Genzyme Corp. is diligent about telling the world its story. Even its new corporate headquarters building in Cambridge, Mass., proclaims the message—that the biotech company makes its money by being kind to life. The 12-story building expresses this message through the automation running quietly behind the scenes. Not only does the automation keep the company’s operating, maintenance and energy costs low, but it also creates a “green,” but functional work environment.

Although most companies are not quite as green as Genzyme Center in their approach, a growing number are relying on automation to control the climates inside their facilities, contain rising energy costs and enhance productivity. “Over the last five to 10 years, building automation has expanded beyond climate control to include lighting and other forms of energy consumption,” says Mark Liston, director of Schneider Solutions at Schneider Electric North America, Palatine, Ill., a vendor specializing in power, control, automation and energy services.

Distributed strategy

Lights, temperature sensors and other smart devices plug into controllers on each floor, and each of these controllers are connected to the network. Because the distributed strategy eliminates the need to run a wire from each smart device to the central controller, these decentralized floor controllers significantly reduce the amount of field wiring required. “Open systems like LON, BACnet, and the emerging Ethernet-based Web technologies have given owners the ability to integrate systems together at less cost,” notes Liston. LON and BACnet are popular architecture standards for building automation.

Besides making it economical to compensate for the temperature variations that occur throughout the day, the distributed strategy gives the company the best of both worlds of local and global control. It lets employees adjust the climate and lights to their needs and preferences, yet it ties the controllers together at a master station. So rather than having to go to the different areas in the building to determine their status, one person can view the entire facility from a central location.

The distributed network also made it practical for TAC to integrate parts of the security and safety apparatus into Genzyme’s building automation. The facilities management system, for example, monitors carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and adjusts the ventilation to keep the concentrations of these gases at appropriately low levels. The system also receives input from a combination of occupancy sensors, surveillance cameras and door controls such as access-card scanners. Using input from these devices, the automation tailors the utilities to actual occupancy, shutting off the lights and turning down the HVAC system automatically when no one is there.

“It could be in meeting rooms that are used only certain times of the day or an entire floor during the off-hours,” explains Liston. “Without controls, there is no way to reduce energy usage based on occupancy or use.” The controls that Genzyme has installed conserve at the appropriate times automatically without management’s having to badger employees to shut the lights off or turn down the heat.

Another benefit of distributed control is that the automation measures and tracks the cost of the utilities that each operating unit consumes. It therefore can allocate the actual cost to each unit. “Accurate energy metrics are critical in driving behavioral changes as part of an overall energy-reduction program,” says Liston. “It’s difficult to motivate people to save energy without giving them a benchmark.” And the conventional method of rolling the cost of utilities into overhead and allocating them by floor space doesn’t do that.

Factory benefits too

The office isn’t the only place where building automation can give the bottom line a nice boost. More manufacturers are using it to reap similar returns in the factory. Not only does good lighting and a comfortable climate affect personal productivity there too, but it also is a crucial control parameter for the processes in certain sectors. In ...