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With building sophistication comes the need for a BAS to allow for nearly seamless operation of various interrelated equipment.
The bigger the building, the more sophisticated the building systems become. With the advent of smart building technology, heating, cooling, electrical, lighting, security, and other systems need monitoring and intercommunication for optimized efficiency and operation. With sophistication comes the need for a BAS to allow for nearly seamless operation of various interrelated equipment. Each manufacturer's BAS has its own protocol for monitoring conditions and communicating operational directives to maintain the proper building environment and efficiency.
Like a BAS, fire protection and life safety systems have evolved into sophisticated computer-based systems, requiring the use of a fire detection and alarm system control panel to allow monitoring, communication, and proper operation when an emergency arises. Often fire protection and life safety systems must interact with other building systems to provide a proper level of protection.
While the fire alarm system is fully capable of performing the necessary actions to accomplish the building systems' responses, there can be some efficiencies accomplished by using the BAS, including minimizing additional equipment, expediting system acceptance testing, reducing installation costs, sharing, and consolidating information at a central location where the mechanical equipment can be precisely monitored during emergency incidents.
Smoke control systems are a good example of the marriage of building mechanical systems with fire protection/life safety systems. Fans are starting or stopping; dampers are opening or closing; doors are closing, opening, or unlocking; elevators are being recalled. Both the BAS and fire alarm systems have jobs to do, but, like dancing, someone has to lead. It seems that the BAS is the natural choice under these circumstances, but there are issues that must be recognized and reconciled.
Systems integration
There are several things to consider when determining whether a BAS should be used to control the smoke control system. One would be the ability of the various systems that normally have independent network communications to have a common communications. It is advantageous to have the fire alarm system, BAS, and other related systems share a common infrastructure network to facilitate communication and redundancy. This also can have the benefit of cost savings.
Another consideration is the acceptability of the BAS to control...