“Smart buildings have the right sensing and processing capabilities to sense their environment and then set themselves up to make decisions based on judgment. In order to achieve this, the building must have the relevant sensing capabilities to obtain as much information about the external environment as necessary, and transmit this data back to the building’s “brain” (which may be local or in the cloud) through appropriate communication paths. , and use machine learning algorithms in the “brain” to process this information and finally decide to act accordingly. This action must then be communicated to the relevant systems through the same communication path for execution.
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In the early 1980s, the term “smart building” first appeared in the United States. The Intelligent Building Institution in Washington defines it as follows: An intelligent building is a building that integrates various systems to efficiently manage resources in a coordinated manner to maximize technical performance, increase return on investment, reduce operating costs, and enhance flexibility.
Smart buildings have the right sensing and processing capabilities to sense their environment and then set themselves up to make decisions based on judgment. In order to achieve this, the building must have the relevant sensing capabilities to obtain as much information about the external environment as necessary, and transmit this data back to the building’s “brain” (which may be local or in the cloud) through appropriate communication paths. , and use machine learning algorithms in the “brain” to process this information and finally decide to act accordingly. This action must then be communicated to the relevant systems through the same communication path for execution.
The development status of intelligent buildings
Knowing how to meet our living needs by turning to smart buildings is critical to the future of the planet and people. Through the process of digitization, we can make new or existing buildings smart. This process converts factors that affect building operations and maintenance into digital signals that can be measured in real time and transmitted back to the building’s “brain” for analysis and management. How to digitize new or existing buildings to improve energy efficiency and sustainability is key to ensuring humanity reduces its carbon footprint in the future.
As we discuss the future of smart buildings, there are four key areas to consider:
– Health and Safety: Is the space designed to enhance the well-being of its occupants? If occupants feel safe and environmental design helps improve their mood and quality of life, productivity will increase. This is especially important in the post-COVID-19 era, as industries in all walks of life resume work and production.
– Sustainability: Does the space utilization meet the requirements to reduce the carbon footprint? This theme not only improves the lives of building owners by saving energy bills and reducing maintenance costs, but also brings environmental, economic and social benefits to many more people.
– High flexibility: Is the space designed with future needs in mind and will stand the test of time? Today’s buildings are built to last 150 years or more. We don’t know what innovations or technologies will emerge in the future, but we can plan so that a building’s information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) infrastructure can handle the expected data traffic in the future, as more systems begin to come online And when IP addresses are used, traffic is bound to rise substantially.
– Economic benefits: Implementing changes will be difficult without the proper financial incentives. Money is value, and by making buildings smart, we can capture value. Before reaping the fruits, however, we first need to invest capital. Innovative financing models are needed to help building owners upgrade their buildings to smart buildings.
The above four aspects can be achieved through building automation. Today, building automation is largely based on closed and isolated systems that work independently and perform their own functions without affecting or driving other systems. These systems in a building include HVAC systems, lighting, access control, fire safety, elevators, and occupancy detection systems, among others. Isolated systems are mostly inefficient and lead to larger carbon footprints.
Why do we need smart buildings?
Figure 1 presents a funnel diagram of the various factors that affect smart buildings, which roughly outlines the modern ecosystem that drives demand for smart buildings. First, we start with global macro trends, namely urbanization and climate change.
Figure 1. Funnel diagram of factors influencing smart buildings.
Urbanization refers to the migration of the global population from rural areas to urban areas, such as cities. People migrate to cities in pursuit of a better life. Cities offer job prospects, as well as better access to goods, services, healthcare and education. Population growth has also contributed to urbanization; it is estimated that by 2050, more than 65% of the global population will live in urban environments; Every month the world adds a New York.
Climate change refers to changes in global or regional climate patterns, particularly significant changes since the mid-to-late 20th century, mainly due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to the use of fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency estimates that 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings, with the operation and maintenance of buildings alone accounting for 28% of emissions. Disturbingly, it is estimated that 50% of building energy consumption is currently wasted. Building energy consumption and the corresponding CO2 emissions have barely slowed in recent years. This shows that as more and more buildings come into use, unless energy efficiency improves, the impact of buildings on the environment will only get worse.
Many influential think tanks (such as the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank) are currently focusing on policies aimed at improving the energy efficiency of buildings, providing incentives for investment in sustainable and smart buildings, and enhancing the retrofitting of older buildings to meet current needs EU sustainability standards.
To meet their climate change obligations, governments have begun implementing the policies suggested by these think tanks. The EU is currently funding a major renovation project as part of its “Green Deal” policy. There are about 220 million buildings in the EU, 85% of which were built before 2001, and 90% of existing buildings will still exist in 2050, a huge base for renovation. The EU aims to retrofit 30 million buildings by 2030. Likewise, the Infrastructure Bill and Smart Buildings Acceleration Act in the US and China’s five-year plan are expected to drive similar initiatives in these markets.
Improvements in energy efficiency have been driven by government policy and building regulations, including the upcoming update of the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Likewise, the United States leverages ASHRAE standards to drive regulatory compliance, and specific regulations in other countries are being rolled out.
Buildings with green and smart building certifications are also becoming more common. In some cases this is a requirement for a specific financial investment, but in most cases the consensus is that these certificates bring substantial added value to the building’s earning potential. LEED, BREEAM, and EDGE are all well-known green certificates, and China’s homegrown certification is picking up pace. Smart building certification is still new, but with TIA and UL coming together to form SPIRE, certification will also become more popular.
From an economic perspective, these potential improvements to buildings create added value for healthier, greener and smarter buildings. Research shows that certified buildings in London rent and sell for 4% more than non-certified buildings in the same area.
From global events to the global economy, the shape of architecture is changing, and major building automation companies are taking notice. We note that while reporting quarterly revenue, the company also reported a million-ton reduction in CO2 emissions for its customers, with an emphasis on building greener and healthier buildings. Building automation companies achieve emissions reductions through massive building digitization and system digitization, extending smart technologies to edge nodes, collecting more smart data, and delivering more actionable insights across multiple building systems, allowing fine-tuning and optimization of each building physical properties to ensure maximum energy efficiency and sustainability.
How to Realize Smart Buildings
Today, most buildings are equipped with a Building Management System (or BMS). As previously mentioned, these systems include specific subsystems that are not interconnected with each other related to the functions performed, ie, lighting, HVAC, access control, etc. Making these buildings smart isn’t a simple matter of rip-and-replace and installing entirely new infrastructure. Because doing so, the cost will be very staggering. The building retrofit market relies on the semiconductor industry to provide technology to enable the digitization of existing infrastructure and to connect disparate building systems. Figure 2 is a good example of how a traditional BMS system can be transformed into a smart building using multiple technologies and communication protocols.
Figure 2. Smart building infrastructure.
Ethernet is a common protocol that powers our daily lives and businesses with high data rates, but is limited in the distances and topologies it can support. What if we could run ethernet and IP over a simple cable, say using a single twisted pair that supports a distance of 1km? This will provide seamless connectivity all the way from the cloud to the edge nodes, merging the IT and OT worlds and breaking down the silos of existing systems where data may be collected but cannot be acted upon and cannot generate value insight.
10BASE-T1L is a key technology enabling edge connectivity; the protocol enables seamless connectivity from the cloud all the way to edge nodes, enabling addressable IP edge nodes, allowing real-time operational control from anywhere. When the network is simplified, so is the installation and maintenance, we will be able to easily aggregate and interpret data, reducing the cost of ownership with such powerful seamless control. We can now add intelligence to places where simple analog sensing was possible in the past. By digitizing the edge and generating more intelligent data, we can digitize entire buildings.
In 2019, 10BASE-T1L was approved by the IEEE as the 802.3cg standard. ADI is a member of this committee and has been instrumental in driving this new standard. A key element of the standard is the provision of power and data over a single cable at a data rate of 10Mbps. In this case, the cable uses a single twisted pair and supports a transmission distance of 1 km. It is worth noting that existing twisted pair cables can be used when retrofitting inside a building.
We can see some tangible improvements over some existing infrastructure such as RS-485. First, the data rate remains constant over a 1km range, unlike RS-485 which is distance dependent. Additionally, 10BASE-T1L supports unlimited data nodes, while RS-485 is limited to 256. A core advantage of 10BASE-T1L is that it provides up to 52 W of power over the same single twisted pair, similar to POE (Power over Ethernet), whereas RS-485 is limited to so-called engineering power.
However, we all know that RS-485 still has a place in building automation for specific use cases. We also understand that buildings will not be fully digitally transformed overnight, so 10BASE-T1L will need to co-exist and collaborate with existing systems for the foreseeable future. Here we can see that 10BASE-T1L provides seamless IP connectivity that extends to the edge and works with RS-485 as well as IO configured via software to serve legacy architectures.
While the standard provides guidelines to ensure a distance of 1 km, it does not impose any restrictions on the use of other types of cables that may not be able to meet the full distance requirement. The standard allows for shielded and unshielded cables, which means that in most cases, we can retrofit existing wiring systems. If the problem can be clearly pointed out in the 1 km wiring system, it will have obvious advantages. As any BMS system operator knows, installing, commissioning and maintaining a system that includes kilometers of cable takes a lot of effort. Fortunately, 10BASE-T1L makes this possible by testing compliance, link quality, and cabling installation and maintenance procedures.
in conclusion
On the planet we live in, global warming has caused the extinction of many species, so the implementation of intelligent buildings is of great significance to reduce excessive carbon emissions. If we’re not careful, the next species facing an existential crisis could be ourselves. Smart BMSs provide the relevant data needed to help us make decisions about: sustainability and efficiency, communications, building control and automation, workforce health and safety, and security, which in turn improves health and safety in the construction market , sustainability, resilience and economic efficiency.
Recently, ADI introduced a complete 10BASE-T1L Ethernet solution for building automation network. With the help of networked digital automation equipment, total building management from heating, ventilation and air conditioning to living comfort can be achieved.
Main features of ADIN2111:
• Ultra-low power consumption: 80mW
• Small package: 7mm x 7mm LFCSP
• SPI host interface eliminates the need for a microcontroller with integrated MAC interface
• Advanced packet filtering with 16 MAC address lookup table, relieves the processor from the burden of prioritizing traffic management
• Support for IEEE 1588 timestamps
The Links: PDH6016 LP150X1-E2SO IGBTMODULE