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dgest

CI/SfB (6-)
July 1997

Installing BMS
to meet
electromagnetic
compatibility
requirements

Digest
424

Building management
systems (BMS), like all
electronic products, are
inherently susceptible to
electrical interference, and
without adequate protection
their potential to improve the
energy and environmental
performance of buildings will
be undermined. This Digest is
designed to complement

is now a legal requirement for

BMS to have an adequate
level of immunity to electrical
interference.

emerging European electrical

interference standards for
electronic equipment, by
focusing on the precautions
that need to be taken when
installing BMS in order to
avoid electrical interference.
With the recent
implementation in the UK of
the Electromagnetic
Compatibility Directive, there

A feature of many commercial buildings is a

network of microcomputer controllers, or a
building management system (BMS), to
manage and control services such as heating,
ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and
metering of fuel and power. Like all electronic
products, building management systems are
inherently susceptible to electrical interference,
and without adequate protection their potential to
improve the energy and environmental
performance of buildings will be undermined.

Figure 1 Part of the building

management system (BMS) being
installed in BREs new energy
efficient office of the future
completed in December 1996

Interference to a BMS can be caused by

electrical disturbances from a variety of sources,
both inside and outside buildings, including
HVAC and other electrical plant, IT equipment,
fluorescent lamps, mobile telephones, radio and
radar transmitters, and lightning. The
disturbances may be conducted (for example,
voltage transients on power supplies) or radiated
electromagnetic fields (see BRE Digest 335).

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2
The effects of interference can range from minor errors in
temperature readings and data communications, through to
complete system failures and component damage. BMS
(and other electronic systems used in building services such
as fire-alarm systems and access-control systems) are
particularly vulnerable to interference because they are
distributed over large areas and must operate continuously.
While interference may be tolerable if it causes only an
occasional, temporary loss of a service such as heating, it
becomes intolerable if the loss of service occurs too often,
energy costs increase, equipment is damaged, or peoples
health, comfort or safety is affected.
The likelihood that a BMS will suffer from interference
in practice will depend on:
the levels of conducted and radiated electromagnetic
disturbances in a building,
the immunity that has been designed into the individual
controllers that make up the BMS,
the way that the BMS, as a networked system of
controllers, has been installed.
Ambient electromagnetic noise levels can be particularly
high in modern commercial buildings with their high
densities of electrical and electronic equipment, and in
HVAC plant rooms containing heavy electrical plant. Once
a system has been installed, eliminating electrical
interference can be difficult and costly.
European electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) product
standards already specify appropriate emission and
immunity limits for a wide range of building services
products, including controllers. This Digest addresses the
way control systems should be installed in order to avoid
interference, and is aimed, in particular, at manufacturers
and installers of BMS. Installation aspects discussed are
listed in the box below.
If individual controllers comply with the immunity and
BMS installation considerations
Equipment location
Power distribution and earthing
System cabling (selection, segregation, routing and earthing of
power and signal cables)
Control panels (design and construction)
Lightning protection
Architectural screening

The Electromagnetic Compatibility

Directive
Essential requirements

Legislation implementing the EMC Directive

(89/336/EEC, Statutory Instrument No 2372) effectively
came into force in the UK on 1 January 1996. It contains
two essential requirements, which in essence are that
properly installed equipment should not (a) suffer from or
(b) cause electrical interference. Compliant equipment is
required to carry a CE mark and has free access to all
countries in the European Community. It is a criminal
offence to place on the market or bring into service noncompliant equipment. Many construction products,
including BMS and their components, may be subject to the
provisions of other directives, notably the Low Voltage
Directive and the Construction Products Directive, and
their associated CE-marking provisions.
Routes to compliance

Building services products that comply with relevant

European electrical interference standards will be presumed
before installation to meet the Directives essential
requirements (see Information Paper IP15/89). CENELEC
has already issued generic standards for immunity and
emissions covering electrical and electronic products in
residential and industrial environments. The generic
standards will be displaced by product-specific standards as
and when they are introduced. CEN technical committee,
TC247, Controls for mechanical building services, is
currently writing an EMC immunity specification
specifically for BMS. Table 1 lists existing and emerging
European standards covering product immunity and
emissions.
Most controller manufacturers will comply with the
Directive by self-certifying that products comply with
relevant standards. Testing by a third party for compliance
with standards is not a requirement of the Directive for most
building services products, although many manufacturers
without their own test facilities will submit their products
for testing to an EMC test house.

emissions limits in EMC product standards and they are

installed in accordance with the guidelines in this Digest,
then BMS installations should have satisfactory reliability.
They will also comply with new UK regulations
implementing the Electromagnetic Compatibility
Directive.

Figure 2 Testing a controller for immunity to electrical interference

3
Table 1
Electrical interference immunity and emissions standards for building services products
EMC standard

Scope

In preparation by

Building management products and systems for HVAC applications. Part 3: equipment characteristics

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CEN/TC247/WG3
BS EN 61000-4

Basic standard covering immunity test methods

EN 50082-1

Generic immunity standard for residential, commercial and light industrial environment

EN 50082-2

Generic immunity standard for industrial environment

BS EN 60801

Immunity of process control equipment

prEN 55101

Immunity of IT equipment

EN 55104

Immunity of household and other similar electrical equipment

BS EN 50081-1

Generic emission standard for residential, commercial and light industrial environment

BS EN 50081-2

Generic emission standard for industrial environment

BS EN 55011

Radio-frequency emissions from industrial, scientific and medical equipment (for example RF heating)

BS EN 55014

Radio-frequency emissions from household and other similar electrical appliances

BS EN 55015

Radio-frequency emissions from fluorescent lamps and luminaires

BS EN 55022

Radio-frequency emissions from IT equipment

EN 60555

LF emissions onto supply systems (harmonics and flicker) from household and other similar electrical

appliances
BS EN 60439-1

Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies

An alternative to self-certification (when, for example,

no relevant EMC standards exist) is to prepare a technical
construction file. In this case the Directive requires the
manufacturer to go to an approved, or competent, third
party for an independent technical report certifying that, in
the opinion of the competent body, the technical
construction file complies with the objectives of the
Directive.
The technical construction file may be an appropriate
route for bespoke products like control panels and
luminaires that are individually designed to suit particular
installations. This does away with the need to test every
type of control panel or luminaire produced for compliance
with standards, which is likely to be uneconomical,
especially for a small company.
A more cost-effective option for bespoke products,
however, may be to build them entirely from CE-marked
components. These issues are considered in more detail in
Control panels (p 8).
Why is guidance on installation needed?

For installed systems, immunity and emissions standards by

themselves are not enough to define EMC. The EMC of an
installation depends not only on the interference immunity
of its components and levels of ambient electromagnetic
noise, but also on the degree of coupling to noise sources
introduced by installation practices (see Information Paper
IP15/89 and IEEE 1982[1] and ERA Technology 1986[2]).
For example, the proximity of unscreened signal cables to
electrically noisy power cables can have an important
bearing on a systems susceptibility to interference.
Interference will occur if the disturbances induced into the
signal cables from the power cables exceed the immunity
threshold of the equipment to which the signal cables are
connected.

At the moment, there is a problem for installers in that

EMC standards specify only immunity and emissions levels
for products: they do not address the way products should
be installed, and the installation precautions that need to be
taken to avoid interference. If after installation CE-marked
products suffer from or cause electrical interference, that is
they do not comply with the EMC Directive, then there is a
risk that it will be the installer who is blamed and
prosecuted. It is therefore important that accepted guidance
on installation practices should be available to installers.
Recommended installation practices should complement
the immunity of a product. The aim should be to minimise
total installed system costs, with the most cost-effective
balance between product immunity and installation
requirements. Low product immunity may increase overall
costs if special installation measures have to be adopted to
prevent interference. The guidelines in this Digest are
designed to complement the immunity levels for BMS
being drawn up by CEN/TC247. These immunity levels are
higher than those in the CENELEC generic immunity
standard for the residential, commercial and light industrial
environment,
EN 50082-1, since the emphasis is on simplifying
installation requirements.
The costs of designing immunity into products and of
adopting particular installation practices also have to be
weighed against the costs of failure. CEN/TC247s
immunity requirements for BMS are intended to provide an
acceptable level of reliability in typical HVAC
environments. In practice, levels of ambient
electromagnetic disturbances will vary from one site to
another, and so therefore will the risk of interference.
Higher levels of reliability may be desirable for certain
applications where, for example, the costs of HVAC failure
could be high or where safety is an issue.

4
Equipment location

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EMC considerations

One of the first considerations when installing BMS is the

location of controllers and other components such as
sensors and actuators. EMC should be a major
consideration, along with ease of access and proximity to
controlled plant.
More complex BMS controllers capable of monitoring
and controlling all the heating, ventilation and airconditioning plant in a plant room tend to be installed in
cabinets located within the plant room. Smaller, cased BMS
controllers are sited close to, and even within, individual
items of plant such as VAV units, boilers, air-handling units
and chillers. Controllers may be mounted within control
panels containing motor drives, contactors, fused
equipment supplies and other power devices.
Locating a controller close to its plant has advantages
and disadvantages. Minimising wiring lengths lowers costs
and at the same time may bring EMC benefits by reducing
the length of cable exposed to radiated disturbances.
However, placing a controller too close to an item of plant
may be detrimental to EMC if the controller is then exposed
to high levels of conducted and radiated disturbances.
In order to limit exposure to radiated disturbances,
controllers and their cabling should be located as far away
as is practicable from electrically noisy circuits inside
buildings. Electrically noisy circuits include switched loads
such as relays, contactors, lifts, air-handling units, chillers
and variable-speed motor drives, and associated cables.
BMS display screens based on cathode ray tubes may
have to be located up to 5 m away from sources of strong 50
Hz magnetic fields, such as transformers, busbars and lift
control equipment (see BRE Information Paper IP2/97).
Fields greater than 0.5 T can cause displayed images to
wobble disturbingly. Steel is a good material for shielding
display screens against 50 Hz magnetic fields: 5 mm
thickness will attenuate the fields by a factor of around one
hundred (40 dB). Mumetal and other high-permeability
materials are less suitable as they are expensive and their
high permeability is easily lost through mechanical
damage.
To limit exposure to conducted disturbances, controllers
should be located conveniently close to a power supply free
from major disturbances (see EMC surveys below).
EMC surveys

If a BMS installation is near to an airport or seaport where

radars may be present, or to broadcast transmitters,
electrified railway lines, unusually heavy electrical plant, or
industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment, then it
will be necessary to carry out an EMC survey to determine
if the conducted and radiated disturbance levels will exceed
those allowed for in immunity

standards. It may be necessary, for example, to install

special mains-conditioning units in the supply to the
controllers, or to provide equipment or architectural
screening (see page 11).

Power distribution and earthing

Power supply quality

The power supply in a building can suffer from a wide

variety of conducted disturbances, including radiofrequency noise, harmonics, transient overvoltages, dips,
surges, frequency variations, changes in RMS voltage and
interruptions (see Information Paper IP15/89). These
disturbances may be due to sources outside the building (for
example, faults in the supply network and lightning) or they
may emanate inside the building from high current loads,
inductive loads, transformers, motors, variable-speed motor
drives and radio-frequency heaters used in medicine and
industry.
Power supplies in HVAC plant rooms and other areas of
commercial buildings will normally be adequate for BMS
controllers that comply with relevant immunity standards.
However, the risk of interference will be minimised if
supplies to electrically noisy circuits are avoided. If
practicable, field controllers should be supplied via a
separate ring or spur circuit from the local distribution
board or control panel. Panel-mounted controllers should
be supplied with power from the main panel supply.
Installation earthing

Earthing systems
There may be up to three earthing systems in a building, for:
safety
lightning protection
EMC.
Safety earthing is the use of the protective conductor (the
earth lead) in mains wiring to prevent electric shock. All
exposed metalwork that could rise to dangerous potentials
is connected to the protective conductor, which through the
main earthing terminal of an installation is in turn
eventually connected to a buried earth electrode.
Depending on the wiring system, the earth electrode may be
located at the building, at intervals along the power supply
route, or at the power supply substation.
Lightning protection for a structure is provided by
lightning conductors at the top of the structure, connected
by down leads to one or more earth electrodes around the
building. To minimise the risk of side flashing during a
lightning strike, the lightning protection system may be
bonded to girders or other metalwork in the structure, and
also to the buildings main earthing terminal (see Lightning
protection, p 10).
Earthing for EMC is the earthing of cable screens and
metal cabinets around low-voltage signal circuits in order

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5
to prevent electrical interference. For safety reasons, the
signal earth circuit is usually bonded to the protective
conductor at the equipment.
Care with earthing is necessary because the safety earth
and lightning protection system can propagate disturbances
such as radio-frequency noise, harmonics and transients
through the signal earth into signal circuits.
The general principle is that earth leads should be of low
resistance and inductance so that they represent a low
impedance path to both low-frequency and high-frequency
disturbances. Disturbances will then tend to flow directly to
earth rather than into equipment circuits. Earth bonds (for
example between a cabinet door and body) should be short,
of large cross-sectional area, and comprise multi-stranded
or braided conductors. Earth bonds longer than a few metres
represent a high impedance path to transients, which
nullifies their grounding function.
BMS earthing
BMS controllers that comply with EMC immunity
standards may be earthed in the normal way using the
protective conductor in the mains supply lead. If
practicable, BMS controllers in control panels may be
individually earthed back to the primary earth in the control
panel.
Suppliers of main frame computer systems sometimes
specify the provision of a clean earth[3]. This is an
additional earth conductor for the electronic circuits that is
derived from the main distribution board or earthing
terminal, or even from a reference earth plane consisting of
a conducting underfloor mesh or lattice. The protective
conductor or dirty earth is connected in the normal way to
the cabinet and is kept separate from the clean earth. The
installation of clean earths has to be very carefully
controlled, and carried out exactly to the computer
designers requirements.
The use of clean earths is not recommended for BMS
since the required degree of control of the installation over
its working life would just not be possible. In HVAC plant
rooms especially, a large potential difference could exist
between clean and dirty earths which might be injected
directly into electronic circuits with disastrous
consequences.
Earth leakage currents
Mains filters fitted to electronic equipment can inject up to
3 mA of 50 Hz current into the supply earth due to the filter
capacitor connected between the live and earth conductors.
This earth leakage current, if excessive, can cause
interference to electronic equipment, and in particular may
interfere with the operation of residual current detectors. It
is recommended that if the 50 Hz earth current on the
existing protective earth conductor already exceeds 50 mA,
then a separate supply and earth should be installed for the
equipment.

System cabling
The cables that connect BMS components together for
control, sensing, communications and power may exceed
100 m in length. If signal and power cables share the same
trunking, conduit, or trays, the signal cables will be exposed
to the electrical disturbances present on the power cables,
including 50 Hz magnetic fields, transient overvoltages,
and radio-frequency currents.
The various system cables can also act as efficient aerials
in the presence of radio-frequency fields, picking up signals
which then enter circuits by conduction. Cables can be
efficient transmitting and receiving aerials, particularly
when their lengths are comparable with the wavelength of
the electromagnetic waves to which they are exposed. The
wavelength of electromagnetic radiation at 30 MHz, for
example, is 10 m, and at 10 GHz is 3 cm.
Techniques for avoiding interference include the use of
screened cables, care with routing cables, segregation of
power and signal cables, and correct earthing of cable
screens.
Performance of screened cables

Many types of screened cable are available, with widely

varying price and screening performance. Types include
plain two-core, unscreened twisted pair (UTP), braidscreened twisted pair (STP), foil-screened twisted pair
(FTP), mineral-insulated copper-clad (MICC), steel-wire
armoured (SWA) and coaxial (coax).
Table 2 gives a qualitative indication of the performance
of different types of cable screen in attenuating magnetic
and electric fields. (The screening achieved in practice will
depend on details such as the way screens are grounded and
the type of cable terminations.)
An important point is that good conductors like copper,
although highly effective at attenuating radio-frequency
electric and electromagnetic fields, have little effect on
power frequency magnetic fields. In order to attenuate 50
Hz magnetic fields, it is necessary to use twisted pair cable,
or to shield cables with a magnetic material such as steel.
Twisted pair is effective against magnetic fields because the
twists in the cable minimise the loop area exposed to the
magnetic field, and also signals induced in adjacent loops
Table 2
Screening cables against 50 Hz magnetic and radio-frequency (RF)
electromagnetic fields
Noise reduction
Cable type

50 Hz magnetic

RF

Plain (no screen, no twists)

None

None

Twisted pair

Good

None

MICC

None

Good

Twisted pair MICC

Good

Good

Plain in steel conduit or trunking

Good

Good

Plain with braid or metal tape screen

None

Good

Twisted pair with braid or

Good

Good

Good

Good

metal tape screen

Steel-wire armoured

6
will tend to cancel one another out. Steel conduit or
trunking provides protection against both 50 Hz magnetic
and radio-frequency electromagnetic fields. MICC cable
gives good immunity to radio-frequency fields but poor
immunity to 50 Hz magnetic fields, unless twisted pair
MICC is used.

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Selecting signal cables

Unless an equipment supplier makes a specific

recommendation to the contrary, a low-cost, foil-screened
twisted pair cable is suitable for most low-frequency (< 1
MHz) BMS applications, including analogue and digital
signal lines and communications circuits. A typical cable
will consist of individually screened twisted pairs, and will
be rated for communications at 19 200 bits/s at distances of
up to
250 m.
Steel-wire armoured cable with screened twisted pairs is
also suitable for use as a BMS signal or communications
cable. Coaxial cable is better avoided at low frequencies
because any noise induced in the screen (carrying the signal
return current) will be added directly to the wanted signal.
For data communications circuits operating at
frequencies above 1 MHz (for example, Ethernet), it will be
necessary to use the cable type specified by the equipment
supplier. This could be coaxial, screened twisted pair, or
unscreened twisted pair cable. For example, Category 5
UTP or FTP cable is rated for communications circuits that
operate at data rates of up to 100 Mbits/s.
Screened signal cables not only provide good immunity
to interference, but they also help to keep radio-frequency
emissions from cables down to low levels (although
communications systems like Ethernet 10-Base-T are
expressly designed to work with unscreened twisted pair at
10 Mbits/s data rates or higher without infringing emission
limits).

Segregating cables
A primary consideration in routing signal cables is
segregation and separation from power cables. British
Standard BS 7671 allows signal and mains power cables to
share the same conduit or multi-cored cable, providing that
the signal cable insulation has an adequate voltage rating
for safety. However, without suitable precautions, such
practices can be detrimental to EMC. The signal cables are
so close to the 50 Hz electric and magnetic fields generated
by the power cables themselves, and to transient and radiofrequency disturbances present on the power cables, that
large noise voltages and currents can be induced in the
signal cables.
BS EN 61000-5 recommends that unscreened signal
cables and power cables should be segregated and separated
by a minimum distance of 150 mm. Ideally, the signal and
power cables should be routed along separate trays, conduit
or trunking, and where signal and power cables cross, they
should do so at right angles.
Where high reliability is essential, the separation
between parallel runs of unscreened signal and power
cables should be increased to 200 mm or more (see, for
example, guidance issued by the IEE[4] in 1987). More
recently, CENELEC/TC215 has recommended in a draft
standard (prEN 50174) on the installation of highperformance structured cabling that the separation between
unscreened signal and power cables should be 300 mm.

Cable routing and segregation

Signal and communications cables, like equipment, should

be kept as far away as is practicable from electrically noisy
loads and their supply lines to minimise the risk that
electrical disturbances will be induced in the cables.
Routing cables along a metal cable tray or structural
surface can result in lower induced disturbances than if the
cables are, for example, routed loosely across suspended
ceilings. It is particularly important not to expose untwisted
cable like MICC to magnetic fields from high current
equipment such as transformers. The current draft of BS EN
61000-5 describes cable routing in some detail.

Figure 3 Segregated cabling in the BRE energy efficient office of

the future: computer network cables (left), telephone cables
(middle), and power and BMS screened signal cables (right)

7
Table 3
Recommended minimum separations (mm) between BMS signal
cables and power cables
Power cable
Signal cable
Twin and earth
SWA
MICC
Plain

150

125

UTP

75

50

Screened

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T = Touching

The minimum separation between signal and power

cables may be reduced by the use of screened or twisted pair
cables. Table 3 presents recommendations for different
types of screened signal and power cables in BMS
applications based on recent research by ERA
Technology[5,6].
The separations apply for cables with a length of up to
100 m, for 240 V power cables carrying currents up to
125 A, and for signal frequencies up to 100 MHz. The
cables should run along a metal surface, for example, a
cable tray or compartmented trunking. Screens must be
earthed in accordance with the recommendations given
later, and all equipment connected to the cables must
comply with the relevant EMC product standards in Table
1.
Table 3 indicates that screened BMS signal cables (STP,
FTP, SWA, MICC and coax) may be installed alongside
power cables with zero separation. In many BMS
applications, FTP signal cables have traditionally been
installed in the same trunking as low-voltage cables with
acceptable reliability.
The research by ERA Technology has shown that
enclosing unscreened cables in steel trunking or conduit has
little effect on the attenuation of fast transient disturbances,
and so the separations in Table 3 still apply. However, steel
conduit and trunking are beneficial in that they will reduce
considerably the strength of 50 Hz magnetic fields.

Earthing cable screens

Earthing of circuits and cable screens for EMC can be a

complex issue[7], being dependent on, for example, the type
of cable, the signal frequency (low or high) and the type of
electronic circuit (single-ended or differential).
In differential circuits, neither signal line is at a reference
or ground potential. In single-ended circuits, one signal line
(the signal return) is at a reference potential which, in all but
double-insulated products, is connected to the protective
conductor (or earth). Differential circuits are better able to
reject common mode disturbances (present on both signal
lines) than are single-ended circuits. Well-balanced
differential circuits will have a high common mode
rejection ratio (CMRR > 30 dB), in contrast to single-ended
circuits which have a CMRR of 0 dB.
Low-frequency signal cables
Most BMS analogue and digital circuits are low frequency
and single ended, with the ground line at earth potential. For
these, both the ground and the screen of the STP, FTP or
SWA cable should be connected to earth at the controller
end only. The screen connection should be to an earthed
busbar, keeping the pigtail as short as possible (Figure 4).
If the screen is earthed at both ends, an earth loop is
created and large 50 Hz currents can be induced in the loop
due to stray magnetic fields and differences in earth
potential at different locations. The farther apart the earth
points are, the larger the induced currents are likely to be.
The earth loop noise currents induced in the screen will in
turn induce noise in the signal leads so that a noise signal
appears with the wanted signal. Particular care will be
needed when, for example, connecting a BMS to an existing
monitoring and indicator system. BMS digital circuits are
less susceptible to interference than analogue circuits, but
earthing of the screen and ground at the controller end only
is still desirable.
BMS communications circuits vary considerably from
one manufacturer to another. Some are proprietary, while

Figure 4 Screen pigtails should be as short as possible

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8
others are based on de facto or agreed standards such as
Eibus, Batibus, Echelon Lonworks, and Ethernet. For these,
the advice of the manufacturer should be followed.
In communications circuits such as EIA RS422 and
RS485, the transmitter and receiver circuits employ
differential amplifiers and so neither signal lead is
connected to earth. For these, the screen should be
connected to earth at one end only. With low-cost
EIA RS232 communication circuits, the signal circuit is
earthed at both ends, and then the screen should be earthed
at both ends also.
The risk that 50 Hz earth loops will be created
inadvertently and corrupt signals and data is diminished if
there is electrical isolation between the BMS port and the
remote system. Good isolation can be obtained with devices
such as opto-couplers, transformers and proprietary
isolation amplifiers. Separately powered sensors used with
BMS generally have isolating transformers which isolate
the output signal from earth.
High-frequency signal cables
High-frequency signal cables are often coaxial, but now
with the screen earthed at both ends, or even at a number of
points along their route. Above 1 MHz, coaxial cables
behave like triaxial cables because of the so-called skin
effect: any noise currents induced in the screen by external
electromagnetic fields are restricted to the outer surface of
the screen, while the signal return current remains on the
inner surface. Noise induced in the screen is therefore not
added directly to the wanted signal, as it would be at low
frequencies.
Earthing separation distances should ideally be less than
1/10 of the wavelength at which the signal circuit operates
(for example, less than 10 m at 3 MHz), otherwise the
screen will not be at earth potential (at that frequency) along
its whole length. Any 50 Hz noise due to earth loops can be
removed by filtering, or avoided by optical isolation.
Earthing via capacitors
Successful earthing of distributed communications
networks can be particularly difficult because of the
conflicting requirements of single-point earthing for
immunity to low-frequency noise, and multiple-point
earthing for immunity to high-frequency noise.
One solution adopted by some manufacturers is to
specify that the screen should be connected directly to earth
at one point only, and to earth at other points through a small
capacitor. The circuit will then behave like a single-point
earthed circuit at low frequencies (when capacitor
impedance is high) and like a multiple-point earthed circuit
at high frequencies (when capacitor impedance is low).
Manufacturers guidelines should be followed in this case.

Control panels
BMS controllers are often installed in a motor control
panel cabinet, along with motor drives (starters and
variable-speed drives, etc), contactors, fused equipment
supplies and other power devices. Control panels are rarely
constructed on site, although larger ones may be brought to
site in sections for assembly. Control panels may be
provided with packaged equipment such as boilers, chillers
and pressurisation units.
Complying with the EMC Directive

Like all other electrical and electronic products, control

panels must comply with the EMC Directive. One way to
achieve compliance, which is likely to be the most costeffective if it is feasible, is to construct control panels
entirely from CE-marked components. A second way is to
test control panels as finished units for compliance with the
relevant EMC standards in Table 1 (in which case the
panels themselves will be CE-marked). A relevant product
standard for finished control panels is BS EN 60439-1: Part
1, which reviews EMC requirements for control panels both
containing and not containing electronic components.
It has been argued that bespoke control panels should be
treated as installations, that is, as assemblies of
components that are not intended to be placed on the market
as single commercial units. If this argument is accepted,
control panels will still need to comply with the essential
requirements of the EMC Directive, but they will not need
to be CE-marked even if not constructed entirely from CEmarked components.
If manufacturers or installers choose to assemble control
panels from CE-marked components (that is, from
controllers, motor drives, contactors, relays, transformers,
etc, that comply with relevant standards), each component
must be installed in the panel in accordance with the
instructions supplied with the component. For example,
relays may need to be fitted with suppression devices if they
are to comply with the EMC Directive when used to switch
inductive loads. Building a control panel from CE-marked
sub-systems does not necessarily mean that the final
product will comply with the EMC Directive.
If manufacturers choose to test finished panels for
compliance with relevant EMC standards, there are two
routes. First, if large numbers of identical control panels are
to be manufactured, a sample may be type-tested, and the
manufacturer may then self-certify compliance with the
relevant standards.
In practice, most plant-room control panels will be
unique to a particular site, and type testing every variety is
unlikely to be economically feasible. The manufacturer
may then choose to follow the technical construction file
route. In this case, a representative control panel
constructed to a defined procedure must be tested by a
competent third party for compliance with the relevant
EMC standards. The construction procedure is documented
in the technical construction file, and approved by the third
party. All control panels of a similar type manufactured
thereafter are constructed following the documented

9
procedure, and then CE-marked to show that they comply
with the EMC Directive.
Unauthorised modifications should not be made to a CEmarked control panel once it has been installed, since doing
so may alter its EMC characteristics and hence invalidate its
CE-marking.

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Assemblies not incorporating electronic equipment

Control panels that do not contain electronic equipment are

not sensitive to normal electromagnetic disturbances, and
therefore, as noted in EN 60439-1, no immunity tests are
required.
For emissions, control panels must comply with
EN 55014. If panels contain electromechanical components
that switch only occasionally, they must comply with the
limits in EN 55014 for clicks (discontinuous disturbances
that last no more than 200 ms and are at least 200 ms apart).
If the click rate is no more than five a minute, and the
duration of each click is less than 10 ms, then BS EN 55014
specifies that there is no limit to the amplitude of each click.
Again, as noted in BS EN 60439-1, there is then no need to
test for emissions.
Design of control panels

When assembling control panels, whether from

CE-marked components or for testing as a finished unit,
there are a number of issues to consider in achieving EMC.
Sources of high-level, broadband electrical disturbances,
such as contactor solenoid coils and switch contacts for
external inductive loads, need to comply with EN 55014.
Suppressors may be required.
Metal cabinets with low-impedance bonding between the
separate parts provide maximum screening effectiveness
against radiated electromagnetic disturbances. Mild steel
cabinets give good overall protection and offer the best
performance at low frequencies. In comparison, thin metal
coatings on plastic enclosures have poor screening
effectiveness against low-frequency magnetic fields,
although they may be adequate at very high frequencies.
For BMS applications, conductive gaskets are not normally
required, although they may be necessary where aboveaverage levels of interference are anticipated (for example,
near to a broadcast transmitter or airport radar).

The normal safety earthing cable between panel doors

and the cabinet body is usually adequate for EMC purposes.
The connection between the control section door of the
cabinet and the cabinet body may be enhanced by an
earthing braid of tinned copper, or other type of multistranded flexible cable (that is, with a large surface area).
For optimum EMC performance, control panel cabinets
should be divided into cubicles, with each motor drive in a
separate cubicle, and the controllers in their own cubicle.
Wardrobe-style cabinets, which are less expensive and
take up less space, are acceptable provided that the motor
drives and other power components are located in a separate
section from the controllers.
Interfacing relays may be mounted in either the drive
section or the controller section. If in the controller section,
they should be mounted in a separate area from the
controllers. If the relays are not extra-low voltage, they
should be separated from the controllers by a metal screen.
Cables should enter the cabinet and be terminated at an
earthed busbar and terminations on the cabinet body. Drain
wire or braid screen pigtail connections to the busbar
should be as short as possible (see Figure 4). Cables may be
terminated at the controller itself within the cabinet,
providing the controller has robust terminations. However,
to avoid conflict between the panel manufacturer and the
installer of the external wiring, the use of termination strips
on the cabinet is preferable
Interconnection cables within cabinets should be routed
where possible along a metal surface to reduce interference
coupling between the cables and other cables or
components. Mains power cables should be kept as far
away as practicable from electronic circuit boards. If
separate control sections are used within the cabinet,
segregation from mains cabling is made easier.
Variable-speed motor drives (VSDs) should be carefully
installed in accordance with the particular manufacturers
instructions. Requirements may include screening of supply
and motor cables, and incorporation of supply filters.
Standard SWA cable may not provide adequate screening.
Additional earth conductors between the motor and VSD
may be required together with designated VSD enclosures.
Signal cables will normally be screened. Motor drives must
comply with EN 60555 for emission of harmonics onto the
power supply.

10
Lightning protection

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Lightning strikes on buildings can produce large transient

overvoltages in conductors to cause interference to
electronic equipment. Transients induced in external cables,
lightning conductors and other metalwork can propagate
throughout a building by conductive and radiative coupling
(although radiative coupling is not very efficient since the
energy in a lightning discharge is of relatively low
frequency, up to only several hundred kHz). Remote strikes
to power and data cables can generate transients that
propagate by conduction distances of a mile or more before
entering buildings.
BS 6651

Lightning protection of buildings is covered by BS 6651

and is also discussed by Johansson[8]. BS 6651 gives details
of methods of protecting both structures and electronic
equipment against the effects of lightning, and provides
criteria for determining whether, and at what level,
protection is needed. Most commercial and industrial
buildings with a BMS are likely to need lightning
protection.
A building complying with BS 6651 will have one or
more lightning conductors running from the top of the
building down to buried earth electrodes, forming the
lightning protection system (LPS). The building framework
and roof, if metal, will be bonded to the LPS to share the
lightning current and thereby reduce the size of currents and
voltages (due to inductance and resistance) in individual
conductors. This helps to reduce the risk of dangerous
flashover due to large potential differences in the building.
Any metalwork within a certain distance of the LPS will be
bonded to it, again to prevent flashover.

Equipment protection

With a well-designed LPS, the risk of flashover to cables

and other metalwork inside buildings will be low, and the
levels of transients induced in data and power cables by
conductive and radiative coupling will be minimised.
To protect BMS cables that run outside buildings against
lightning, they should be buried underground.
Alternatively, screened twisted pair cable in galvanised
trunking or conduit, fixed to walls or suitable supports, may
be used for short distances. BMS cables that run along the
outside walls of buildings should be kept well away from
lightning conductors.
These measures, when combined with a properly
installed LPS, will limit the size of transients induced in
cables to levels that CE-marked controllers should normally
be able to withstand. To improve reliability further, or if, for
example, external cables cannot be buried, then surge
protection devices (SPDs) may be installed in all external
cables at the point they enter the building.
Bonding the LPS to safety earth
The installer should check that, as required by BS 6651, the
LPS is bonded to the main earthing terminal (MET) of the
buildings safety earth system. Bonding the two systems
together helps to reduce the resistance between the LPS and
the ground, which minimises the voltage developed on the
LPS during a lightning strike, and therefore the risk of
flashover and the size of induced transients in cables. The
lower resistance between the protective conductor and the
ground also improves overall EMC.
It has been argued that bonding the LPS to the MET may
increase the risk that transients will be conducted into the
electricity supply, and on into electrical and electronic
equipment. However, apart from the fact that safety is
paramount, uncontrolled side flashing is more likely to
cause damage and interference to electronic equipment than
are conducted transients, especially if SPDs are fitted to the
supply.

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11
Architectural screening

Acknowledgements

In some locations (for example, close to electrified railway

lines, busy city centre streets with mobile radio traffic, and
radar installations) BMS may be exposed to high levels of
noise that will exceed the equipments immunity threshold.
For example, while compliant building services equipment
may be immune to radio-frequency field strengths of 10
V/m, the pulsed field produced by an airport or ships radar
could approach 100 V/m within a radius of several hundred
metres.
It is not realistic to expect commercial electronic
products to be immune to such fields, and electromagnetic
screening of a room or even a whole building may then be
necessary to prevent electrical interference. If disturbances
at such levels are likely, screening may be necessary to meet
equipment suppliers warranty conditions.
Bromley (1991)[9] contains a review of architectural
screening, and describes currently available techniques.
Shielding can be provided by lining all the surfaces of a
room with a continuous layer of a good electrical conductor,
such as copper mesh or paper impregnated with nickel. This
turns the room, in effect, into a metal box or Faraday
Cage.
Any windows must have a special metallic coating,
bonded to a metal frame and to the conducting lining on the
walls. Attention to detail is very important if radiofrequency fields are not to leak through seams and joints
(for example, where materials overlap and around doors
and windows). Consideration must also be given to the
possibility of corrosion between different metallic
materials, such as copper and aluminium, which can lead to
the quality of contacts deteriorating over a period of time.
Services such as heating pipes must be well bonded to the
shielding, and power and signal cables must be filtered to
prevent signals entering rooms by conduction.

BRE would like to thank ERA Technology Ltd, Birling

Systems Design Ltd and Doorway Systems for their help in
preparing this Digest. Some of the recommendations on
cable segregation are based on work by ERA Technology
sponsored by the following organisations: the Department
of the Environment Construction Sponsorship Directorate,
the Electrical Contractors Association, the British Cable
Makers Confederation, Caradon MK Electric, and CIBSE.

12
References and further reading

List of abbreviations and terms

[1] IEEE. IEEE Guide for the installation of electrical equipment to

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BMS

Building management system

minimise electrical noise inputs to controllers from external sources.

BS

British Standard

1982. IEEE Std 5181982.

[2] ERA Technology. Guide to achieving immunity from electrical
interference. 1986. ERA Report 85-0146.
[3] CIBSE. Information technology and buildings. CIBSE
Applications Manual, AM7. 1992.
[4] IEE. Electromagnetic interference. Report of a Public Affairs
Board Study Group, September 1987.
[5] Electrical Contractors Association. Recommended cable
separations to achieve EMC in buildings. Electrical Contractors
Association Guidance Leaflet. 1993.
[6] Bromley, A K R. EMC of building cables. IEE Proc-Sci Meas
Technol, July 1994,Vol 141, No 4, pp 263265.
[7] Ott, H W. Noise reduction techniques in electronic systems.
Chichester, Wiley. 1976.
[8] Johansson, M. Lightning protection of buildings and their
contents: a review of current practice. BSRIA Technical Note TN
1/94. February 1994.
[9] Bromley, A K R. Electromagnetic screening of offices for
protection against electrical interference and security against
electronic eavesdropping. CIBSE 1991 National Conference
Proceedings. University of Kent, Canterbury, 79 April 1991.

CE

Building Research Establishment

Information Papers
10/89 Building management systems: user experiences
15/89 Electromagnetic compatibility of building services: towards a
European standard
2/97 Magnetic fields and building services

a European Community mark given to products that

satisfy the minimum applicable requirements of a
Directive

CEN

a European Community standards-making body

CENELEC

a European Community electrotechnical standardsmaking body

CIBSE

Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers

CMRR

Common mode rejection ratio

coax

Coaxial

EIA

Electronics Industries Association

EMC

Electromagnetic compatibility

FTP

Foil-screened twisted pair cable

IEC

International Electrotechnical Commission

IEE

Institution of Electrical Engineers

IEEE

Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

HVAC

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning

ISM

Industrial, scientific and medical

LPS

Lightning protection system

MET

Main earthing terminal

MICC

Mineral-insulated copper-clad cable

RF

Radio frequency

RMS

Root mean square

SPD

Surge protection device

STP

(Braid-)screened twisted pair cable

SWA

Steel-wire armoured cable

Other BRE Digests

289
Building management systems
335
Electrical interference in buildings
397
Standardization in support of European legislation: what does
it
mean for the UK construction industry?
408
A guide to attestation of conformity

UTP

Unscreened twisted pair cable

VAV

Variable air volume

ampere

Electrical current

British Standards Institution

BS 6651: 1992 Code of practice for protection of structures against
lightning
BS 7671: 1992 Requirements for electrical installations. IEE Wiring
Regulations. Sixteenth edition
BS EN 50082: Electromagnetic compatibility. Generic immunity
standard
Part 1: 1992 Residential, commercial and light industry
BS EN 55014: 1993 Limits and methods of measurement of radio
disturbance characteristics of electrical motor operated and
thermal appliances for household and similar purposes, electric
tools and similar electric apparatus
BS EN 60439: Low voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies
Part 1: 1994 Specification for type-tested and partially type--tested
assemblies
BS EN 61000-5: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC): Installation
and
mitigation guidelines
EN 60555: 1987 Disturbances in supply systems caused by
household appliances and similar electrical equipment
PD 1001: 1996 A guide to EMC and structured cabling

dB

decibel

Ratio of two powers, voltages, currents, or

Hz

hertz

Frequency

second

Time

tesla

Magnetic flux density

volt

Electric potential, potential difference, tension,

Technical enquiries to:

BRE Advisory Service
Garston, Watford,
WD2 7JR
Telephone 01923 664664
Facsimile 01923 664098

Digests
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are available on subscription.
For current prices please
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SI units

sound intensities

electromotive force

SI prefixes
G

giga

109

1 000 000 000

mega

106

1 000 000

kilo

103

1000

milli

10-3

0.001

micro

Full details of all recent issues

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Copyright BRE 1997
ISBN 1 86081 101 9

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