Isra-Mart srl:IBM trials advanced building management technology

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IBM Canada has announced a partnership with McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario that will see the two organisations work on an advanced building management systems that promises to help optimise building energy usage.

The computer giant will install building management software to bring together data from 60 university campus buildings, and will use physics and statisical modeling systems to analyse the information. It is hoped that analysing data from systems including heating, cooling, hot water, lighting, and running equipment will help the University identify how to reduce energy consumption.

IBM execs also signalled that the technology could provide the basis for a commercial product.

Numerous energy and software firms are currently working on automated building management systems, but IBM insists its current project promises to go beyond the basic energy use reporting offered by many software packages.

Bill Oliphant, energy services executive for IBM Canada, explained that the intelligent systems created by the McMasters and IBM work could help to cope with problems such as hysterisis - the lagging effect that causes building temperature to change slowly after thermostats alter heat settings.

"Thermostat designs do things a certain way - they tell something to heat up, and then as the building heats up again, it tells it to cool," said Oliphant, who points out that the heating and cooling of the building and the changes made by the thermostat often lag each other by signficant periods.

In contrast, he said that the new building management software could reduce temperature fluctuations to within half a degree. "You can improve the efficiency of that system by minimising histeresis," he explained.

Other areas that the software could analyse include vending machines. Why have their cooling and electrical systems switched on all the time if people are only in the area at set times, Oliphant asks?

The software modelling tools will also be used over time to help make predictions about building usage, he added.

"One challenge that university is having is that people work on odd schedules, Professors will come in at midnight," he explained. "To ensure that they have the proper airflow, the whole building has to be managed. We will look at how to isolate those things as well."