Rapidly advancing digitalization in building technology is changing the vision for buildings of the future. They are becoming networked, energy self-sufficient and flexible. Above all, they are becoming smart. By Helmut Macht, CTO, Siemens Building Technologies
Look at almost any industry and you will see evidence of digital transformation. Digitalization is changing markets. It is creating new competitors and business models. In building technology, it is fundamentally changing the way buildings will be planned, constructed, used and, ultimately, managed.
The new age of digitalization is making smart buildings a reality
Buildings are a big expense item on a company’s balance sheet and making them smart can generate enormous benefits. Accounting for more than 40% of global energy consumption, their operating costs make up some 80% of their total lifecycle cost. Lighting, ventilation, heating and security control systems along with efficient, automatic monitoring, therefore, are important levers in optimizing a business’ built assets.
Traditionally, building planning has been carried out separately by different planning consultants, mechanical, electrical, plumbing etc. This lack of coordination often results in the creation of severe problems during the construction phase. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is centered on developing the entire building with all its disciplines first on a computer and then simulating, testing and, if needed, correcting it in a virtual model. This makes it easy to eliminate any errors or inconsistencies. Having a complete virtual and then physical model is referred to as “digital twins.”
Planning across various disciplines at the same time enables a coordinated, multi-discipline solution to be created with early verification of detailed design choices to optimize building performance. This joined-up approach will show whether an additional door or window, for example, will affect future evacuation scenarios, comfort or heating costs. The result is a more cost-effective, straightforward and sustainable building design and construction process that results in a safer and more efficient building.
Today’s networking capability and virtually unlimited computing power and storage provided by the Cloud enable a completely digitalized building lifecycle process. Indeed, an ever increasing number of public construction and infrastructure projects now require BIM and, at the EU level, its introduction has already been decided. The challenge still stands, however, to put in place the appropriate process steps to bring together the numerous fragmented stakeholders who each have different interests – including the companies and people who work on the individual processes or disciplines within a building. Other barriers to fully optimize building design with BIM include the comparatively high purchase costs of suitable software tools, a lack of standards and interfaces, and the limited number of manufacturers that, to date, have been able to provide BIM-compatible data for their components. Furthermore, “digital” planning and simulation are typically neither budgeted nor reflected in the project fee schedules.
A connected world
The Internet of Things – the connecting of machines, devices, components, sensors, actuators and other objects – is another important building block for digitalization. Converging real and digital worlds is the foundation for offering new user centric applications and for creating new digital services. Remote service solutions, for instance, make it possible to detect and correct component problems quickly and efficiently from virtually anywhere. With devices communicating their status and health, new concepts for preventive maintenance can be implemented to minimize downtimes and maintain business continuity.
Buildings generate a lot of information. This “Big Data”, however, requires intelligent evaluation and analysis to produce meaningful operational and economic insights and to understand trends and patterns in user behavior or consumption. With the right analytics tools, the input of human expertise and, in future, machine learning strategies the continuous optimization of buildings can be achieved. Together with sophisticated self-optimization functions, this forms a central “nervous system” that makes buildings smart.
A perfectly balanced indoor environment, in terms of lighting, air quality, temperature and humidity, satisfies building users and has a positive impact on productivity. Smart buildings are also more energy efficient and help to meet the increasing call for “zero net energy buildings”.
Smart buildings not only consume energy but also generate it by using local photovoltaics systems, wind power or combined heat and power plants (CHP). By forecasting the weather, user demand and power consumption, smart buildings can optimize energy consumption and procure energy preferably when it is available at a reasonable rate. Today’s cloud-based building and energy management platforms from Siemens are important approaches towards this goal.
The future building
Digitalization will take buildings to new levels of efficiency, security and comfort. Having sensors everywhere and fully evaluating their data, buildings will respond intelligently to their environment and leverage their benefits over the long term in conjunction with other buildings and infrastructures (“smart grids”).
Open platforms and data based applications will become a central factor in the transformation of building technology. Digitalization will mean classic competitive situations will give way to more complex constellations where, through a network of partnerships and alliances, companies will contribute to joint ecosystems but at the same time act as competitors. It also means that partnerships between traditional industrial enterprises and large IT players can lead to new market offerings. The alliance between the Siemens Building Technologies Division and IBM that enables new building performance services is an example for this development.
For further information on the Building Technologies Division, please see www.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies
