Technology upgrades strategy is important for BAS Systems

Technology upgrades are an important component of keeping building automation systems relevant in an ever changing world. Having a program in place within your organization can reduce the shock of technology upgrades where you only learn of changes when a device failure happens.

There are multiple items that are important to track as well as the functional relationship to mixing technology from various generations. A solid technology upgrade strategy can make the process easier.

Look around your home and where you work, paying close attention to the electronics and other technology around you. What is the oldest electronic device you have that is still in use. Most of us wouldn’t have anything more than a few years old.

Most of us no longer run Microsoft DOS operating system on our computers. Newer software has many new features that make our workflow much easier. We also don’t need to worry as much about entering the wrong character when typing a command.

Today’s computer operating systems have made the process of our work much easier by allowing us to simply point and click at something on our screen. This one simple change has greatly impacted how we work with technology.

In the world of building automation systems, there are still devices and software that originated during the Microsoft DOS and early Windows Operating System days that are still being used. Older controllers are getting harder to find and usually have questionable reliability.

Typically older devices are replaced with newer devices as the older devices fail. Before replacing the older devices with newer technology, there are a few important considerations to make as part of your technology upgrade.

Will new devices work on an old network?

There is nothing more frustrating than replacing an older device only to learn the device you replaced it with will not communicate on your network. You need to know that the newer device will speak the same language as the others.

There are various communication protocols that will not work with one another. All of the devices on a single network must speak the same language in order for them to communicate.

Don’t believe that a certain manufacturers device will work on your network just because a salesman says it will. Incorrect compatibility can bring down your entire network.

Manufacturers and their sales department are in the business of making money. Don’t just believe them if they say something will work without some type of accountability that can cover the costs in the event their product doesn’t work.

Several years ago we had an engineer who wanted to install a certain type of variable frequency drive into one of our buildings. These VFDs were much different than the ones we normally install within our system. Unfortunately, due to organizational structure at the time, we were unable to stop that type of drive from being installed.

As soon as the work was done we started experiencing communication issues. Devices that had been reliable started toggling offline which caused significant problems within the building.

The engineer brought the manufacturer in on multiple occasions to verify the VFDs. Each time they found the devices to be functioning correctly and said the issue was in our network.

We then brought in techs from our BAS supplier to verify the network and they also reported everything was working properly. I had checked the network myself multiple times and had previously come to the same conclusion.

We ended up disconnecting those VFDs from the network and the communication problems went away. Unfortunately, some of the data we needed from the VFDs was now completely unavailable.

As time passed, one of those VFDs developed another issue and we replaced it with a brand we normally used. By then, the warranty was expired and the particular engineer was out of the picture. We connected the communication for the new VFD we installed in house and had no communication issues with it.

Will new automation system software work with older devices?

The hardware of a system is only one of the considerations. The interaction of the software and the device is another very important consideration. Technology upgrades in software can cause issues with older devices.

Past versions of Metasys used a different port communication platform. At version 8.0 changes were made to move some types of communication to an encrypted port for security reasons.

When we made the upgrade to Metasys 8.1 within our system we immediately started experiencing issues with communications. NAEs and NCEs began dropping offline causing us serious issues.

The issue was narrowed down to the small frame engines, 4500 and below. Those devices were rolled back to 8.0 and that problem went away. However, there were still other issues we experienced.

Since that upgrade, a lot of the N2 systems we still have on site communicate much slower than they did. One building became so unreliable we were forced to upgrade the core building systems and put them on their own BacNet network.

All other N2 buildings still have much slower communication since that upgrade. Due to the age of the N2 devices, we are working to replace those devices as part of our technology upgrade strategy.

What happens if we don’t upgrade?

You will be making technology upgrades within your system. The only question is will those upgrades happen on your schedule or on the schedule of your system beginning to fail.

It is a mistake to ignore the fact that technology changes. There can be serious issues within a building if a failure of an older device happens within a critical system. The downtime can be much longer than expected.

For example, what would the impact be if you lost the controller for a chilled water system in the middle of summer? It would be much better to plan a device replacement in the winter when the system isn’t as critical. What about losing a hot water system controller in the middle of winter?

We recently sent some failed controllers into the repair center for examination. We took this step as part of our information gathering process to determine which buildings we should target for technology upgrades.

The repair center reported what we already suspected about the devices and the information is helping us to focus on critical areas of our buildings first.

Compare costs of new technology and older technology

The first question I always here from management when I mention upgrading a device is, “how much will it cost me?” Fortunately, it has been my experience that the cost of newer controllers has made some technology upgrades financially beneficial.

Buying some of the newer devices is actually cheaper than buying an older device from a repair center. There is also the reliability question of older devices. Even though they have gone through testing, there are still worn components within them that will eventually fail.

A central theme of any program for technology upgrades will be the overall cost. Planning to make the upgrades necessary should include setting aside funding for replacement of devices and related software. Proper budgeting for these technology upgrades will help better manage the financial impact on your organization.

Building relationships is a critical tool

Having a good working relationship between everyone involved in upgrading your system is a very helpful part of your technology upgrade strategy. I keep a calendar notification on my computer to remind me to bring up technology changes with our vendors.

The intended purpose of that discussion is to get everyone together including our IT department to ensure the server we have works with the newer versions of the software. Whenever there is a software change we review the system requirements to ensure it is still relevant.

Paying close attention to the upcoming changes in technology can give you time to modify the technology upgrades strategy you develop.