In an earlier post, I said that many building owners would be better off reviewing and modifying the programming of an existing BAS rather than replacing it. In time, though, a building owner will forced to change out an older BAS for a new system. Maybe the installing contractor is gone, the electronics have failed, or maybe the passwords and documentation are missing and no one can get in. Or, perhaps most commonly, the software is no longer supported by anyone.
Vendors will promote a life expectancy of 20 years, and most likely the hardware will survive, but these days I'm skeptical that the software support will be in place as long as it was in the 90s. BAS manufacturers, like other tech vendors, are finding it advantageous to speed up software life cycles to stimulate equipment replacement. Think for a moment about Microsoft. Windows XP was released in 2001 and remained the standard for about 9 years. Then came Windows 7 for less than 4 years, and now we are being forced to upgrade to Windows 8. The hardware that ran XP can't run Windows 8, and much of the Windows 7 hardware can't do it either. And Apple is even worse, with a forced hardware / software renewal cycle no longer than 3 years.
So what do you do when you've hit the wall and you have to throw some money at your BAS? I'm going to suggest working with an independent controls expert, not a contractor or a vendor, to help you minimize your upgrade investment and at the same time "future-proof" your new system as much as possible.
Minimizing the hardware cost comes down to re-using as much as possible. That means keeping any working sensors and actuators, wiring, conduit, enclosures, and possibly even field controllers (if you're lucky) that can be integrated into the new system . Your expert can sort out what's re-usable and what's not.
Future-proofing is a little more complicated. Past BAS systems were monolithic designs that were incompatible with one another. That's no longer the case, but it's also true that BAS systems are nowhere near as standardized as personal computers. That said, you can take steps to ensure that you will have a range of choices when it comes time to add on or replace individual devices. When you need to replace the user interface software, you will be able to replace only the software and programming, led high bay lighting fixture wholesale in place. To me, that means finding the most broadly-accepted standard and buying equipment that conforms to it, which means choosing equipment certified by BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL) for adherence to the BACnet communications protocol.
It's important to understand that a claim of BACnet compliance is not enough, and this is where your expert comes in. There are degrees of compliance, and vendors have been guilty of producing hardware that is only minimally compliant in order to protect their market position. Devices that are only partly compatible with one another are useless to you ... they may as well be completely non-standard. BTL fills the role of certifying devices that are fully compliant, and publishes a list. As always, the devil is in the details , which are technically involved and can be daunting for the layman. An independent expert will cost some money up front, but the future savings of money, time, and hassles will be well worth it.
Now I'd like to ask the Noesis community to chip in on this, especially anyone with experience interconnecting led high bay lighting fixture wholesale from different vendors. Is there a competitive market emerging in device replacement? And are engineers or building owners starting to trust BTL certification to take advantage of market competition?
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