MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS
SMART BUILDINGS
IT’S HIGH TECH STUFF, BUT THE BASICS ARE KEY Malcolm Anson, President of the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) explains why we need to work together to ensure the basics of building services are right before clients are distracted by the bright lights of high-tech solutions.
Members of the BCIA are very much at the forefront of ‘smart building’ technology. The potential impact of developments such as the Internet of Things (IoT) in which connectivity will bring new levels of understanding about building performance has been recognised by manufacturers and systems specialists alike.
Malcolm Anson
President of the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA)
Technology like this offers many benefits to building owners – it puts data where it’s needed (from desktop PCs to laptops and smart phones); it can also filter information according to the types of user (engineer; FM; store manager) so that it can be acted on accordingly. Today’s building controls can achieve an astounding range of functions that support energy efficiency and long-term operational effectiveness. But there is one fly in the ointment: we are still getting the basics wrong. Dr Kerry Mashford of the National Energy Foundation (NEF) wrote last year about results of studies into why buildings don’t perform as intended. Her findings are disappointing for building services. Time and again, the same fundamentals of good design and good installation practice are overlooked, leading to poor building performance and overconsumption of energy
Value Often, as members of BESA and the BCIA know only too well, these errors and rushed finishing are down to ‘value engineering’ and a lack of time for commissioning and reviewing software routines at the end of a project. The building services sector still seems to be at the brunt of ‘value engineering’ as clients seek to save money on building services at the outset of a project. Yet however, much they save in capital costs, more often than not, clients get a poor quality building for their money that costs them more to operate in the long-term. The ratio 10-80-10 illustrates the costs of a building, with 10% spent on construction, 80% on operation and the final 10% on decommissioning. However, much is saved at the construction stage, the fact that buildings stand for many years means that operational costs will always be a greater percentage - so this is where our focus should be when it comes to saving money. We need to get clients to invest at the start to save even more in the future. BCIA members see building controls fall foul of value engineering time and time again, because client QS`s shave off costs at an early
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