In last month’s column, I covered remote walkthroughs to confirm the physical configuration of building system components, their functionality, and their representation in the building automation system (BAS) user interface. Having verified that BASs are reliable tools, this month’s column focuses on remotely accessing a BAS's user interface to extract information regarding sequences of operation and a system's performance over time.
Most modern BASs have a graphical user interface for each system that depicts all system components along with the current control input and output point values. For example, Figure 1 provides a screenshot of a simple air-handling unit (AHU) I was remotely reviewing before sitting down to write this column.
I know from my documentation review and operator interviews that this AHU is a chilled water, cooling-only system with full air-side economizer capability. It is a single-zone unit serving a commercial tenant space in a large multiuse complex. What I gather from this one graphic screen is the following.