Why Building Management Systems?

Thirty percent. That is the amount of energy the average commercial building wastes. It also been established that buildings account for 40% of the world’s energy use. A buildings energy consumption has a big impact on climate change and business. An “intelligent building can help reduce operational and energy costs, increase productivity and make fast, accurate decisions on one’s energy strategy. The idea of an “intelligent Building” includes various systems automation for Building control, Communications, Security and fire.

One of the main area in “intelligent buildings designs’” is Building Management Systems (BMS).BMS provides automatic monitoring and management for electricity, ventilation, water supply, security and fire control. Systems managed by BMS include: Building Automation System (BAS), Security Automation System (SAS) & Fire Automation System (FAS). For detailed description of these systems you can read this comprehensive paper on the same “Heuristic View on Intelligent Building Designs as a Means to save energy.”

BMS and Control Networks save energy. Integrated BMS reduces the operational cost of a building by automatically tuning the energy consumption in accordance with occupancy profile of the building. The introduction of modem BMS can lead to significant improvements in the operational performance, energy efficiency and reliability of building services. Some claim that savings of more than 30% can be achieved by installing a BMS in an otherwise well serviced building

Building integration also encompasses access control, intruder detection, lighting, digital video, power measurements and variable speed drives. This approach lowers capital expenditures because data networks are shared, there are less computers and servers, and devices have numerous uses.  The introduction of BMS in buildings can lead to significant improvements in the operational performance, energy efficiency and reliability of building services.

In Kenya, most property owners and managers have adopted and embraced partially the idea of intelligent buildings. Most have centralized security and communications systems and little has been made use of building automation systems. Nevertheless this building technology is catching up and majority of building consultants are conscious of its importance.

There has been a shortage of indigenous BMS contractors in Kenya. Some of the contractors offering these services can be found here.