Define, Design, and Deliver a More Effective Smart Building Strategy
Part Three of a Four-Part Series
Smart buildings offer building owners and facilities managers (FMs) a number of advantages when it comes to building operations. To fully realize these capabilities, building owners and managers must determine the advantages they want to see delivered well before the design process begins. As we explained in our previous article, clearly defining how occupants will experience and interact with a building allows a design team to identify the specific technologies and integrations that will enable the desired building experiences.
With clearly defined use cases in hand, the design team can select the appropriate technology and level of integration needed to deliver the desired amenities and functional features. When done right, this design work can prevent overspending on technology, avoid the need for change orders during construction, and ensure the project is delivered as designed. Yet, getting this design right can be a challenge.
Smart building technology integration can be tremendously complex. The more integration desired, the more complex this design work becomes. This is where smart building goals sometimes lose momentum. Because smart building systems have the potential to touch virtually every other system within a building, traditional architecture and engineering partners are not always equipped to handle the required level of detail on top of their other design responsibilities.
Instead, these systems are best designed by a professional who can take a holistic approach to system design. This approach can ensure buildings deliver expected functionality – and overcome the funding and installation obstacles that can otherwise derail smart building projects.
How smarter design can lower system costs
As we explained in the previous article, smart buildings offer significant advantages in making building operations more cost-effective, sustainable, and resilient. Yet many building owners shy away from smart building technology solutions due to their higher upfront cost, sacrificing the potential for long-term savings through more efficient building operations.
So, owners and FMs alike might be surprised to find that a smart building technology consultant can identify opportunities to lower upfront construction costs through informed design strategies.
In a typical design scenario, each individual technology system is specified to deliver a specific benefit. For example, a security system will be designed with sensors that deliver visibility into key property areas. These sensors might be installed adjacent to occupancy sensors that turn off lighting when the room is not in use. With a holistic design approach that focuses on functionality first, your smart building technology consultant can identify areas where a single system – or in this case, sensor – can deliver functionality to multiple systems.
With one sensor triggering lighting and security functions, activating shades, and adjusting temperature, among other functions, FMs can gather data on occupancy, activity patterns, temperature, daylighting, and other building data. The same may be true of the cabling that connects systems. For example, Power over Ethernet (PoE) networks can be used to power intelligent lighting solutions and serve as data transmission systems.
Through strategies like these, a smart building consultant can rein in upfront construction costs and long-term maintenance costs, even as they expand system functionality.
Smart technology designs can secure project funding
In some cases, a deeply integrated smart building technology design can further lower capital expenditures by helping secure project funding. Because well-integrated systems allow FMs to move further on their sustainability goals, some local governments and utilities have proven willing to pay for some of the building owners’ energy reduction investments.
For example, state Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs allow commercial and industrial property owners to fund projects that will reduce water and energy costs with little or no capital outlay. Through these programs, owners can access private, affordable, long-term financing not available through traditional funding avenues, to pay for eligible water conservation, energy efficiency and resiliency projects.
Building owners have also leveraged energy-efficient performance to secure grants made available through the Inflation Reduction Act. Tax credits and deductions, such as the 179D commercial buildings energy-efficiency tax deduction, can further reduce the burden of initial technology costs. Some local utility providers also offer rebates for the installation of smart building technology.
In most cases, the key to accessing this funding is a detailed smart building design that demonstrates clear benefits and details expected costs.
Why smart buildings need a new design approach
Smart building technology has the potential to touch every aspect of a building – from heating and cooling to lighting systems, access control, security, audio-visual solutions, plumbing, and more. In many cases, these systems can share sensors and cabling, reducing the amount of technology installed through carefully designed integrations. When designed well, these systems can bring data together into a centralized control system that gives building owners and managers powerful performance insight that can be used to enhance operations and reduce costs.
To get these advantages, smart building system designs must include specific details on how every system is expected to interact. This design process is similar to the broader programming stage of architectural design, during which your architect uses information about how building occupants will function in a space to determine a building’s layout. However, the level of detail required of a useful smart building design is far beyond what an architect would be expected to manage.
Because smart building technology has the potential to impact every aspect of a building, this process is best performed by a smart building technology consultant who can work with partners spanning MEP engineering, IT, security, and facilities management. A smart building consultant is best equipped to bridge siloes to ensure that mechanical equipment “speaks” in the same communication protocol as the lighting control system, for example.
Building owners and managers are best served by a consultant who can serve as a team player, capable of working alongside all of these different groups while advocating for operational solutions that will best serve the project. The right smart technology consultant can help connect partners to ensure systems are integrated, identify opportunities to lower upfront costs, and ensure defined building user experiences are delivered by construction partners.
What to expect from smart building design documentation
To be effective, smart buildings require an investment in creating the technical documentation needed to define how systems must connect. Any gray areas or gaps in documentation will inevitably cost money later on. Without an appropriate level of detail in your design documents, your contractors aren’t going to deliver what you’re expecting, and there is no contractual way to hold them accountable for not delivering. As a result, it’s essential to ensure that your conversations on building experience are translated into design documentation by an experienced professional.
There are four essential areas of documentation where you can expect to receive support from your smart building technology consultant:
- A basis of design narrative: This documentation will outline all of the user experiences your smart building is expected to create, as gathered through the “define” stage of smart building design.
- Division 25 specification: This document spells out the level of integration required between every piece of hardware and software going into your facility to achieve your desired use cases. It also includes details on specific types of network cabling and systems to install. A smart building technology consultant can ensure the Division 25 specification refers appropriately to other specifications. This coordination will help contractors install these integrated systems as designed.
- Construction drawings. Getting this documentation right is essential for receiving a bid that accurately reflects the costs of your smart building systems.
- As-built documentation: More advanced technology can be simpler to maintain, with appropriate as-built documentation. This documentation serves as the foundation for historic data on system installation, maintenance, and replacement across the life of your building. More FMs are accessing this data via 3D models or digital twins that allow for constant monitoring and advanced simulation.
Standardize smart design across your portfolio
For FMs with responsibility for a portfolio of properties, an additional level of documentation can further simplify installation and maintenance. Smart building technology design standards provide detail into components, including specific part numbers and expected end of life.
This standardization is essential for ensuring technology solutions work effectively together. Standardization can also reduce operational costs by ensuring equipment can be purchased through existing contracts. The result is better preventive maintenance, a simpler replacement process, and faster design and construction for future buildings within your portfolio.
When done well, your smart building technology standards can serve as a living document that evolves with your real estate portfolio and technology upgrades.
Conclusion
A well-executed smart building technology design serves as an effective guide for the contractors bringing your building to life. Given the speed with which technology is changing, this guidance is essential as not all contractors may have experience in smart building technology installation. A detailed design is a good first step in ensuring you get the performance you expect. Yet, as we’ll explore in our next article, this guidance must be extended through the construction phase to prevent contractors from falling back on familiar installation strategies.
A smart building technology expert can help building owners and facilities managers see this process through and realize the full potential of their smart building solutions.