OBIWAN

Engineers Using the Internet to Control Buildings from Afar
AE Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2001
Engineers in the Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute (PSFEI) are pioneering the use of the Internet in controlling building functions from far away. Using a system called Building Automation Control Networking, or BACnet, engineers, via the Internet, can automate building functions such as heating and air conditioning and monitor and adjust control settings while off site. The BACnet system, called the Open BACnet Interoperable Wide Area Network (OBIWAN), is being implemented on a prototype scale. Like the legendary “Star Wars” movie character of the same name, OBIWAN allows engineering to manipulate things from afar—only in this instance, it’s with the Web and not the Force. PSFEI engineer David Thompson says OBIWAN is already being used experimentally in parts of the Department, as well as in buildings at Cornell University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Visitors can log onto the PSFEI web site and check out the temperature of a room in Engineering Unit B as well as the outside temperature in real time. OBIWAN controls the air handling equipment for Unit B and can tell the user when, for example, filters need to be changed. The web site also allows visitors to monitor temperatures in an aquarium and an incubator in the lab. In one corner of the Unit B room, a lamp shines toward a ceiling light sensor. The lamp can be turned on and off by anyone via the Internet. “It’s pretty amazing that people on the Pacific coast can turn the light off even before I finish saying, ‘now!’” Thompson says. He says the strengths of OBIWAN and BACnet come from their open protocol, meaning that companies who design equipment using BACnet standards are able to have their equipment interface with equipment from other companies using the same standard. Thompson says that up until a few years ago, building owners who wanted to upgrade their building controls needed to contract exclusively with their current equipment provider for conformability reasons. This meant that owners were locked into using one firm. In addition, owners could only do remote control adjustments by using specialized computer equipment. The project has gained the interest of various groups, including the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which has 27 sites with 466 buildings across the state. Rather than employing specialized maintenance personnel for each facility, the commission will soon monitor all of its buildings from its headquarters and dispatch maintenance personnel when the need arises. “All of the sites have complicated equipment,” Thompson explains. “It’s important that the historic collections are maintained in an environment conducive to their preservation.” The AE department is including BACnet in its curriculum. Architectural Engineering seniors and graduate students will learn the use of BACnet in a controls course.

Engineers Using the Internet to Control Buildings from Afar

AE Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2001

Engineers in the Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute (PSFEI) are pioneering the use of the Internet in controlling building functions from far away. Using a system called Building Automation Control Networking, or BACnet, engineers, via the Internet, can automate building functions such as heating and air conditioning and monitor and adjust control settings while off site.

The BACnet system, called the Open BACnet Interoperable Wide Area Network (OBIWAN), is being implemented on a prototype scale. Like the legendary “Star Wars” movie character of the same name, OBIWAN allows engineering to manipulate things from afar—only in this instance, it’s with the Web and not the Force.

PSFEI engineer David Thompson says OBIWAN is already being used experimentally in parts of the Department, as well as in buildings at Cornell University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Visitors can log onto the PSFEI web site and check out the temperature of a room in Engineering Unit B as well as the outside temperature in real time. OBIWAN controls the air handling equipment for Unit B and can tell the user when, for example, filters need to be changed.

The web site also allows visitors to monitor temperatures in an aquarium and an incubator in the lab. In one corner of the Unit B room, a lamp shines toward a ceiling light sensor. The lamp can be turned on and off by anyone via the Internet.

“It’s pretty amazing that people on the Pacific coast can turn the light off even before I finish saying, ‘now!’” Thompson says.

He says the strengths of OBIWAN and BACnet come from their open protocol, meaning that companies who design equipment using BACnet standards are able to have their equipment interface with equipment from other companies using the same standard. Thompson says that up until a few years ago, building owners who wanted to upgrade their building controls needed to contract exclusively with their current equipment provider for conformability reasons. This meant that owners were locked into using one firm. In addition, owners could only do remote control adjustments by using specialized computer equipment.

The project has gained the interest of various groups, including the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which has 27 sites with 466 buildings across the state. Rather than employing specialized maintenance personnel for each facility, the commission will soon monitor all of its buildings from its headquarters and dispatch maintenance personnel when the need arises. “All of the sites have complicated equipment,” Thompson explains. “It’s important that the historic collections are maintained in an environment conducive to their preservation.”

The AE department is including BACnet in its curriculum. Architectural Engineering seniors and graduate students will learn the use of BACnet in a controls course.

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