art museums, music halls, a swimming pool, sports fields, tennis courts, squash courts, a water sports centre and gymnasiums.



ISSUE:

During the history of the campus development, new buildings were erected and old buildings were retrofitted. Building Management Systems (BMSs) were installed in various buildings by different contractors employing different BMS vendors at different stages and times. The result was "islands" of 20 different BMS vendors within the campus. The need for a campus-wide Building Management System for centralised monitoring and control became a necessity rather than luxury. This was due to several factors:



*    There was an increasing workload on the technicians and engineers who dealt with the many different HVAC systems among the various buildings. Moreover, with staff turnover, there was a longer learning curve in the BMS operations for new recruits taking away from training in other technical areas.



*    Many interactions were required among the buildings, such as the sharing of chilled water between buildings and homogenized switching of campus lighting. Daily operation required such interoperability among the various sub-systems, and a smooth interaction among the different devices was imperative.



*    As more AA&I (Addition, Alterations and Improvement) works were to be performed within the campus, a single tender was no longer acceptable to the board. However, having multiple vendors without a common BMS protocol would have been a nightmare to the already overloaded operation and maintenance team.



SOLUTION:

With the intent to satisfy all of the requirements above, an open protocol approach to the campus BMS was adopted in 2006. BACnet was the obvious protocol of choice.



In order to achieve the ultimate goal of integrating all BMS on campus, studies were carried out and it was decided a phasing approach would be taken to migrate all of the existing BMS equipment into BACnet while also specifying BACnet compliance in any future AA&I works. This would help converge the campus into an open platform based on BACnet.



One vendor was selected to integrate the existing BMS "islands" into a single system and the architecture was simplified through the BACnet implementation:

A central web server was set up for supervisory control and monitoring. It also served as a common window for an operator to access BMS devices in various buildings. A dedicated VLAN (virtual LAN) was constructed within the campus intranet to connect all the BACnet devices. Operator terminals or tablets were designed to  access BMS information via the intranet. Legacy systems were evaluated based on their scale, importance and ease of migration. As a result, some were left as individual islands until their lifetime is over, while others were connected with a BACnet gateway to migrate the existing points into the BACnet network.



RESULTS:

Uniform User Interface - Upon login to the web server, users are  presented with an overview of the university campus and some general conditions such as Outdoor Air Temp and Relative Humidity. They can then choose a particular building of interest. Every Building in the system has a consistent UI layout where the outlook of the building is shown and users can further penetrate the system to view details via sub-systems or floors selected.



Interoperability - There is a third party classroom booking system that is used by all students and staff throughout the campus. Lighting and HVAC services, such as the Fan Coil Unit, must be enabled during the booked periods. With the BACnet devices connected, sophisticated gateways are not needed in order to transfer schedules among the different vendors to coordinate such bookings. Moreover, just a single interface is needed in order to transfer booking information into the BACnet schedule for control of relevant devices.



Clock Synchronization - This was always an issue to this vast campus. With BACnet, it had been remedied.  All of the clocks on all devices in the network are synced to the main workstation clock, which is in turn synced with an internet clock via NTP.



INTEGRATION FACTS:

There are approximately 92,000 BACnet objects on campus, out of which 44,500+ objects are third-party. (Third-party meaning non-Delta Controls BACnet objects.) The objects are being treated the same as Delta Controls's BACnet objects according to the services and properties offered in their respective PIC statement.



There are in total 34,800+ physical I/O points on campus, out of which 20,000+ are interfaced from 3rd party devices.



There are in total 2,589 BACnet devices on campus, out of which 903 BACnet devices are 3rd party, constituting more than 30%.


 
Number of Buildings: 36



Total Area:  137.3 hectares 
 

Products / Equipment Installed:


- Delta Controls (workstation, web-server, general BMS, process cooling, HVAC, lighting, laboratory room control)

- Johnson Controls (Chillers and NAE controllers for general BMS)

- Trane (Chillers)

- Sierra Monitor (Chillers and Hitachi Chiller)

- Carrier (Chillers)

- Alerton/Honeywell (Lift monitor)

- Contemporary Control (General BMS)

- Siemens (AHU/PAU/Chiller and general BMS)

- Honeywell (general BMS)

- Mega Controls (FCU)

- McQuay (Chillers)


Systems Integrated: Boiler, Chiller, CO2 Monitoring, Fume Hood, Heatpump, HVAC, Laboratory, Lighting, Power Monitoring, VAV, VFD, Water Monitoring



Number of Devices: 2,589



System Points: 34,800   


BACnet Manufacturer:
Delta Controls



Want to Share Your Success?



BACnet International Success Stories further knowledge and understanding of the implementation of the standard by highlighting successful BACnet installations. Success Stories are subject to an application and approval process prior to public posting.

 
Once a Success Story is posted, it becomes a permanent, linkable record of the successful project. Further, Success Stories:
  • Are automatically eligible for additional public recognition via BACnet International's Leaders of the Pack Award program;
  • Are featured in Cornerstones, which is seen by thousands of individuals via email, and on the BACnet International website; and
  • Are candidates for articles in the BACnet International Journal, BACnet International's official magazine.
Consider pulling together a Success Story for your company, and take advantage of the power of free and meaningful press!
 
Submit Your Company's Success Story

Have some company news to share with the BACnet International Community? Contact BACnet International Association Manager Natalie Nardone today.
Products
BACnet Community Products

Carrier Announces New Packaged Rooftop with Variable Air Volume (VAV) Operation



Carrier is excited to announce the new WeatherExpert™ Light Commercial Packaged Rooftops with Multi-Zone VAV operation from 6 to 23 tons!


These new 48/50LCB 07-26 models:

  • Use the same cabinet size as the current 48/50LC-CAV and SAV models.
  • Integrate the VAV-RTU Open controller, which enables the Carrier� i-Vu system to operate the unit with VAV zone controllers and BACnet monitoring.
  • Use a full active evaporator coil design for optimum performance and humidity control.
  • Control the VFD fan motor off a furnished duct static pressure sensor.
  • Provide cooling capacity control from supplied supply air temperature sensor.


For More Information on Carrier

Two New Releases from Reliable Controls






RC-WebView� 3.4: Expanding Capabilities of Web Access for the Masses




ReliableControls is pleased to announce the release of RC-WebView 3.4, a powerful enterprise server solution that meets or exceeds the BACnetOperator Workstation profile (B-OWS), allowing operators to command any BACnet, IP-connected building configured with System Groups, from anywhere in the world.



This latest version of RC-WebView introduces a number of new, time saving features to improve the product and expand its capabilities.


New features include:

  • New Cleanup Configuration service to automatically or manually clear out expired Enterprise Schedule events
  • New Multipoint and Single-Point Trend Log worksheets for creating, viewing, and editing trend logs
  • New Notification Classes worksheet to configure alarm properties, broadcast destination, and email recipients
  • New Gallery feature to access and manage banner images, Navigation Group graphics, and logos
  • Improved speed performance
  • Improved user interface and navigation to help unify the administration and client side experience
  • Improved context sensitive help
  • Improved integration with myControlapp


 Read More Here





Reliable Controls� Releases RC-RemoteAccess�


  
Reliable Controls is pleased to announce the official release of RC-RemoteAccess, BACnet Virtual Private Network (B/VPN) software that simplifies and secures the internet connection to any remote MACH-System.




Connecting a MACH-System to the Internet is quick and easy with RC-RemoteAccess. The software eliminates the need to implement and manage BBMDs and BDTs. Owners are no longer required to pay for static, public IP addresses, and client-side DHCP support minimizes the workload for IT departments.



RC-RemoteAccess provides security by encryption of BACnet communications, and also by removing the need for port forwarding of BACnet ports through firewalls. Ideally, every Internet-connected MACH-System would use RC-RemoteAccess for protection against unauthorized access and interference.



Read More Here
Have some product news to share with the BACnet International Community? Contact BACnet Association Manager Natalie Nardone today.
Resources
Resources



Corporate Members: 
Don't Forget Your Benefits 


Click on the image to discover how BACnet International is the cornerstone to your company's success. 
 
Introduction to BACnet for Building Owners and Engineers

 
The purpose of this document--click on document for access--is to provide an overview of BACnet history, terminology and philosophy for building owners, managers and others involved with BACnet projects. The document provides an introduction to the topic of BACnet but it is not a comprehensive description of BACnet and it is not a product or system implementation guide.
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