When finding something is difficult the English have a saying “it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack”. This explains the naming of Project Haystack, which is an open source initiative whose goal is to define a standardized way to interpret the data that flows from modern buildings equipped with building automation systems. “Tagging” the data enables it to be “found” and understood by application software, thereby enabling its transformation into actionable insights that help manage the building’s performance. Data tags (or meta data) provide the context and meaning that enables the data to be abstracted from the device or system it originates from. Once tagged in a standard way, management and analytic software can consistently and automatically process the data irrespective of which sub-system is comes from.
Many existing building controls installations support the BACnet IP open standard protocol, or can be upgraded to add that support. In many cases, the quality of the supervisory software can be problematic for users as it is often far from user-friendly, and unless it has been recently installed it is unlikely to offer the features now expected by operational personnel to adequately manage the system. There is therefore often a very good economic case for upgrading the supervisory software. FIN Framework can connect to all the existing BACnet IP controllers and will tag the BACnet data so that it is more useful for analytics and energy management purposes. Using FIN will provide new features such as the ability to run site-wide fault detection diagnostics (FDD) and user friendly dashboards which can compare data against baselines for improved performance assessment. As the process of custom graphics creation is semi-automated by the tagging, the process of re-creating plant schematics and floor plans is much less time consuming than with other software options, and the result will be much easier for the operations team to use on a day to day basis. For advice about such an upgrade project contact us or one of our distributors.