Early days buildings were very simple with few number of services, less amount of occupancy and minimum building facilities. As times goes on, introduced many building services and innovative technologies. Hence now-a-days buildings are very complex with many services, higher occupancy, too many sophisticated equipment and current buildings indicated higher energy consumption rate as well as they mostly considering about the health & safety of the building occupancy, Indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency and more. Hence building management system can be indicated as better way to control & monitor building system in an efficient way. 

Building management system is the computer based control system installed in buildings that controls and monitors the building’s mechanical and electrical system such as air conditioning system, lighting, power system, fire system, security system and more. Following can be identified as typical features of the building management system.

• Real time monitoring and controlling of every vital point 

• Alarming general faults and maintenance conditions via SMS, email and visual alarms 

• Energy saving through optimized operating algorithms

• Scheduling routine operations and work flows

• Generating vital reports with real time values 

• Trending real time values 

• Disaster management and safety 

• Monitor and control the building via internet 

Normally HVAC system, access control system, fire alarm system, lifts & escalators, compressor, power distribution system, car park system are the some sub systems of the building management system and sensors, controllers, out-put devices, communication protocols and user interface are the main components of the building management system. Sensors collect data about the temperature, humidity, room occupancy and controller collect the data from sensors and map out a course of action in response to the data. Out-put devices is relays and actuators fall under this section and carry out commands provide by the controllers. Communication protocols is the language that all of the components use to communicate with each other (LonWorks, Modbus, Profibus, KNX, Z Wave) and user interface is a user-friendly program that can be accessed remotely via a smartphone or laptop, would be how a human would engage with the complete system. However by implementing building management system following benefits can be gained. 

• Improved indoor environmental quality 

• Energy savings 

• Faster response 

• Maintenance saving 

• Consolidated facility control 

• Reduce operator training 

• Timely and effective control 

• Performance benchmarking 

• Improve management reporting  

Reference: 

https://www.99acres.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-building-management-systems.html