Smart building technologies: building automation techniques deployed in Alaska.

• Author: Slaten, Russ
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

Before the emergence of digital controls and smart building technologies, most buildings controlled the HVAC system--heating, ventilation, and air conditioning within the building--through a pneumatic or air-based control system. Most existing buildings still use pneumatic controls, limiting the opportunities to monitor the other systems of the building and often burning more energy in the process.

Smart building technologies, typically controlled by a building automation system, link the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems of the building and give the operator a window into the inner workings of nearly all the systems that influence a building's operations.

Through smart building technologies, operators are equipped to ensure safety, provide comfort, and especially important to Alaskans--monitor efficiency.

Paper to Operator

Some companies know what they want in an automated control system to operate their buildings. Sometimes that is not always the case. Some people just want their buildings to keep them comfortable without having to think too much about it. Mark Frischkorn, principal mechanical engineer at RSA Engineering, Inc., is part of an engineering firm that has taken the role of designing many smart systems for schools and businesses in Alaska. Recently RSA Engineering designed the mechanical systems of the West Anchorage High School addition under the architects Kumin and Associates. The project is currently under construction by Cornerstone General Contractors.

Frischkorn says the contractors will install the system, complete the project, and hand it over to the building owner. The contractor responsible for the automation control system provides the owner an Operations and Maintenance manual detailing the systems installed for that particular project.

"The contractor is then supposed to train [the building operator] on the systems and say, 'Here is what you have to know, here's how it's supposed to work,"' Frischkorn says.

Due to the complexity of the systems involved, most building control suppliers offer supplemental training and even classes at the factory for building operators that really want to know their systems and operate them to optimal efficiency. They also offer service contracts for the people that want their systems to work without having to worry about the details.

Most construction contracts have a one-year warranty, and if something doesn't work, the contractor would have to come back and fix it, Frischkorn says. This also helps with the learning process for the building operator as they learn how their building reacts to the seasons.

"Here lately commissioning is the latest and greatest thing now. They usually hire an engineer to commission the building, which essentially means to turn everything on and walk it through all of the things it's supposed to be doing and make sure it does in fact do all of those things," Frischkorn says.

RSA offers commissioning as a service, and in 2013 Frischkorn commissioned the UAF...