What is a Smart Building Technology?
The first buildings ever built were simple shelters made of stones, sticks, animal skins and other natural materials. Although they hardly resembled the steel and glass that make up the modern skyline of the city, these early buildings had the same purpose-to provide a comfortable space for the people inside.
Today’s buildings are complex combinations of structures, processes and technology. Over time, each of the components inside the building has been built and improved, enabling modern-day building owners to choose lighting, protection, heating , ventilation and air conditioning systems individually, as if they were putting together a home entertainment system.
Today, however, building owners are starting to look beyond the four walls and understand the effect of their development on the electricity grid, the mission of their company and the global climate. In order to achieve these goals, it is not enough for a building simply to contain systems that provide comfort, light and protection. Buildings of the future must link the different parts in an integrated, dynamic and functional way. This vision is a building that fulfills its mission seamlessly while minimizing energy costs, maintaining a stable power grid and alleviating environmental impacts.
At the most fundamental level, smart buildings offer valuable building facilities that make the occupants efficient (e.g. lighting, thermal comfort, air quality, physical protection, sanitation, etc.) at the lowest cost and environmental effect on the building lifecycle. To achieve this vision involves the addition of intelligence from the beginning of the design process to the end of the useful life of the house. Smart buildings use information technology during operation to connect a number of subsystems, which usually function separately, so that these systems can exchange information in order to improve overall building efficiency. Smart buildings look past the construction equipment within their four walls. They are linked and open to the smart grid and communicate with building managers and tenants to empower them with new levels of awareness and actionable knowledge.
Smart cities call for smart buildings
Cities of the future will deliver a broad variety of “smart technologies” – networked infrastructure that regulates aspects of transport, air and water quality. According to Energy Manager Today, the number of smart cities around the world is expected to increase, partly driven by demographic patterns that show more people leaving rural areas for urban ones. In the next 10 years, Europe and North America are predicted to account for around half of the world’s smart cities.
But converting cities into smart cities begins with smart buildings. On average, buildings consume about 30 % of the world ‘s electricity. Improving energy management in these buildings can go a long way towards saving energy and saving money around the world. HVAC systems can be upgraded to monitor changes in time , temperature and climate and then respond accordingly. But that’s just the beginning.
Automation built on sensing technology
Smart building uses a mix of technology to simplify building management. Second, the program controls the various variables of the function of the house, including temperature and lighting. Second, sensors are used to detect changes, such as temperature rise and drop or room motion, and to feed this information to the program. With sensors installed throughout the building, a building management system can aim temperature and lighting adjustments only in rooms that need adjustment. Building data is monitored over time so that the program can adapt its adjustments to match occupancy or seasonal changes.
Building administrators may also use this technology to control their lighting. Large buildings have several rooms and parts that remain vacant, even throughout the day. An automated device can sense the empty parts of the building and switch off the lights in those spaces. Likewise, these systems can make the same temperature changes so that facility managers do not waste energy heating or cool empty sections of their buildings.
Systems may also be configured to account for personal lighting or temperature preferences, which may help prevent some of the office workers’ arguments about the temperature of the room.
