Building Automation Systems (BAS) specifications are a required piece of any building construction, upgrade or retrofit project. Typically developed by a consulting engineer, a good specification can significantly enhance the effectiveness and usability of a project. A bad specification can have serious detrimental effects on the project.
Owners desire their building projects be based upon industry best practices, such as open systems and interoperability. Open interoperable systems are based upon the principal that the technology and infrastructure are designed in such a way that the owner has greater flexibility, choices, and control over their building systems and projects and can competitively bid the initial install, future upgrades, and even the ongoing service contract. The alternate is a more vender-centric system that ties or locks the installed system to one vendor.
Open systems specifications and architectures give greater “ownership” to the owner rather than being locked into a closed or proprietary sole sourced solution. In today’s BAS market, open systems are becoming the norm and a well-educated specifier and owner can take advantage of simple specification language that helps ensure an open interoperable system in installed.
This course presents a high level view of specifications, their elements, and introduces some of the key concepts to ensure an open solution.