Enhancing smartness and interoperability of building management systems in non-residential buildings

Abstract

In smart and sustainable cities, smartness of buildings is expected to evolve. A smart building should enhance its users’ productivity and minimize its environmental impact. Although these objectives are seemingly common, the development of the smartness of buildings is actualized in the form of an incoherent combination of standards and solutions. The emergence of the IoT (Internet of Things) is expected to bring major improvements in the development of smartness, but at the same time, it may even worsen non-systematicity. Such inconsistency creates barriers to the commercialization of innovations and poses challenges to technical building management. Here, we clarify the situation between the conventional building management system approach and the IoT-based entrants. We analyze the different approaches to building automation systems’ interoperability by means of a literature review, professional interviews and smart readiness indicator impact evaluation. The study forms a general view based on the presented information and suggests approaches for specifying technical building systems, which are expected to improve their schematic clarity and reduce performance gaps of buildings. This study can be used as a practical tool by technical building managers, and it discusses issues needing consideration to the benefit of policymakers, industry and academia.