IT security in building automation - What contribution does BACnet make? - neue Kopie

Christian Wild did not want to accept the fact that for decades the energy required for large functional buildings such as schools, hospitals, office and administration buildings, supermarkets and warehouses had disappeared into a black hole. In order to shed light on the situation, at the age of 28 he founded Iconag in Idar-Oberstein, a software company for manufacturer-independent building control technology and energy management. Energy management, which also saw itself as a pioneer of digitalization in technical building management.

With his B-CON software (derived from Building Control), Wild has been reducing the energy requirements of large buildings and increasing the efficiency of operations management in technical building management for a good 25 years now. "If we manage buildings better, this opens up potential energy savings of 30 percent on average," he says. As an example of blatant energy wastage, he cites conference rooms that are heated and cooled at the same time because the two processes are not interlocked, as the jargon goes. Or expensive heat recovery systems have been installed in buildings that have never been put into operation. In other cases, large rooms are preheated to 20 degrees because 100 visitors are expected. "People forget that each person heats with around 100 watts through their own body heat. With 100 people, this corresponds to a heating power of 10,000 watts. It would therefore be completely sufficient to heat the room to just 17 degrees instead of 20 degrees," calculates Wild. A rule of thumb says that a saving of one degree in building heating reduces energy consumption by around six percent. This is where clever building management comes into its own. It makes it possible to access the automation stations, which report back numerous so-called data points and thus provide a kind of status quo report. The automation expert uses a five-stage pyramid to illustrate the status quo.  "The first stage covers the basics such as technology openness and IT networking. We have already reached this stage. Stage two is about understanding the
understanding the data we receive. This is a real challenge for buildings that are twenty years old or more. We are currently working on this," explains Wild. Still ahead of him are stages three (real-time recommendations to the building technology), stage four (extensive automation) and stage five (process control using artificial intelligence). The laborious beginnings of bringing all trades involved in the buildings Wild still remembers the laborious beginnings of getting all the trades involved in the buildings to be more open and transparent and to establish communication with each other. But the success proves him him right. B-CON now controls and coordinates building automation processes such as energy monitoring, schedule management or alarm and event management in more than 10,000 properties worldwide. The better individual buildings or entire building portfolios are networked and the different digital systems - for example for temperature measurement, fault detection or meter reading - interact, the greater the energy savings and the lower the CO2 emissions.

The technology to create open interfaces for such a form of communication form of communication in building management was there early on. There early on. But the persistence of the trade not to opt for this not to open up to this communication was initially very strong," says Wild. The fact that these open interfaces were able to establish themselves was not least due to the pressure pressure from the operators of large real estate portfolios, who recognized the savings potential. Wild expects a similar dynamic from the requirements of the Building Energy Act (GEG), which come into force on January 1, 2025. come into force. For large functional buildings with a thermal output of more than 290 kilowatts will then require a functioning building management system with open interfaces and trained trained personnel will be mandatory. "It is of great importance, to recognize the opportunities and to make them usable for the current challenges. challenges. The right mix of engineers and mix of engineers and practitioners is immensely important," says Wild. He relies on engineers from electrical engineers, supply engineers and computer scientists for software engineering. There are also electricians, heating engineers and IT specialists. "The boundaries are currently blurring the boundaries," says Wild. "The term 'engineer' is broader today broader than traditional university education. Due to the free availability of information the competence of practitioners has grown considerably. Many now work similar to engineers today."