Four industry experts shared what's new on the market versus controllers that use BACNet as the main protocol.
by Alejandra García Vélez
The main feature of the BACNet-based digital controls is that by using an open protocol, interoperability between different brands is allowed, it has great ease of integration, and flexibility in networks. That is why in this edition of ACR LATINOAMÉRICA four leading companies in the industry will share some news of their companies as well as their perspectives before the current reality of this market sector.
Victor Orozco, regional field support manager for Latin America at Johnson Controls; Mr. Ruben Rodriguez Diaz, regional account manager for Latin America at KMC Controls; Efrén Márquez Rodríguez, head of technical support and sales of efficiency control systems for Latin America at Honeywell; and Elsa Yanez, regional distributor manager for Alerton, Novar and Honeywell are the guests for this article.
Advantages
For starters, among the features of BACNet-based digital controls is the versatility to share information between different controller manufacturers. It is also important to note that BACNet is supported by ASHRAE (American Society of Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Heating) as explained by Victor Orozco. "This protocol has been adopted by different companies to establish certain types of multi-brand integration and interoperability. The philosophy is that end customers are not tied to a long-term relationship by having selected a certain product line or brand," added the Johnson Controls official.
Efrén Márquez, for his part, said that in general the devices under this protocol are versatile, efficient, reliable and intuitive. "When we talk about a communication protocol like BACnet, intrinsically we are talking about it being 'networkable', that is, it works in a network," he said.
Elsa Yanez added that the secret to achieving the highest level of integration is that the devices are native to BACNet, that is, that they only speak and understand this protocol. "They can count on communication bridges with other protocols like Modbus, but the main one must be BACnet," he said.
Ruben Rodríguez was categorical in stating that "BACnet is the only truly open protocol, it is not a chip, it is an instruction developed by a multidisciplinary team with representatives of numerous corporations, universities, governments and users. Today it is the leading standard in HVAC in the USA, there is no more discussion on the subject. Proprietary protocols are still the majority but BACnet's growth is almost exponential and will not take long to overcome them."
Controls
When questioning the interviewees about the trends that currently exist in terms of automation, we find that the main thing is to establish better control routines that allow an adequate administration of the energy that the different facilities consume. "Customers want a return on investment that is feasible, but at the same time meets standards known as that of Green Buildings," said Victor Orozco.
However, Orozco said that the economic reality of Latin America affects in some way the implementation of these systems, since the technology used in this type of project requires a considerable initial investment that many construction companies or developers are not willing to do. "Either way our market is becoming more informed and educated. This helps a lot to penetrate this type of strategy," he concluded.
On the other hand, Efrén Marquez stressed that BACnet and Lonworks continue to be a widely used option. "Definitely, communication via TCP/IP, such as the Internet and wireless solutions are the trend to follow," he said. He also indicated that "in Latin America we are still a little behind, however, thanks to the globalization and internationalization of technology-creating companies, this technology is reaching us on time and has had a good penetration and acceptance."
Elsa Yanez also contributed her point of view, according to her the main trends include increasing interoperability including communication through web services, wireless strategies and controllers with web servers included, increasingly smaller, powerful and with greater connection capacity.
"Latin America is getting closer to what is happening in the United States, Europe and Asia. Globalization has greatly helped to bridge that gap. Now you can buy many products online to bring them to our markets, however, you have to take into account the spare parts, the support of the brand and its trajectory so as not to buy things that do not have a backup, "said Yanez.
The issue of figures is sensitive for companies, yet the interviewees shared some of the expectations that their respective companies have for this year. Elsa Yanez thinks that the market for digital controls in Latin America is growing at a moderate but steady rate and states that the region has in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina the largest markets, followed by Colombia and Ecuador. For his part, Rodriguez expects significant growth compared to last year, which was quite difficult, and expects that sales levels that were before 2009 will be reached.
News
A fundamental part of the advances in this area are the new products developed by the leading companies in the market. In this article we have some examples. To begin with, Victor Orozco of Johnson Controls highlights that recently with version 5.0 of the Metasys platform, the way they communicate with other brands has increased to have a more stable network with more speed of data deployment on workstations.
This control communicates with commonly accepted standards in automation, it also has a web-based user interface that allows access from any compatible browser, also supports up to 32 field controllers on an N2 bus, Network LonWorks ® or BACnet ® MS / TP bus, in addition it was tested by the BACnet Test Laboratory and certificates and certified as a BACnet construction controller.
On the side of KMC Controls we find the BACNet Building Controller (B-BC) which is a native BACnet digital controller of high performance. It includes a BACnet router, web server and I/O expandable up to a total of 128 inputs and 72 outputs. Communication capacity with Ethernet, RS-232, 2 RS-485 subnets for 127 BACnet controllers each, all accessible directly via the Internet using the browser included in the controller itself.
Efrén Márquez Rodríguez of Honeywell highlighted that they have on the market, three BACnet controllers of the Spyder family. One unit plant controller (PUB) and two others for mostly variable air volume (PVB) applications. Both programmable and adaptable for any type of control and automation of HVAC systems.
Elsa Yanez commented on some Alerton products; He spoke about the VLCA-1688, which is an advanced application controller, according to the BACnet architecture (B-AAC). It has a real-time clock that allows it to be installed as a standalone controller, 12-bit high-resolution in its analog-digital-analog converter and a 32-bit processor. It features Ethernet connectivity, Auto-Manual-Out switches and processes complex mathematical functions. As a B-AAC level controller, the controller integrates with any BACnet network. Supports BACnet/Ethernet 10Base-T and 100Base-Tx or BACnet/IP. It communicates up to 115.2 Kbps on the BACnet MS/TP LAN network.
