Building Management System (BMS): Get All The Insights Into It!

Buildings consume around 40% of the world’s energy. Today, facility owners want to access data that provides a clear picture of building operations, equipment, and energy efficiency opportunities. Installation of a building management system (BMS) in facilities helps to achieve these goals. They are quickly becoming the norm worldwide to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption.

When integrated with analytics platforms and powerful data mining capabilities, BMS delivers actionable insights that help to continuously monitor building systems, diagnose real problems, and quickly implement solutions. Let’s understand BMS in detail! 

What is a building management system?

A Building Management System is a computer-based system that monitors and manages the mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical services in a facility. These devices include power, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, security systems, physical access control, pumping stations, elevators, and lights. 

Also known as Building Automation System (BAS), BMS simplifies data visualization and centralizes operations in facilities. If used correctly, it can lead to energy savings, higher technical staff efficiency, increase occupancy comfort, decrease carbon footprint, and overall optimized building operations. 

Unfortunately, many small and medium-sized buildings still need to make large investments to retrofit or install a building management system. IoT connectivity solutions can provide access to BMS. 

How does a building management system work? 

Building management systems (BMS) or (BAS) are composed of five components that interact to form the “system.” 

The first type of point of information collection is a sensor that measures humidity, temperature, light, and occupancy; a fire detector; or an energy meter.

Information is communicated to the “controllers” – the brains of the operation. According to the information they receive, they send commands to all connected systems, including HVAC, lamps, and air purifiers. Commands are processed by the output devices.

All components communicate using a specific language (communication protocol), such as BACnet. Finally, operators and managers can access a dashboard from which they can manually adjust the system.

Installation of BMS in buildings can help in optimizing day-to-day operations through: 

 

• Control HVAC systems
• Monitor and manage energy usage 
• Decarbonization
• Handle real-time building operations and performance
• Fault management and alarms
• Data reporting of critical assets

The role of a building management system in ensuring optimal facility operation is impressive! It is the reason why BMS is becoming an integral part of both new construction and retrofit projects.

Why does the building management system matter? 

BMS opens up opportunities for greater automation across building operations. After all, it offers extraordinary amounts of data on what’s actually happening in a building. 

According to the “Building Management System Market Forecast 2023,” management systems in buildings can reduce energy consumption by 5-30%. Facility managers will see the results once they deploy BMS in your facility operations. 

Benefits of a building management system

In a facility, so many functions need to be taken care of – costs, comfort, control and maintenance, and environment. Ensuring an optimized building operation becomes easy with BMS. Let’s understand how it creates real value for facility managers: 

• Get a full picture of the building 

An intelligent BMS focuses on the bigger picture. It provides straightforward and actionable results. In this way, facility managers get the authority to take responsive action before the problem turns big. They will get real-time insights for: 

• Energy usage data
• Building conditions, assets, and equipment

This specific information helps in catering to clients’ needs successfully! 

• Customized report 

BMS helps in producing customized reports for enhanced business operations: It produces reports that: 

• Identify trends and show progress toward energy efficiency
• Proactively suggest solutions to complex problems
• On-demand and automatically generated at regular intervals
• Easily accessible by customers and distributed to stakeholders

With these data in hand, facility managers can identify specific areas for action-oriented changes in their buildings. 

• Streamlines internal systems 

Building management is an interconnected network. This advanced technology comes with sensors and linked devices that allow for the continuous collection and analysis of data. 

The smart sensors include: 

• Indoor air quality sensors
• HVAC controls
• Lighting controls
• Occupancy sensors
• Water, gas, and power meters

Integrating these advanced sensors with building analytics can help in creating a fully-managed, streamlined system in a facility. It ultimately helps in: 

• Prioritize alarms
• Detect and correct problems 
• Respond before repairs before they turn big 
• Prevent future inefficiencies

 

• Improved equipment uptime 

Managing building assets is another massive task. Data access to asset and equipment performance can help in maintaining system uptime. BMS alarm systems, power generators, and other smart devices help in minimizing equipment downtime, improve operational efficiencies, and reduce costs. 

• Offer energy efficiency opportunities 

The priority of every building manager is to ensure significant energy savings. Smart building management system supply all the needed information and reduce overall energy consumption in a building. Let’s understand how: 

• Keep track of energy consumption and produce energy efficiency reports
• Analyze HVAC and fan coil units and variable air volume systems to identify unnecessary heating and cooling operations and set system hours accordingly
• Provide opportunities for asset setpoint management

Creating meaningful energy and utility efficiency strategies becomes easy with BMS. 

• Proper team management

Relying on reactive equipment maintenance can lead to unplanned costs and asset downtime. It can disrupt overall building operations to a great extent! BMS helps in data-driven analysis and automation that: 

• Eliminates unnecessary maintenance 
• Monitor equipment and reduce asset breakdown 
• Improve field service efficiency 
• Allows for smaller team maintenance 

With a building management system, facility managers can meet the unique maintenance demands of every building. 

Making the most out of the BMS

Deploying a building management system in a facility is not enough. A BMS without data analytics can leave you with an unmanageable volume of data. It can create more problems instead of providing a solution. 

Using a comprehensive analytics platform with BMS can help in effectively organizing, mining, and prioritizing the data. At the same time, it delivers meaningful, user-friendly insights and identifies opportunities for overall operational efficiency in a building. 

Also, linking the building management system to cloud services helps to monitor the important parameters of a building at all times. It adjusts its major systems in accordance with changes in the climate conditions inside and outside the building. With this automation, facility managers can simultaneously improve the energy performance of the building management system. 

Deploy a building management system in your facility today!

Managing our buildings is becoming increasingly complex, and smart buildings are becoming more important. Modern building management systems play a crucial role in this. In fact, it is a vital asset for building owners. This advanced technology makes facilities easy to manage, more energy efficient, and valuable.

Facilities looking forward to incorporating all the functionalities for an optimal working environment must leverage this advanced technology. It offers intuitive reporting, intelligent alarms, and action-oriented system efficiency that helps to track, manage, and analyze building data efficiently. 

Zenatix is a leading IoT solutions provider in India that help its clients to deploy BMS in their building. Our team of professionals will help you develop a cohesive and cost-effective infrastructure for BMS. Get in touch with us today and make your building smart with our IoT solutions! 

In case of any queries, feel free to reach out to our team!