Automated reports in Building Automation Systems
The ability to automate your workload is a big advantage of newer technology. Automated reports can be configured to send data to people who need it instead of investing time and manpower into pulling the information manually.
Data analytics is becoming much more significant in the decision making strategy of organizations. Various organizations invest a lot of resources into data collection to ensure the information they use is as accurate as possible.
Building automation systems are becoming more complex as new technologies are developed. Allowing the technology to filter the information is one way to increase efficiency of data collection and streamline your process.
Consider automated reporting when selecting system components
Automated reports in a building automation system are made easier if the components of the system are selected properly with reporting in mind. Each of the system components should be able to easily share data with each other. For example, adding controllers to your system that share a limited amount of data on the network will make data collection more of a challenge.
Older building automation systems may share limited data. For example, we have some older systems within certain buildings chilled water systems that transfer data from a flow meter to a Johnson Controls DX 9100 using an analog input on the DX driven by an output board on the flow meter.
The flow meters were Onicon System 1 devices. Due to the age of those meters and in order for us to ensure we had accurate data about our chilled water usage we invested in upgrading them. Investing in newer technology and having a technology upgrade program will help keep your system relevant as new technologies are developed.
As part of the flowmeter replacement, we selected devices that have the capability to communicate directly on a BacNet field bus instead of transferring information to another device using analog signals. The newer meters share much more information directly to the system and we are able to use that information for automated reports.
How we use automated reports
It is possible to set up custom reporting for a significant of information within the system. Utility usage is a significant component of energy management. The information you gather can be used to guide investments to reduce energy and utility usage.
We track chilled water usage as well as other utility information within all of our buildings. Part of that information gathering required us to physically read each meter within a building and recording the information manually. As you can imagine, this process can be very time consuming and limit the time we have for other projects.
The way we use our automated reports is to generate utility usage logs directly from Metasys MUI instead of physically reading the meters. We have our energy management system configured to automatically email usage information to the appropriate people at the beginning of the month.
Problems with automated reports
The first issue you will have with automated reports is deciding what information you should automate. It is easy to become overloaded with useless data. It is important to consider the most important information you need and begin building your automated reporting strategy from there.
Another issue is that you will quickly see the areas where you may need to invest in technology. You may consider investment into newer technology to help solve those issues. Automated reports are very effective at increasing efficiency and simplifying data collection.