What Is an

Intelligent Building?
Paul Ehrlich
Building Intelligence Group

ABSTRACT pancy rates and lower operating expenses. All around

this is a win-win situation!
N THIS CHAPTER we look at the definition of an So what are the technologies and processes that

I intelligent building and what is necessary in the are required to create such a project? There is a long
design process to ensure that intelligent attributes list, starting with design and going through long term
are incorporated. We also look at what is involved in operations, retrofit and eventual decommissioning. See
the crucial phases of construction and operation of an the sidebar article for a brief summary of the attributes.
intelligent building. As an industry, we know how to Let's start by looking at the design process for
deliver intelligent buildings. Many of the products and intelligent buildings. The decision to make a project
solutions are already readily available and understood "intelligent" needs to come early in the design process.
within our industry. Others will be available within the Making the decision to create a new or retrofit an exist-
next few years. The challenge that we face is to move ing project to make it intelligent is similar to what goes
forward together to start delivering the truly intelligent into creating a LEED certified project. There needs to be
building. a commitment from the owner and their design team to
invest in a project with superior performance and value.
Once this occurs, the design process can continue as
INTRODUCTION TO usual. But it is important to keep the focus on creating
INTELLIGENT BUILDING DESIGN a superior project and avoid the temptation to "value
engineer" out the intelligent components.
Over the last 20 years, there has been a lot of dis-
cussion and debate about the concept of an "intelligent Project Scope and Purpose
building.'' Work has gone on in many forums to define One of the first attributes in an intelligent design
and quantify what the term really means. The end result is to carefully evaluate the current and future use of the
of all of these efforts is that an intelligent building is not project. This starts by clearly identifying the purpose
just one thing. My definition of intelligent buildings is as and needs of the targeted building occupants. This
follows: process will vary depending on whether it will be an
owner occupied or a commercial development. For an
"Use of technology and process to create a building that
owner occupied building, surveys and focus groups
is safer and more productive for its occupants and more
can be held with the building occupants, analyzing and
operationally efficient for its owners."
prioritizing their needs to select proper project features.
The results from implementing these technologies For a commercial development, the project target market
and processes are buildings that cost less to operate and needs to be identified and attributes designed to suit.
are worth more to their occupants. For projects that are For example, an office building might target technology
owner occupied, such as Corporate, Government and In- companies that would benefit from an urban environ-
stitutions, the benefits of an intelligent building provide ment, high speed network access and 24 / 7 availability.
an immediate ROI in terms of higher employee produc- It is important to realize, however, that few projects
tivity and reduced operating expenses. For commercial are used as originally envisioned. A good intelligent
developments, these projects are expected to result in design should incorporate flexibility to allow for easy
above market rents, improved retention, higher occu- change. Examples of this type of design characteristic
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18 Web Based Enterprise Energy and Building Automation Systems

include CLA (communications, life safety, automation) building. At a macro scale, community integration is
structured cabling design and open space with movable determined by community space planning and zoning
or demountable partitions. An intelligent building needs regulations. An intelligent building should go beyond
to be designed to meet the needs of initial occupants and that with consideration as to how this fits in with the
be flexible to meet the needs of future occupants. communities needs, transportation, and amenities. The
combination of the two makes the building more mar-
Concept and Budget ketable with a lower impact on the environment.
When setting initial project budgets, intelligent attri-
butes must be included. Creating an intelligent building Environmental Design
does require an investment in advanced technology, pro- An intelligent building starts with an environmen-
cesses, and solutions. An up-front investment is required tally friendly design. Creating a project that is environ-
to realize a significant return later on. It is unrealistic to mentally friendly and energy efficient ties in closely with
expect to make a project intelligent unless there is early many of the intelligent attributes. Intelligent buildings
buy in on investment. Again, these decisions need to hap- are designed for long term sustainability and minimal
pen prior to the start of design work. One of the chal- environmental impact through the selection of recycled
lenges is to educate owners need to be educated on the and recyclable materials, construction, maintenance and
benefits of an intelligent building design. Waiting until operations procedures. Providing the ability to integrate
the MEP is brought on to the design team may be too late. building controls, optimize operations and enterprise
This makes education of both owners and architects as to level management results in a significant enhancement
the benefits of intelligent solutions critical for success. in energy efficiency, lowering both cost and energy us-
age compared to non-intelligent projects.
Site Selection and Integration Intelligent buildings are intended to be the pre-
An intelligent design begins by looking at the site ferred environment for occupants. This requires focused
as it integrates with the community. Is this a location attention to environmental factors that affect occupants
that is a new "green-field" location or a reuse of an exist- perception, comfort and productivity. An intelligent
ing "brown-field site? Can the project be sited for maxi- design finds the balance providing a superior indoor en-
mum solar efficiency? How will it fit in with community vironment and minimizing energy usage and operating
land and space planning? Does it integrate with existing labor. This is where the technology becomes valuable.
(or planned) public transportation? Site integration and Using integration and automation we are able to imple-
impact are critical for environmental impact, and strong- ment solutions that both provide a superior environ-
ly impacts how the building occupants interact with the ment and minimize energy. Examples include:

Feature
Dimmable fluorescents lighting
integrated with sun blind control
Lighting control with motion sensors
integrated with security
Natural and displacement ventilation
Use of economizers for free cooling
Individual temperature and lighting control
Radiant heating and cooling
Optimized control algorithms
Combined heat and power plants
After hours control of lights and HVAC
integrated with security
Monitoring of IAQ and contaminants
Benefit
Optimal lighting level and quality can be determined by
the occupants.
Only provide lighting as needed. Reduces energy
use and increases security.
More efficient and effective distribution of ventilation.
Energy efficiency.
Improved comfort is shown to improve productivity. Addresses
the number 1 concern of tenants as found in BOMA surveys.
Improved comfort, reduced energy use.
Reduce energy use with little or no impact on comfort.
Improved energy efficiency and sustainability.
Improved security while reducing energy use.
Improved comfort, safety and productivity.
What is an Intelligent Building?
USGBClLEED
The US Green Building Council-Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC-LEED) pro-
gram provides an excellent mechanism to promote, mea-
sure and quantify environmental and energy efficiency
in both new and existing projects. There is a very strong
synergy between an intelligent building design and a
LEED certified design. Intelligent buildings demand
reduced energy usage through optimization, system in-
tegration and enterprise applications. LEED certification
requires energy efficiency, monitoring, validation and
control of all building systems. The goals and benefits
of LEED and intelligent building design go together arm
and arm. An intelligent building program should start
with LEED certification and work to improve the build-
ing beyond that.
Building Modeling
An intelligent design needs to start with a complete
model. This modeling begins early on with CAD designs
that evolve into project renderings. Using new standards
such as AEC-XML and GB-XML, this information can
readily be shared with HVAC and other system models.
Modeling of an intelligent building will be used not just
in design, but will continue through into construction
and operation. In the past, building modeling has been
widely used as a design tool and often for construction
as well. In an intelligent building we would expect that
this model will be used by new sophisticated tools that
will actually be able to use the original modeling infor-
mation to make decisions about optimization and con-
tinuous re-commissioning of critical building systems.
Ideally, the model will follow through the life span of
the building, be updating as necessary and serving as a
digital document of the building.
Building Circulation and Networking
Buildings exist to enable collaboration, allow-
ing occupants to be productive, efficient and creative.
Intelligent buildings provide for improved occupant
circulation, interaction and collaboration. From a design
perspective this means attention to how the occupants
will circulate through the building. How will they enter
the space? How will they move efficiently vertically and
horizontally through the space? Can we incorporate
digital signage to improve navigation and circulation?
Collaboration can also be improved through the Construction Processes
use of design elements to encourage networking in both
formal and informal spaces. Formal collaboration spaces should readily extend into the construction process. The
are conference rooms, break rooms, classrooms and goal is to keep as much of the constmction process as
seminar rooms. Informal collaboration spaces include paperless as possible. Keeping updated electronic docu-
niches and seating spaces in corridors, coffee shops, out- mentation is valuable, not just because it reduces cost
19
door seating areas, and other places where building oc-
cupants can get together for brief planned or unplanned
interactions.
Project Negotiation and Value Engineering
Once an intelligent building is designed, the first
challenge is to make sure that the team remains commit-
ted to keeping it intelligent through construction. There
are a lot of discussions about the best way to contract for
an intelligent building. The traditional model is to hire
an architect who, in turn, builds a team with a mechani-
cal, electrical and plumbing (MEP) consultant and they,
in turn, create project documents. General contractors
are then asked to bid on the construction documents
and assemble a project price using their team of sub-con-
tractors. Unfortunately during this process the desire to
make a building intelligent is often lost in the confusion
of keeping the project within the allocated budget.
Often we try to bring projects within budget
through a process called value engineering, implying
that we are enhancing the value of a project. In reality
this process often removes areas of high value in a des-
perate attempt to keep the project under budget. It is
important that the design and construction team agrees
early on as to the importance and priority of the intel-
ligent attributes and works to keep them in scope, even
when project budgets become a challenge.
There are a few alternative construction models that
may work better for intelligent buildings. The simplest is
a design build process where the owner contracts with
a design build contractor to provide a project with the
desired features for a set price. Another alternative is to
break out the intelligent building portion of the project.
This can be as nominal as breaking it into a separate
specification section (Division 17 has often been used and
Division 25 is designated by the new CSI-2004). In many
cases, the intelligent building portions may also be split
out in a separate RFP or on the bid forms for a supplier
decision directly by the owner. The most radical approach,
which is being used on projects outside of North America,
is to hire a firm to design the buildings technologies and
they, in turn, hire an architect and the rest of the project
team. These approaches have the same desired result: to
focus on creating a better building and not be overcome
by the challenges of budget and schedule.
On an intelligent project the design document files
20
during the construction process, but also because it forms presenting only the required information to the operator.
the basis for continuous documentation of the project. Examples of these tools include:
In reality the mission of many buildings is constantly in
flux, resulting in the construction process is never being
totally done. Having accurate documentation of how the
building is constructed and modified provides the ability
to bring this information into operations.
From an environmental or green perspective we
want to use construction processes that are sustainable.
This means looking to minimize construction waste,
utilize environmentally friendly materials, develop on
brown field sites and recycle materials whenever pos-
sible.
Facility Operations
At the heart of an intelligent building is the bene-
fits and changes that will occur in operations. The reason
that we look to implement intelligent attributes is to im-
prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations
staff. The operation of most commercial buildings today
is a challenging and often frustrating task. Operations
staff are bombarded with phone calls, meetings and
other tasks that leave little time for planning and strate-
gic operations. In addition many facility managers have
received little, if any, formal training on how to success-
fully complete their complex and demanding jobs. As a
result, the operation of a facility has become a craft, one
that is often self taught, rarely well documented, and of-
ten, not repeatable. A facility with a strong operating en-
gineer may run efficiently and have satisfied occupants,
yet the building across the street with a less experienced
staff may run poorly and be uncomfortable. Add in that
these buildings are often poorly commissioned and have
been constantly modified, and the result is many build-
ings that do not operate properly. Unfortunately for the
business managers, owners, and investors of these build-
ings, there are no checks, balances, or controls in place
today to let them know if their building is well operated
or not.
One of the primary goals in an intelligent building
is to provide the technology, tools, and processes to im-
prove the operation of the facility. In many cases, these
tools will be provided for the existing on-site operations
staff. In other cases on site operations staff will be re-
placed or augmented with services from a centralized
operations center or service.
Building Management Tools
An intelligent building will typically have thou-
sands of pieces of data available. The goal, however, is
not to present all of this information to the facility opera-
tor. Rather, tools will be used to evaluate, and prioritize,
Web Based Enterprise Energy and Building Automation Systems
Complete Integration-System integration of all
critical building systems including HVAC, Electri-
cal, Fire Alarm, Security, Video Monitoring, and
Digital Signage. All of these systems will be inte-
grated on the building network and will share this
infrastructure with other applications including
data, voice, and video. This information will need
to be secured and will travel on both the private
and public networks. Open standards are at the
heart of enabling the intelligent building as solu-
tions including BACnet, LonTalk, oBIX, Modbus
and other protocols used to enable integration.
Tenant Portals-One critical element of an intel-
ligent building is providing a method for the
building occupants (tenants, employees, associates,
students, patients, etc.) to interact with the build-
ing and building management. In the past, this has
been done with phone calls, face to face meetings,
and faxes. Today, it is most effectively done with an
internal website called a portal. Tenant portals pro-
vide information about the facility, contact infor-
mation, directories, energy efficiency, emergency
preparedness and a central place to enter issues.
Information from the portal can then be used to
drive maintenance and operation requests. Since
the portal is a two way communications channel,
it can also be used to collect critical feedback on
occupant satisfaction and comfort levels.
System Dashboards-Like the dash of your car,
a system dashboard provides a summary of criti-
cal building alarms, energy information and key
maintenance items at a glance. The dashboard is
responsible to summarize all of the critical build-
ing information and present it in the proper format
for different members of the facility management
team. For example, the operating engineer requires
detailed information about specific mechanical
systems, while the property manager needs a
summary of energy and operating expenses over
the last 4 weeks. The difference between a system
dashboard and a typical user interface for an in-
tegrated building automation system is in focus.
Dashboards are more focused on sorting and filter-
ing data to provide the information needed to per-
form specific roles. Building automation systems
tend to be much more generalized and designed
for the operating engineer.
What is an Intelligent Building?
Next Generation Maintenance Management Pro-
grams-Maintenance management systems typi-
cally track work orders and schedule repairs and
preventative maintenance. In the future, these sys-
tems will be closely integrated with the building
systems allowing for critical data evaluation from
equipment, determining if it is operating properly
and what maintenance is required. These systems
will also be used to deliver requests from building
occupants by integrating with the portal. Oper-
ating personnel, both in house and contractors,
will automatically be dispatched using wireless
communications to their cell phones and PDAs.
This allows for more proactive operations and for
increased efficiency.
Enterprise Energy Management-Most energy
management systems today are focused only on
the operation of the building. This includes func-
tions such as demand limiting, scheduling, and
system optimization. Intelligent buildings take this
one step further by incorporating real time util-
ity rate information and making energy manage-
ment decisions not just for a single building but
for groups of buildings. By managing energy in
concert with the utility, there is the ability not to
only reduce energy usage but more importantly, to
dramatically decrease energy expenditure.
Operating Staff Efficiency
Today most buildings have several operations
groups. One group is charged with property manage-
ment, a second with security, another with building
maintenance, while staff or contractors are used for
custodial, HVAC service, and fire protection. There can
be significant improvements with the use of technology
to allow the operating staff to do more with fewer re-
sources. In some cases, this will mean providing tools to
be more efficient. In other cases, it is a matter of central-
izing certain services and providing them for groups of
buildings. Here are a few examples:
Mobile Operations-The operating personnel
within an intelligent building will be equipped
with wireless devices (cell phones, PDAs, laptops)
that will allow them to readily access all building
systems as well as receive and process work orders
and tenant requests. This will allow the staff to be
in the building responding to issues, dealing with
maintenance tasks, and evaluating security issues
all while "on line." The result is less time spent
looking at systems, ordering parts, finding draw-
21
ings and building documentation and more time
getting tasks accomplished.
Centralized Operations Center-Major retailers,
large school districts, and health care centers have
worked for years to centralize their operations. Pro-
viding a centralized operations center (often called
a building operations center or BOC) provides the
ability to consolidate functions across facilities. The
BOC typically provides a central location with a
call center and hosting for enterprise applications.
In addition to the tools specialized staff members
with in depth expertise on systems, energy, secu-
rity and other systems work at this center. Using
a centralized facility stretches the ability of these
experts to impact all of the facilities. Since commu-
nications with the BOC uses Internet technology,
the center can be virtual and be located anywhere
in the world. For example one center might moni-
tor operations during the day and a second one lo-
cated on the other side of the world might provide
similar functions at night and on weekends.
Virtual Concierge-It is even possible to centralize
"high t o u c h functions such as visitor manage-
ment. Services are available that utilize video and
voice over Internet communications to allow for
real time interaction with visitors, allowing them to
be greeted, present identification and receive build-
ing badges all from a centralized, often remote,
location!
Summary of Attributes of an Intelligent Building
Intelligent buildings mean many things depending
on your perspective and role. The following list is one
summary of these attributes.
Process:
Design
- Flexibility-designed to change
- Energy efficient design (LEED)
- Complete building modeling
- Focus on building circulation and Feng Shui and
common spaces for networking
- Integrationwith transportation and surrounding
community
Construction
- Sustainable construction practices
- Electronic project documentation
- Modeling extended into construction
Operations
- Integration of all systems
22 Web Based Enterprise Energy and Building Automation Systems

- Remote operations and optimization Energy efficiency

- Tenant portals Indoor air quality
- After hours operation Comfort monitoring
- Maintenance management and dispatch Internet enabled controls
- Energy information and management systems Enterprise integration
- Real time energy response Water and gas metering/ sub-metering
- Continuous comfort monitoring and feedback Electrical
- Energy efficient lighting
Technology: - Lighting control
General - Distributed generation
- Tenant amenities - Dual power feeds/emergency power
Concierge - Power quality monitoring
Shopping - Sub-metering/ billing
Restaurants
Lodging
Parking CONCLUSION
Restrooms
- Optimized vertical transport In the start of this chapter, we defined an intelli-
- Personal comfort control gent building as:
Temperature
Humidity Use of technology and process to create a building that
IAQ is safer and more productive for its occupants and more
Lighting operationally eficient for its owners.
Acoustic
Networking / Telecom In simpler terms the goal is to provide a better
- Common network infrastructure building. The result is a facility that uses less energy, has
- Structured-maintainablecabling dramatically lower operating expenses and provides an
- Wifi improved indoor environment and better responsive-
- VOIP ness for the occupants. All of this provides a significant
- Digital signage return on investment. As an industry, we know how to
Security/ Life Safety deliver on intelligent buildings. Many of the products
- Digital video monitoring and solutions are already readily available and un-
- Access control and monitoring derstood within our industry. Others will be available
- Automatic fire suppression within the next few years. The challenge that we face is
- Fire detection and alarm to move forward together to start delivering on the truly
- Egress support (lighting, signage, smoke control, intelligent building.
etc.) The goal of having an intelligent building only
- Contaminant monitoring and containment starts with early planning in the design stage. In many
- Proximate security/ guard services ways this mirrors the design and fulfillment of many
Mechanical green or LEED projects today, but uses technology to
- Energy efficient equipment provide for a superior space. There are enormous ben-
- Thermal storage efits to be gained by creating intelligent buildings. We
- Combined heat and power need to continue to work as an industry to quantify
- Controls optimization these benefits, educate owners and consultants and to
Extensive sensing deliver a superior product to the market.