Author: buildtrack-admin

A breakdown of phase-cut, analog, and DALI dimming — and how BuildTrack extends DALI scenes beyond lighting to AC, fans, and media.

Why Dimming Is a Design Decision, Not an Afterthought

Most lighting plans stop at fixture choice and layout — but the ability to dim is what actually lets a space serve more than one purpose. A conference room that dims for a presentation, a dining area that shifts from daytime brightness to evening warmth, a bedroom that goes from full task lighting to a low glow at night — none of that is possible without a dimming method built into the fixture from the start.

Getting this right matters for four practical reasons:

• Energy efficiency — lower brightness draws less power, directly reducing lighting-related energy costs.
• Extended fixture lifespan — LEDs run cooler and degrade slower at reduced output, cutting replacement frequency.
• Comfort — matching light levels to the task reduces eye strain, particularly in spaces used for long stretches.
• Mood and flexibility — the same room can support entirely different uses across a day without re-lighting it.

How LED Drivers Handle Dimming

LED drivers regulate the power delivered to LED fixtures, and dimming capability lives at this level rather than in the bulb itself. Drivers are broadly either Constant Voltage (typical for LED strips) or Constant Current (typical for COB lights) — which type you need depends on the fixture, not personal preference.

Three dimming protocols cover most installations: phase-cut, analog (0-10V), and DALI (digital). Each has a different cost, wiring requirement, and dimming quality — the right choice depends on whether you’re retrofitting an existing space or wiring a new one.

Phase-Cut Dimming

Adjusts brightness by modifying the power supply itself — the same method long used with incandescent and halogen bulbs, now adapted for LEDs via compatible drivers.

Pros: easy to retrofit into existing wiring, cost-effective, works with a wide range of existing dimmer switches.

Cons: can flicker or have compatibility issues with certain LEDs (test per fixture), offers a less precise dimming range, and can produce audible noise in some setups.

Analog (0-10V) Dimming

Controls brightness by adjusting DC voltage or current directly in the driver string.

Pros: smoother, more consistent control than phase-cut; well suited to new installations with dedicated control wiring.

Cons: requires control wiring running from the driver back to the switch — difficult to add in a retrofit where new wiring isn’t an option.

DALI Dimming

A fully digital protocol that sends commands over a shared bus, built on an open standard for interoperability across manufacturers.

Pros: the smoothest control available, especially at very low dimming levels; supports individual or grouped dimming; enables scene-based control across multiple fixtures at once.

Cons: DALI drivers cost more than phase-cut or analog equivalents, and standard DALI scenes are typically limited to lighting — AC, fans, and media devices aren’t natively included.

BuildTrack extends this last limitation directly: its scene engine brings AC, fan, and media control into the same DALI-based scenes as lighting, so a single scene trigger — “Meeting Mode,” “Evening,” “Presentation” — can shift the whole room at once rather than lighting alone.

Choosing the Right Method for Your Space

Retrofitting an existing space without new wiring generally points toward phase-cut. A new build with dedicated control wiring can support analog or DALI. Where scene control across multiple fixture types — not just lighting — matters, DALI is the only one of the three that supports it, and it’s the protocol BuildTrack’s touch switches are built around: dimming, tuning, scene creation, scheduling, and color adjustment from one interface.

A practical guide to fixing the most common causes of wasted air conditioning energy in Indian offices — with a real deployment case study.

Why Air Conditioning Dominates Your Office Energy Bill

Every office runs on a mix of lighting, computers, and other equipment — but air conditioning is almost always the single largest line item on the energy bill, typically accounting for 35-50% of total office energy consumption.

Most offices don’t run one AC system — they run several, often different ages, brands, and types (window units, split units, and VRV/VRF systems) scattered across cabins, open seating areas, server rooms, and conference rooms. Each one is usually controlled independently — by an individual’s IR remote, or in the case of older window units, directly at the power supply.

That decentralization is exactly where the waste creeps in.

5 Ways Offices Waste AC Energy Without Realizing It

Studies of typical commercial deployments show that 10-30% of the energy consumed by office ACs is wasted on cooling that nobody is actually using. Here’s where it comes from:

ACs Left Running in Vacant Rooms

Without occupancy detection, a conference room or cabin AC keeps cooling long after the last person has left.

No After-Hours Scheduling

ACs that aren’t tied to a schedule frequently stay on well past closing time, cooling an empty office overnight.

Set Points Below the Efficient Range

Every degree below 24°C increases AC power consumption by roughly 3-5%. Multiply that across dozens of units set to 18-20°C by individual preference, and the losses compound fast.

Multiple Units Fighting Each Other in One Space

Without room-level temperature monitoring, it’s common for two or three ACs to run in the same space when one would do the job — because no single system is coordinating them.

No Control During Peak Tariff Periods

Most offices have no easy way to shut down or throttle ACs during peak electricity rate windows, even though that’s when the cost per unit of cooling is highest.

Why Most Offices Don’t Fix This

The waste is well understood — so why does it persist? In our experience working with facility teams, it usually comes down to two assumptions:

• “Our office is already finished — we can’t run new wiring for a smart system.”
• “Our existing ACs are too old / from too many brands to bring into one system.”

Both are reasonable concerns, but neither is actually a blocker. Modern retrofit control layers — wireless or using a single existing wire loop — can bring a mixed fleet of ACs from different brands and vintages under one system without re-wiring or altering the finished aesthetics of the space.

Case Study: Centralizing AC Control at a Medical College in Kolkata

To make this concrete, here’s how BuildTrack solved this exact problem for R.G. Kar Medical College, a medical school and hospital in Kolkata.

The challenge: The college’s Public Works Department (PWD) was responsible for operating and maintaining a large, mixed fleet of air conditioners — O-General, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi units — spread across ground, first, and second floor wards, labs, and doctors’ rooms. PWD needed a way to monitor and control all of them centrally, without replacing the existing hardware.

The deployment:

• A wired system using an RS-485 loop, connected to a local BuildTrack server — a single cable loop carries both power and communication to every node.
• IR nodes with CT (current transformer) input on each AC, so the system can both send commands and verify actual operating current — not just assume a command worked.
• Power nodes with manual override, so on-site staff retain direct physical control alongside the automated system.
• Temperature and humidity sensors placed across the wards and labs to drive occupancy- and condition-based control rather than blanket scheduling.
• A dashboard and mobile app giving facilities staff a single view of every AC’s status, temperature, and fan speed — down to individual bed and room level — plus a full activity log of every remote command issued, with location and timestamp.

The result: PWD staff can now view, group, schedule, and override every air conditioner in the building from one interface — regardless of brand — with full visibility into runtime and consumption for reporting.

This is the same underlying model behind the general guidance above: retrofit control at the node level, one communication backbone, and centralized visibility — rather than assuming a mixed, finished-building AC fleet has to be replaced or rewired to be brought under control.

What a Retrofit AC Control System Actually Delivers

Across deployments like this, the levers that reduce consumption are the same ones listed earlier in this article, now automated:

• Scheduling — ACs turn off automatically outside working hours, no manual step required.
• Auto ON/OFF based on occupancy — tied to presence rather than habit.
• Set-point correction — bringing outlier units back to an efficient range.
• Overcurrent shutoff — units drawing current beyond their rated limit are flagged and can be shut down, addressing a fire-safety risk alongside the energy waste.

For a typical 1.5TR office AC, average daily consumption runs around 12.5 kWh. Applying scheduling, occupancy control, and set-point correction across a fleet like this typically reduces that consumption by 15-30%, with a payback period of 6-15 months — figures consistent with BuildTrack’s two-time CII Excellence in Energy Management Award and its 4-star Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) rating.

Getting Started

You don’t need to gut a finished office or replace working AC units to fix this kind of waste. Start with an audit of what’s actually running against who’s actually in the room — that gap is usually where the first 10-15% of savings is sitting, before any hardware conversation even begins.

About the author

Aditya Chemburkar writes on energy efficiency and building automation for BuildTrack, a Surmount Energy Solutions brand.

buildtrack-admin

Home automation systems are rapidly transforming how we interact with our living spaces. These systems can be broadly categorized into two types: Centralized Systems and Decentralized Systems. Both have their unique advantages and drawbacks, especially concerning cabling and features. This blog will explore these aspects in detail to help you understand which system might be more suitable for your needs.

CABLING:

Centralized System

1. Centralized Wiring Requirements
   • Separate Conduits: Centralization requires separate conduits for the control cable. This dedicated wiring increases complexity and cost.
   • Conventional System Shift: The rigid architecture of Centralization makes it nearly impossible to revert to a conventional system in case of a failure. The centralized controllers and keypads are critical points of failure; if they go down, the entire system stops functioning.
2. Cost Implications:
   • Civil Work and Cabling: The need for separate conduiting and additional cables for keypads control supply drives up the installation costs. This is over and above the standard 230 V supply required for sockets, ACs, and other loads not managed by the control system.
   • Overall Expense: The combination of specialized cabling like ELV cables for Keypad control supply and additional civil work makes Centralized Systems a more expensive option compared to decentralized systems.

Decentralized System

1. Flexibility in Wiring:
   • Integrated Conduits: Decentralized systems integrate control cables with existing wiring, reducing the need for separate conduits and additional cabling.
   • Stand-Alone Functionality: In the event of an automation failure, decentralized systems’ switches can continue to function independently, ensuring that basic operations remain unaffected.
2. Cost Efficiency:
   • Reduced Civil Work: Less civil work is required as there’s no need for separate conduiting for control cables.
   • Lower Installation Costs: With no need for extensive additional cabling, the installation costs for decentralized systems are generally lower.

FEATURES

Centralized System

1. Load Management:
   • Central Termination: All loads are terminated centrally and are managed exclusively through keypads. This can be limiting as it requires the entire system to be operational for any functionality.
2. Limitations:
   • Fan Speed Regulation: Centralized systems generally do not include fan speed regulators, which are critical for Indian homes.

Decentralized System

1. Versatility and Aesthetics:
   • Modular Assembly: Decentralized systems allow a combination of switches, keypads, and sockets in a single modular assembly. This flexibility ensures that you can maintain matching aesthetics throughout your home.
   • Touch and Electromechanical Switches: Both types of switches can be included and will continue to operate even if the controllers fail.
2. Critical Features:
   • Fan Speed Regulators: These are typically included in decentralized systems, making them more suitable for regions that require detailed climate control.

Conclusion

Centralized systems (such as KNX) are sophisticated but generally tend to be more expensive and rigid once they are deployed. They also typically require significant civil work. In contrast, decentralized systems are typically more cost-effective and flexible solutions with and allow failure elements to be isolated without impacting the overall operations of the system or individual switches for the user. For most homeowners, decentralized systems provide a balanced, practical approach to home automation. Ultimately, the choice between a centralized and decentralized home automation system will depend on your specific needs, budget, and the level of complexity you are willing to manage.

Exceptional lighting can transform any space, bringing it to life and captivating the senses. Thoughtful lighting design paired with automation can set the mood and enrich the overall experience of any space.

The impact of lighting on a space cannot be overstated. Whether it’s a restaurant, cozy living room, an elegant dining area, or a professional conference room, the right lighting can make all the difference. It can highlight architectural features, create focal points, and enhance the overall ambiance. With the right automation technology, these effects can be achieved effortlessly and consistently.

Essential Elements of Lighting Solutions

Lighting solutions need to provide the options that can work together like a symphony to enable the desired mood within a given space. Some of the essential capabilities that are needed within the deployed solution must be:

Dimming

The ability to dim lighting provides infinite opportunities to creatively craft the moods that are desired in a space. It becomes an indispensable canvas that can be used artistically both to address the various times of the day as well as to accentuate specific spaces or moods for situations which would benefit from it. LED lighting makes use of various types of drivers to achieve the desired level of dimming of each lighting fixture from the lowest to the highest. Different types of dimming such as Phase Cut or Zero-to-ten can be used based on the wiring limitations presented by the physical spaces.

Tunability

The capability of LED lighting to display various colour temperatures allows tunable lights to mimic the natural light that one observes over the various periods of the day. This lighting can vary from dim yellowish to daylight white. All this variety is achievable, as needed by users, in the same fixture by using smart LED drivers.

Colour Change

Some moods demand a variety of colours to be enabled in lighting. LED strips can accommodate these colour changes, again using drivers to create the type of ambience that is needed.

The Role of Automation

Lighting automation takes the benefits of thoughtful lighting design to the next level. By automating lighting systems, you can pre-program the desired type of lighting ambience that is needed. This happens through capabilities called Profiles and Schedules.

Profiles

This allows users to define a combination of various types of lights at various types of dimming, tunability and colour to be triggered from a single click on a physical button or an app. This provides the ultimate convenience of creating the desired lighting and the accompaniment of other elements (e.g. curtains, blinds, AC) to generate the desired.

Schedules

Either profiles or individual lighting may need to change based on either timing of the day or even time of the year. Schedules provide an automated way to ensure that the correct lighting profile is turned on or off at the desired time of the day and then switched to some other profile at another time, all without user intervention.

Incorporating exceptional lighting with advanced automation technologies can truly transform any space. BuildTrack offers a range of lighting automation solutions to maximize the potential of your lighting setup and deliver the best combination of ambience, energy efficiency and convenience.

We use switches for every need we have for turning on/off electrical appliances. It is something that we are all used to. Most often though when one comes to a room, usually it is not a single switch that will be triggered. The lights may be triggered, the fan, maybe the AC instead if it is a hot day, perhaps the TV or music system and the curtains may be opened up part-way. These different things need to happen together to create the right ambience for the room. These combinations of gadgets or appliances that are triggered together is called a PROFILE, and often terms like SCENES or MOODS have also been used to describe them.

These PROFILES are not only dependent on the event, such as a movie or yoga or relaxation or party or going to bed or leaving the home or focusing on work etc. They can also be based on individuals’ preferences or time of the day or year. Relaxation during the daytime vs night will require different lighting scenarios, and similarly different air cooling if it is during summer vs. winter. So, PROFILES not only need to be many, but also needs to be flexible so that they can be changed as conditions change

Typically, the elements of the home that enter a profile can be one or many of these elements:

• Lighting – ON or OFF
• Lighting – various Dimming Levels between 0-100
• Lighting – desired tunable temperatures for LED
• Lighting – desired RGB levels
• Fan – ON at specific speed levels or OFF
• AC – Specific Temperature for cooling
• TV & Cable – ON to certain channel or OFF
• Curtains/Blinds – Either open to desired extent or fully closed
• Door Sensors – Armed to sound alarm if door is opened

Any combinations of these devices should be possible on a PROFILE. Depending on the circumstances some of these devices may be used the PROFILE, and others may either be ignored or left alone in their original state when the PROFILE is triggered, or alternately they may need to be specifically required to be OFF as part of the PROFILE. All these considerations are important in the definition of a PROFILE.

Accessing these PROFILES on a daily basis should be easy, so they should be accessible either via Smart Apps or through touch switches available on a keypad or also via voice assistants. This kind of easy access through multiple means makes the PROFILE much easier to use on a daily basis. In some situations, PROFILES may be needed to be automatically triggered based on time schedules. So, if the Smart Apps allow for scheduling, then not just individual switches, but also PROFILES them which should be accessible on them.

Keypads can be integrated into the same panel as individual switches. This is to allow the desired level of flexibility that is required by the user in each switch panel as sometimes control over individual elements of lighting, fans etc might be necessary.

Figure: This shows a 4 PROFILE key module on the left, with some individual light switches all present in the same Switch Panel

Figure: Smart App shows the same PROFILES as present on the Touch Keypads

The most appealing and useful Home Automation solutions should allow for any combination of the above-mentioned options as a part of the solution. They should be flexible to allow change in PROFILES as one either gets familiarized with them and wants some flexibility and changes to allow them to be comfortable with the ambience that is created. The intent of all these options is to ensure that you have the best ambience and living experience as a result of deploying these home automation solutions.

Planning to build or renovate your home? Lighting Automation is one of the first decisions you will make — and one of the most consequential for your smart home setup. Yet most homeowners choose their lights and their smart automation system independently, which leads to flickering fixtures, incompatible dimmers, and expensive rework.

This guide explains the key lighting types available today, how LED drivers work, and why your lighting choices must be aligned with your home automation system from day one.

What Lighting Options Are Available Today?

A few years ago, the choice was simple: incandescent or fluorescent. Today, homeowners have a far wider selection:

• LED downlighters — the most common choice for recessed ceiling lighting in smart homes
• LED strip lights — used for cove lighting, shelving, and architectural accents
• RGB LEDs — full colour control for mood and accent zones
• Tuneable white LEDs — adjustable colour temperature from warm to cool white, ideal for living and work spaces
• Magnetic track lighting — modular, repositionable spotlights on a low-voltage rail
• Halogen lamps — a resistive load, simpler to dim, but energy-inefficient compared to LED

Each type has different wiring requirements, dimming behaviour, and compatibility constraints when connected to automation. Consulting a lighting designer or showroom is recommended for complex projects — but understanding the basics yourself prevents costly mismatches.

Understanding LED Drivers: CVD vs CCD

Unlike halogen or incandescent bulbs, LEDs cannot be connected directly to mains power. They require a driver — a device that regulates the electrical supply to the fitting. There are two types:

CVD (Constant Voltage Driver) Supplies a fixed voltage, typically 12V or 24V DC. Used with LED strip lights, RGB systems, and magnetic track lighting. The driver wattage must match the total wattage of the connected strip or fittings.

CCD (Constant Current Driver) Supplies a fixed current (measured in milliamps). Used with LED downlighters and high-power LED modules. The output current must precisely match the LED fixture’s specification.

Getting the driver type or wattage wrong — even slightly — can cause persistent flickering immediately or after some time, and significantly reduce the lifespan of expensive LED fixtures.

How Smart Switches Connect to Your Lighting

Smart touch switches and dimmers do not connect directly to your LED fittings. They connect to the LED driver, which then powers the fixture. For dimming to work correctly through an app or voice assistant (such as Alexa or Google Home), the smart switch must be compatible with the specific driver type it is connected to.

This means three components must be specified together:

1. The LED fitting
2. Its driver (CVD or CCD, correct wattage)
3. The smart dimmer switch (rated and tested for that driver type)

If any one of these three is mismatched, the result is a system that either does not dim, flickers under load, or fails prematurely.

Why Lighting and Automation Must Be Planned Together

The most common mistake during home builds and renovations is treating lighting selection and smart home automation as separate decisions. By the time the electrician is on site, incompatible products have already been purchased — and resolving the mismatch after wiring is complete is significantly more expensive than planning correctly upfront.

The right approach is to specify lighting type, driver, and smart switch as a single coordinated decision for each zone in the home.

BuildTrack Smart Dimmer Switches

BuildTrack offers a range of touch switches designed for both on/off and dimming control of LED lighting systems. Their compact dimmer range accommodates multiple dimming switches in a minimal footprint — useful in high-density switch plate configurations.

Switches are available with tempered glass surfaces and metal framing in a range of finishes, allowing them to complement the interior aesthetics of the room while meeting the technical requirements of the connected lighting.

You can specify and configure your switch plate online using BuildTrack’s Build Your Switch tool.

 

 

Homes these days have multiple types of lights – cove lights, chandeliers, wall décor lights, party lights and within these there is the added choice of dimmable lights, tunable lights, LED color strip lights and more. In addition to this lighting variety, there are other diverse comfort elements in a room. These are devices such as Fans, Air Conditioners , Curtains, Blinds, projectors, TVs and more. These various items in the home are rarely used one at a time, but rather they are turned on in some group combinations that suit the occupants requirement. These combinations are called ‘scenes’ or ‘profiles’ because they create the necessary ambience that the occupant wishes to experience.

Many home owners are adopting Home Automation solutions. Most Home Automation solutions allow users to create such ‘profiles’ or ‘scenes’ on their Smart Apps. Users can typically choose the various lighting, fans, AC, curtains and other combinations for each ‘profile’ and they can also change these profiles as their tastes or circumstances change. There can be profiles for when one wakes up in the morning (e.g ‘Good Morning’ profile) and another for when going to sleep. Similarly they may be for events, like when leaving the home (‘Good Bye’ profile) or when watching a movie (‘Cinema’ profile) and so forth.

While many Home Automation solutions allow the convenience of using profiles via Smart App or voice assistants like Alexa/Google, they do not offer physical ‘switch-like’ device on the walls that could trigger these same ‘profiles’. The introduction of ‘Keypads’ as a part of the Home Automation solution has changed that. Keypads now offers home automation users with tremendous flexibility to execute such ‘scenes’ or ‘profiles’ without needing to resort to a Smart App or Voice commands. BuildTrack’s keypads are designed to be identical to the Smart Touch Switches and can blend in within the switches. In fact they can also be part of a switch panel or independently on their own panel.

The advantages of the keypads are many,

1. A keypad has a small footprint and does not occupy the space that multiple switches might take up on any wall. It can be used as an alternative to switches when home automation is deployed.
2. BuildTrack keypads are unique in their ability to control not just lighting, but also curtains, blinds, ACs, Fans, TVs, Projector mounts and more. Most other keypads in the market can only handle lighting scenes.
3. BuildTrack keypads are mapped to profiles that are defined on the Smart App, and since the Smart App profiles can be edited to add, remove or change specific devices (e.g. add/remove lights or change dimming levels or change desired AC temp settings) the keypads effectively serve as customizable switches.
4. BuildTrack keypads support multi-way operation, i.e. they are 2-way, 3-way and more. If the same profile is set on multiple keypads across the home, then triggering one will show you the correct status on all
5. Even if a home only choses BuildTrack Keypads instead of switches, BuildTrack still allows control of individual devices as switches on the Smart App.
6. Keypads are available in wired and wireless formats. The wireless formats do not require any change to existing wiring.
7. BuildTrack Keypads can co-exist with smart touch switches on the same switch panel, creating tremendous flexibility.

If you are interested in home automation, then take a look at BuildTrack smart keypads and smart touch switches for your home.

If you are planning to have Smart Touch Switches or Home Automation as part of your home, then you have to look at the certifications that the products carry. While users are not typically acquainted by the certifications, it is at least important to be familiar with some of the key certifications because these products are installed within your homes, and you and your family constantly interact with them and are constantly in the vicinity of these products. The objective of this article is to share some of the key certifications that you need to look for

Safety Certification
While the Smart Touch Switches are electronic products, they are directly connected to your AC electrical systems. It is therefore essential that the safety level of these products conform to the highest global standards. IEC 62368 is a new global standard that was introduced in Dec 2020 to supersede all existing standards for safety. It is based on sound engineering principles, research and field data. It addresses all hazards that are likely to influence the operation of the device and evaluates all the internal safeguards that are built into the device to tackle such hazards. An important aspect is that, the 62368 standard applies not only to the end-user product but also to components and subsystems within it. It is the gold standard of performance testing for safety and IEC 62368 has been incorporated by almost every single country/geography for their own certifications, as seen in the figure below. In fact, countries such as US, Singapore, and other developed countries have made such certifications as a mandatory items for such products.

So when you buy your next Smart Touch Switch, check to see if it has the 62368 Certification ! You and your family constantly interact with the switch. You need to be sure that it is safe !

Radiation Emissions Certification
The term Radiated Emissions refers to the unintentional release of electromagnetic energy from an electronic device or apparatus. Any electronic device may generate Electromagnetic fields that unintentionally propagate away from the device’s structure. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has adopted the BS EN 61000-6 standard set for such ‘electromagnetic compatibility’ of such devices with strict limits on the radiation. This is the same standard as the international standard adopted by both FCC (U.S) and CE (Europe). The device is placed in an anechoic chamber (see Figure) and its radiated energy measured via an Electromagnetic Compatibility Test. It is certified if it is within acceptable limits for its appropriate use situation, such as in this case Residential Use for home automation products.

Product being tested in an Anechoic chamber.

RoHS Compliance Certification
European Uniion rules are some of the strictest that are restrict the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment to protect the environment and public health. The RoHS Directive currently restricts the use of ten substances: lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). Many of these were used in the PCB manufacture, and if a product is RoHS compliant then these chemicals have not been used within the product.

BuildTrack’s Smart Touch Switches comply with all of these requirements. The touch switches comply with IEC 62368 which is the “gold” standard for safety . The product complies with BS EN 61000-6 which implies that any radiated emissions are well within limits for residential use and the product is RoHS compliant, ensuring environmental and users health. BuildTrack’s Smart Touch Switches are the Touch Switches on the market that currently comply with all these 3 safety and health related certifications.

Aircrafts have cockpits consisting of instruments and gauges that pilots find necessary to monitor the operations of all the systems in the aircraft and to control them. While buildings may not be as complex, they are also increasingly sophisticated with multiple different systems within them to support their operation. The Building Management System (BMS) or Building Automation System (BAS)  as they are commonly known serves as the equivalent of the cockpit in bringing together the information from disparate systems into a single framework which can be used to manage the operation of the building. A BMS or BAS  system typically would allow for both monitoring and control of these varied systems that are present within the building to deliver Safety, Security, Hygiene, Energy Efficiency, Comfort, Convenience and Operational Efficiencies. Some of the typical systems are listed below

Fire Safety Systems:

• Fire Panels with associated fire sensors
• Sprinkler Systems
• Fire Pumps and Fire Tanks
• Stairwell pressurization systems (to contain smoke)
• Gas leak sensors

Security Systems:

• CCTV systems
• Building level Video Door Phone Systems
• Gate Entry Systems
• Card/biometirc based entry systems
• Security Motion sensors

Ventilation Systems:

• Ventilation Panels connected to Axial Fans, AHUs and Dampers for Parking
• HVAC Panels for Chillers, AHU and Dampers (for centrally air conditioned buildings)
• CO2 Level Monitoring
• Toilet Exhaust Fans

Lighting Management:

• Common areas lighting

Elevator/Lift Systems:

• Lift status monitoring

Water and Sewage Systems:

• Smart Water Meters
• Pump Panels for Water Pumps & Tank Level Sensors
• Flush Pumps & Flush Tanks
• STP Panel

Power Management:

• • Smart Energy Meters

• UPS Panels
• Solar Panels
• LT Panel (Modbus)

Parking Garage Systems:

• Lighting Management
• Ventilation Management
• CO Level monitoring

Even though these are disparate systems, often from different vendors, it is possible to integrate their monitoring and key aspects of control into a single BMS system, as long as the systems have some option to connect with them to extract data or to send control signals. Many of these typically have a Modbus protocol option offered by the manufacturer which can make integrating them into a single BMS a feasible effort.

One of the challenges of traditional BMS/BAS systems was that they were generally desktop based systems. Access to them was limited to specific computers, which were physically located within the building, typically within a “control room”. The emergence of the Internet of Things based technologies, has allowed the creation of BMS systems whose devices communicate with a cloud-server over the internet. This server is accessed by users through browsers or Smart Apps to enable monitor and control of the assets and systems in the building that are connected to the BMS. Since the cloud-server is  accessible over the internet, the BMS is accessible from anywhere and allows both monitor and control by the Facility Management Team.

In the case of The 42, India’s tallest residential building, BuildTrack was able to bring together many such systems under a common BMS management framework, which uses IoT technologies. The control and monitoring of the building is possible with the right authentication, over the internet via BuildTrack’s cloud servers.