Enterprise Control Data as part of Life-Cycle Automation

Written for an another 
area:

 

Not exactly formulated as a use case, but 
describes one type of process I would like to use an oBIX for.

 

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Three major activities affect to the long term operating costs of the 
building. These are (1) a complete building inventory, delivered from the design 
and construction process, (2) systems modeling, the outcome of design and a 
requirement to produce a green building, and ongoing operations data.  If the taxonomies surrounding these 
activities can be unified, it will greatly simplify managing the entire building 
lifecycle 

 

With the GSA mandate that AECXML be used for all submittals starting in 
FY2006, the way is clear to receive a complete inventory of building systems and 
equipment electronically. At each stage of the design process, we should receive 
in machine-readable format the design goals and the equipment inventory for the 
building.

 

The latest versions of the CAD systems in use by the vast majority of 
architects now support or will soon support modeling of building systems as well 
as generating GBXML directly from those modeled drawings.  As we align these taxa (AECXML and 
GBXML),  we should be able to verify 
several key points:

 

  
Design goals captured in early submittals can be 
  compared to the behaviors modeled during the Green Building process.

  
Modeled behaviors exist for all systems of 
  interest inventoried in the design submittals

  
All systems modeled actually end up in the 
  construction documents

 

The first step upon completion of a building should be a complete testing 
and verification that the components of the building are in place and that they 
operate as designed.  This process, 
known as commissioning, is the only way to know that the building you have 
bought is the building you wanted.  
Traditionally, commissioning has suffered from commissioning agents 
receiving incomplete information as to what to commission as well as lacking 
tools to adequate verify that the behavior of installed systems meet the initial 
design goals of the project.

 

The first of these problems is solved by the requirement of AECXML 
submittals for all work during design and construction.  These submittals provide a complete and 
machine-readable inventory of all aspects of the building, including those 
requiring commissioning.  Future 
versions of AECXML should be tuned to enhanced to optimize this function 

 

With a new meta-taxon above the nitty-gritty of the controls and oriented 
towards performance, it would be possible to verify that the operations of the 
building systems meet the goals (1) as stated in the design submittals and (2) 
 as modeled during the green 
building process.  It is a design 
goal of oBIX to support this functionality, that is to be able to verify system 
performance out of operating data.

 

Improved verifiable timely commissioning within harmonized taxa for 
Design & Construction, for System Modeling, and for System Operation will 
enable feedback to the A&E community to improve the design process.  It will also aid the construction 
community by providing a means or rapid acceptance of buildings, and therefore 
of rapid payment for buildings.

 

An ongoing benefit of this model is that the operating data provided once 
for performance analysis during commissioning continues to be available every 
day.  As these processes become more 
automated, they become the basis for continuous commissioning, wherein the 
performance of building subsystems can be verified every day.

1.      
Systems can be repaired when they begin to drift out 
of control, not when they fail. Such repairs would be when convenient and during 
scheduled outages. This will improve tenant satisfaction while forfending 
expensive emergency repairs and overtime.

2.      
R&R Models can be developed based upon peak 
performance rather than upon impending failure.

3.      
It will be possible to build defensible definitions 
of LEEDs compliance for existing 
buildings.

 

 

=================================================== 
Toby Considine      ! "Do the right thing. It will 
UNC Chapel Hill     ! gratify some people and 
Chapel Hill, NC     ! astonish the rest." 
Phone 
(919)962-9073 ! 
Fax 
(919)962-1102   
!            --Mark Twain 
  ! 
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