Installation technology is increasingly going digital

Installations within buildings are becoming increasingly important. The building automation industry is used to digital techniques. However, in recent years, ICT has boomed. From control technology to building automation to smart buildings. Nowadays you not only need to understand installations and control engineering, but also ICT. It is impossible to imagine installation technology without digitalization. And that with increasingly stringent laws and regulations, sustainability and the shortage of professionals. How are we going to tackle this?

For many installers, all the changes in smart buildings are difficult to keep up with. That is why partnerships are increasingly being chosen. When you choose a system integrator as a partner, they look at an integrated approach to all the installations in a building. Twenty years ago, we at Webeasy called that "the system architect. That seems to be coming true now. The installer is completely relieved during construction in terms of control engineering, integration and smart building applications using ICT technologies. The partnership reduces failure costs, with the added benefit that after completion, the infrastructure is in place and prepared to offer all kinds of services to a property owner and end user. In fact, all installation components communicate with each other and generate data.

With this data and smart software, you can, for example, control your energy consumption within the building and adjust it according to weather forecasts. For example, you can prevent solar panels from being switched off during sunny weather because of grid congestion. You use the surplus electricity for your own purposes, such as charging stations or the buffer vessels of your heat pump system. Your smart building is then a kind of micro grid in your own building, right down to the meter box. This gives your business an extra commercial drive and contributes to sustainability and prevention of grid congestion. And if several buildings together in a city do this, you get smart buildings - smart city - smart grid. That helps everyone in the energy transition.

Within buildings, everything is tracked: the functioning of the installations, energy, CO2 emissions, facility data, occupancy, cleaning and how healthy the building is. Based on big data, these reports are generated automatically. In the near future, the intention is to automatically generate improvement proposals that can be easily implemented immediately. This gives a quality boost to the functioning of the building, improves performance and also saves personnel and knowledge.

Not for nothing do we see at Webeasy that we employ more and more ICT people, in addition to those with knowledge of installation and control technology. We used to be a control technology installer, now we are a system integrator with software based on internet technology. We are increasingly moving toward the role of consultant at the front end of a design for the installer, consultant and end user.

What I foresee is that in the future a lot of repetitive work will be automated with AI. Reports on buildings will be generated automatically and serve as the basis for automatic improvement suggestions. So the building tells you what its needs are to function optimally and sustainably.  

The Pen - Rolf Huijssen – Managing director at Webeasy