Soaring gasoline prices and inflation have made it impossible for corporations to ignore the pressure brought by rising operating costs and declining profits. For commercial buildings, installing automation systems is an indispensable way of saving energy. Through means of central management and decentralized control, automation systems enable building managers to be informed of real-time information concerning equipment status and energy consumption from every subsystem without wasting human and non-human resources as well as energy. With equipment operation and building security ensured, the systems take one step further to reducing equipment operation costs.
As Advantech, an expert in building automation systems, points out, the key to such comprehensive systems lies in how subsystems are monitored via the Internet and easy the software interface is to use. Here is a real example of how optimal building automation comes into reality. A world famous international computer company was planning to install a smart automation system that could monitor the entirety of its 13 floor headquarters in Taiwan. After a thorough evaluation, Advantech proposed a high-bandwidth network and internet to go with the system so as to integrate all equipment in the building so that automatic monitoring devices should be installed on every floor. Moreover, electricity systems should be scheduled to start up and shut down automatically, and high performance security systems should also be implemented. With these measures, human resources could be reduced and the goal of saving energy could be accomplished.
To comply with the real situations of each building, Advantech designed a solution consisting of several subsystems, including temperature control system, security monitoring system, electricity system, digital video surveillance system, and gate-keeping system. In addition, with Advantech’s WebAccess (a graphical remote control software that has powerful integration abilities), users are capable of remotely controlling and viewing the automation system, which is capable of energy management and equipment surveillance, on standard web browsers. The software displays real-time data with dynamically updated graphics and full animation. It also allows users to view digital videos, graphics, warning signs, and trend charts on the same system page. With the perfect coordination of Advantech’s hardware and software, the automation system not only helps to reduce the human resources required for building management, but also assists in efficiently saving energy.
