A network secure and energy-efficient Building Management System has been installed by Building Environmental Control at Britannia Building Society’s headquarters in Leek, Staffordshire
For 19 years BEC has serviced the building controls at the site, where almost 2000 employees provide financial services such as mortgages, savings accounts and insurance for the Society's members.
As part of an ongoing refurbishment programme, BEC was tasked with upgrading the building control system and replacing it with modern, user-friendly technology that would generate energy savings and help to reduce running costs. BEC designed and installed an automated building controls solution, which was based on the open protocol, native BACnet technology manufactured by Delta Controls.
Delta hardware was selected because it supports the BACnet open protocol communication with other vendor’s devices. This allowed for a natural progression from the old system to the new, which was easy to commission and didn’t affect the building operation and its occupants.
Included in the upgrade was a more efficient HVAC system, operated via Variable Air Volume (VAV) controllers. By retrofitting frequency inverters to fans in the ventilation plant, BEC facilitated the variable speed control of fans to optimise efficiency. This has resulted in a significant reduction in energy consumption in excess of 38 per cent across the ventilation plant.
Local or remote adjustments
BACnet control software provided a web-based front end that connects the building automation system to Britannia’s Wide Area Network (WAN). This user-friendly technology enables facilities managers to login and monitor the status of the building controls in each vicinity, and adjust when necessary, either locally or remotely via secure network connections. This is unusual for financial organisations, says Delta, where there are stringent restrictions to the WAN due to perceived threats to network security.
“BEC successfully carried out a phased upgrade of the existing building controls system within a set time frame, this was despite the building being occupied round-the-clock,” says Barry Goodfellow, maintenance manager at Britannia headquarters. “As well as the energy and cost savings Britannia has seen, we can also be assured that the open protocol technology will not become obsolete in a few years time.”
