Building Automation Systems in Higher Education & Hospitals

Building automation systems follow how we, as a nation, embrace trends in car design. For example, lights on our automobile dashboards often used to blink when we needed an oil change or to fill the gas tank. Today, in addition to those service reminders, we receive real-time performance data on our dashboards, from tire pressure to fuel consumption and range until empty.

The same information dispensed by 21st century automobiles is now being requested by clients and users in educational and hospital building automation systems. A computerized, intelligent network of electronic devices designed and installed to monitor and control mechanical and lighting systems, building automation systems are also increasingly being custom designed to fulfill the unique needs of educational and hospital clients.

Building Automation is increasingly involved in more than just lighting control systems.

Higher Education Facilities
In higher education buildings, reporting and accountability continue to be key drivers for building automation systems. In addition, today many learning institutions also want their brickand- mortar investments to become an integral part of teaching and education, particularly when the lessons to be learned are about sustainability: the ways in which the building has been designed and engineered to lower energy consumption, carbon emissions and operating dollars.

In the Science Teaching and Student Services Center (STSS) building completed in 2010 at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, many of the sustainability aspects of the LEED Gold facility are on display through reporting provided by the building automation services. An interactive display in the building, which is also available on a website, shows real-time energy consumption and water use. These displays are coordinated with "medallions" or placards throughout the building that describe sustainable strategies used in the design and engineering.

Building good automation systems are becoming the primary means of tracking energy usage, and the statistics those systems provide can be used by teachers and students to talk about a building's environmental impact. Scheduling systems are also being incorporated into building automation.

Higher education clients are also, increasingly, expecting new levels of flexibility in automated systems, controlling presentation technologies inside classrooms and lecture halls. Integrated systems that control window treatments, room lighting, audio-visual media and Internet connectivity need to perform instantly and easily—and at the touch of a button.

In addition, lighting is no longer simply a matter of illuminating the lecturer or mark board at the front of the room and providing even illumination for the rest of the space. Lighting zones may need to be programmed to separate 360 degrees around the room's perimeter and in the center, often in coordination with natural daylight, to accommodate differences in teaching modalities, classroom settings and educational presentations.

Hospitals
If educational facilities are more focused on energy and communicating a message of environmental responsibility, hospitals are more concerned with room performance as it pertains to the health and safety of the individual patient.

Automatic lighting systems in hospitals with 24-hour operation, for example, are largely used in public spaces. By integrating daylighting and artificial lighting systems into large open spaces such as entry atriums, incoming patients and families are welcomed into fully lighted spaces that clearly indicate seating areas, lobby check-in desks and wayfinding signage. In enclosed spaces, such as offices and exam rooms, lighting occupancy sensors are used to save energy. In some cases, using occupancy sensors to turn a certain percentage of lighting off is another strategy to save energy while maintaining the safety that some hospital clients feel comfortable with.

Building automation is also crucial to maintaining strict standards for cleanliness throughout hospitals. For example, pharmacies today are usually 3-room chambers, with automation systems that verify pressure relationships between rooms to ensure stringent rules for noncontamination and cleanliness. Automation systems track and trend how each room relates to the others in terms of pressure as pharmacists are compounding, mixing and dispensing medicines.

Since the advent of such potential pandemics as SARS and avian influenza, engineers have been developing systems and program sequences that can track patients as they are moved from emergency rooms to bed towers. These systems also eliminate contaminants the contagious patients spread as they are moved throughout the building.

For example, a simple building operator sequence will—in 2 or 3 clicks of a mouse—initiate a complicated behind-the-scenes chain of events that includes switching air-handling units to 100 percent outside air, lowering chilled water temperatures, potentially raising boiler water temperatures, and changing how exhaust fans are running. So when a doctor or nurse calls from the ER with news that a contagious patient is being moved, the system can instantly go to infection control mode.

Questions to Ask
What are your goals?
What are your expectations for using the building, and the spaces within it? What programs or uses need specific technologies? Focus groups of specialized users are immensely helpful in brainstorming ideas and providing information on how users want a building to operate and support their day-to-day operations.

How do you want to process the information provided by automated building systems?
Everyone processes information differently, from students, faculty and administrators in academic setting to healthcare providers and staff. Designers and engineers of building systems can customize systems and readouts so users can easily access information.

How can you integrate daylighting and artificial lighting into one successful automated system?
Lighting designers and engineers are fine-tuning lighting systems to maximize daylighting and use electricity more intelligently. Instead of on-and-off controls, consider dimmable lighting for increased comfort. .

Edward Clements PE, LEED AP, is an AVP and Mechanical Engineer with HGA Architects and Engineers; Leighton Deer PE, LEED AP, is a Mechanical Engineer with HGA Architects and Engineers; and Tao Ham PhD, LEEP AP, is an AVP and Lighting Designer with HGA Architects and Engineers.

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