What is a BMS or Building Management

System?

In a nutshell, BMS-System otherwise called as BAS or building

automation is computer-based control system which reduces the
workforce, automate the system, and saving the
energy consumption in buildings by monitoring and controlling
the mechanical and electrical equipment in modern-day buildings
or any industrial plants.

Not only that but BMS helps to

 Increasing productivity.
 Increase the equipment lifetime and better performance.
 Identify the systems faults earliest.
 Manag the hotel tenants in an effective manner.

Nowadays any modern-day buildings built with BMS to support

facilities management to accomplish the maintenance and save
the energy in the building from one place of computers.

Essential Features of BMS software

 monitoring and controlling connected equipment in the

building.
 The alarm should be a popup in operator workstation for any
critical faults in the system.
 Any types of equipment on, off status and alarm should be
logged or stored in PC to retrieve later.
 Schedule the equipment to on and off automatically by
preset time.
 User interface graphics should be available to visualise the
field equipment to monitor for BMS operator easily.
List of Equipment controlled by BMS or BAS in buildings

 HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning or all

supply and exhaust fans, ACs etc.).
 Lighting control system.
 Fire alarm system.
 Firefighting system.
 Security control system.
 CCTV system.
 Lift control system.
 Pumping system.
 Water tanks level.
 Irrigation system.
 Electrical meters.
 Water Leak detection system.
 Split units.
 VFD-Variable frequency drives.
 VRF/VRV-Variable refrigerant flow or volume (both are same
but each term copyrighted by a different vendor)
 And any other system which has provision for BMS to control
and monitor.

Main components of the BMS System

1. Hardware
DDC-Direct digital controller
 Sensors
 Actuators
 Cables to connect sensors, actuators to DDC.
 HMI display-Human machine interface.
 PC Workstation
 Server to save the extensive database.
2. Software
 Programming or configuration tools.
 Graphics or User interface.
 3. Networking protocols
 TCP/IP– Transfer control protocols/Internet Protocol.
 BACnet– Building automation controller network-ASHRAE
 Modbus
 LonWorks
 CANbus
 and numerous protocols available.

Don’t worry about the various protocols, this all protocol doing
the same task to transfer data from one device to another device.
anyhow we will discuss these each protocol in an upcoming post

BMS System architecture in the modern-day building

However, BMS System controls and monitor all the electrical and
mechanical systems in buildings from BMS workstation or
HMI(Human Machine Interfaces),

But not directly because each system has its dedicated

functionality and unique purpose like,

 HVAC System helps to facilitate and provide comfortable and

healthy air conditioning to tenants.
 The lighting control system which has a variety of lightings
in buildings that needs to be on and off effectively and save
energy while tenants not available.
 CCTV helps to facility management to secure the building
 Access control systems may also be used to control access
into certain areas located within the interior of buildings.
 A fire alarm system is the life safety system to warn
people by audio and visual to protect their lives from fires,
smoke, carbon mono oxide and other toxic elements for the
human.
 In case of fire Firefighting system aims to protect human life
and property in the building by a large amount of water and
other gas.
 UPS is to provide to the uninterrupted power supply in the
building for electrical equipment.
 Pumping system used in the building to pump the water to
the required area.
 Still tons of systems evolved in the modern-day building to
facilitate the people.

All systems have their dedicated controllers and processing

system due to the different functionality of each system.

So BMS controllers or device designed for controlling and

monitoring the HVAC system and other small systems and
integrate all other systems through dedicated networking
protocols like BACnet, Modbus etc.
General BMS System architecture with Levels

 Management Level: This is the front end for operator and

engineer used to visualise the graphics for controlling and
monitoring the systems which have computer workstation,
server, web browser, printers.
  Automation Level: BMS Router and other main controllers
connected in building network integrate the third-party
system and connect BMS devices.

 Field devices Level: this is Level where BMS controllers

connect to field systems sensors, actuators, and other panel
circuits to monitor and control.

Real-Time example for BMS System

Any modern-day building client provides huge specifications for

BMS System,

Whereas here I am going to take simple requirement to monitor

and control the sequence of Air Handling Unit.

Let us see below the requirement of the client to monitor and

control the sequence in BMS System.

Before we go detailed about how to design the BMS System for

the requirement, let us see some basics components of the AHU-
Air handling unit.

AHU is an HVAC system which consists of the duct, fan, filter,

cooling coil, heating element,humidifier, sound attenuators,
dampers, valves and many more to regulate the air into the room
by heating, ventilation and conditioning to distributes the
conditioned air through the building and returns it to the AHU and
also called as centralised AC in modern-day building.
Duct – It is the collection of metallic tubes that interconnected
and distributes the heated/cooled air to the required rooms.
To monitor the duct air temperature in fresh, return and supply
duct. We have to install the duct temperature sensor in the duct.

Fan Motor– Blower is used to circulate the air from fresh and
return duct to the supply duct.

This fan motor controlled and monitored by the separate electrical

panel by the designed electrical circuit with the help of electrical
relay and contactor and providing an option to BMS system to

 On/Off the fan.

 Monitor the fan running status.
 Monitor the Fan motor overload fault status and many more.

Filter– It is one of the main components in AHU to prevent the

dust and dirt particles from entering in the AHU.

When the AHU fan motor started, the fresh outside air supplied
into the duct where filter components used to filter the dirty
particles continuously and to monitor the filter extreme dirty
condition,

DPS switch is used to install across the filter and provide signals
to BMS,

when the filter gets dirty(technically DPS-Differential pressure

switch will send the signal to BMS when the pressure reached
more than pre-set across the filter, and this same function can be
used to monitor the fan status.

Read More about How DPS used to monitor fan and filter
status.
Heating/Cooling element- It is used to cool or heat the water that
entered in the coil so that air in the duct can be heated or cooled
based on the user requirement.

Either heating or cooling water enters into the coils are controlled
and monitored by valves on the pipe with the help of the valve
actuator.

Dampers- An HVAC damper is a movable plate, located in the

ductwork, that regulates airflow and directs it to areas that need
it most.

damper opening and closing position-controlled electrically with

the help of damper actuators, and these actuators have terminal
for control from BMS and terminal to monitor the feedback of
position.

System Description
The variable speeds Air Handling Units are used to serve air
conditioning need for all area of

buildings

The Air Handling Unit comprises

 Variable Speed Supply Fan

 Chilled water coil with the 2-Way modulating control valve
 Duct mounted supply air pressure sensor
 Outdoor & re-circulating air modulating damper
 Carbon dioxide sensor.
 Supply and Return Air temperature sensors
 Supply air differential pressure switch
  Differential pressure switches for 2 set of filters

System Monitoring and Alarm

1. Software alarms shall be generated at the operator

workstation whenever the run status of the supply fan (with
differential pressure switch) does not match the current
command state.
2. A failure alarm shall occur when the run status of the load
shows no operation, and the load has been commanded to
be on.
3. An advisory alarm shall occur when the run status of the
load shows operation and the load has been commanded to
be off. All alarms shall be recorded in an alarm log for future
review. Provide 15 seconds (adjustable) time delays before
generating an alarm.

The sequence of Operation

a. Auto Mode:

When the AHU start is in AUTO mode (i.e. selector switch

installed in the MCC must be in Auto Position), the unit is started
and stopped from the BMS via a time schedule or BMS override
command. When the start for the AHU is initiated, the control
program residing in the controller follows the following sequence

Start-Up:

The following sequence follows with a preset time interval per

interlock equipment start-up:

1) Check Supply fan trip signal – Normal State

2) Supply Air Damper –Open Position

3) Outdoor Air Damper –Open Position

4) Return Air Damper – Open Position

5) Once the above conditions are satisfied, AHU is enabled to

start in Auto mode or using a plant enable button on the graphics
in manual mode by the operator. Once enabled, BMS will
automatically command the supply fan to start.

6) Supply Fan shall start, and it’s associated Interlock equipment

in sequence. Through the signal from the Diff. Airflow Switch, if
airflow is detected, the System will continuously run, if No airflow
is detected by the DP Switch, the Supply Fan will de-activated
and send an Alarm to the DDC – for “No Airflow” and shut down
the whole system including its associated interlocks. If the Airflow
switch signal is proved ‘ON’ then BMS will enable control loops.

b. Shutdown Mode:

When the shutdown command for the AHU is initiated, the control
program residing in the

controller follows the following sequence.

1) Send Stop command to stop the supply fan

2) The outdoor air, return and supply air damper move to close

3) Move chilled water valve to close position

b. Manual (Hand) Mode:

When the AHU is the manual mode, the fans are started and
stopped from the AHU control panel. Other control except for fan
on/off control shall function as per the Auto mode.

c. Fire / Smoke Mode:

Fire condition is determined by the Fire Alarm Control Panel. AHU
will automatically shutdowns the whole system with associated
interlocks.

4. AHU Control

The control program, on the feedback of air handling unit

operation, initiates the control

algorithm. This algorithm consists of three controls. Each

temperature, pressure and ventilation control has its own control
loop. The pressure control loop is used to modulate the speed of
the supply air fan hence supply airflow. The control loops design
to function as per the following explanation

a. Temperature Control loop:

The supply air temperature installed in the duct will relay the
measured signal(temperature) to the DDC controller, the DDC
controller compares this signal with set-point (adjustable by the
operator from BMS central) and generates an analog output to
the 2-way modulating cooling valve. Based on the difference
between the two values, a proportional-integral program will
determine the percentage of the cooling coil valves opening to
achieve the desired condition. The default set-point value for the
supply air temperature is 13ºC (Adjustable).

b. Pressure Control loop:

The supply air pressure sensor shall be installed in the duct will
relay the measured signal (static pressure) to the DDC controller,
the DDC controller compares this signal with the set-point
(adjustable by the operator from BMS central) and generates an
analog output to the variable frequency drive (VFD) of the supply
air fan. Based on the difference between the two values, a
Proportional-Integral program will determine the percentage of
the fan speed to achieve the desired pressure. The set-point
value for the supply air pressure for each AHU shall be adjusted.

c. Ventilation Control loop:

Demand control ventilation employs return air carbon dioxide

controlling strategy.

A single carbon dioxide sensor sense carbon dioxide

concentration in the return air duct and sent to the DDC
controller, the DDC controller compares the signals with return air
carbon dioxide concentration (Default carbon dioxide level
difference value 400 ppm ).

Then DDC controller generates an analogue output to the outside

air dampers and returns air damper to modulate, based on the
difference between the values, the Proportional integral program
will determine the percentage of the modulation of outdoor and
return air dampers.

Minimum outdoor air quantity shall be governed either by building

pressurisation requirement (Input from Building differential
pressure sensor) or 20% of the Maximum outdoor demand of the
AHU.

5. Alarms:

The following minimum alarms shall be generated on BMS

1) Filter Dirty Alarm: This is generated when pressure drop on

each filter exceeds the set value to indicate dirt accumulate at
filters.

2) Fan Trip Alarm: A normally open “NO” volt free contact at the
MCC panel when closed will generate an alarm at the BMS
indicating that the fan is tripped
3) Fan Fail: In case the supply air fan fails to start or if the
differential pressure switch across

supply fan is not giving the signal according to the command due
to any reason then alarm shall be generated. In case of a fan fail
alarm on the BMS, due to abnormal behaviour, the DDC controller
will latch the alarm. The operator has to acknowledge (reset) the
alarm on the BMS once the trouble has been checked and
removed. The operator shall not be able to start the AHU until the
alarm s acknowledged and reset.

4) Temperature High & Low: Temperature HIGH and LOW alarms

shall be generated if the supply/return air temperature rises
above or falls below the supply /return air temperature alarm
limit.

List of Input and output points are required for the above-
discussed sequence of operation for AHU
Some basic terms of digital electronics

 Analog Input: Analog inputs can come from a variety of

sensors and transmitters. You can measure a whole bunch of
different things. The job of the sensor or transmitter is to
transform that into an electrical signal. Here are a few of the
things you can measure with analogue sensors:
 Level
 Flow
 Distance
 Viscosity
  Temperature
 Digital Input: It allows a microcontroller to detect logic
states either 1 or 0, otherwise called as VFC-Volt free
contact.
 Analog Output: In automation and process control
applications, the analogue output module
transmits analogue signals (voltage or current) that operate
controls such as hydraulic actuators, solenoids, and motor
starters.
 Binary Output: it is nothing but relay output from the
controller to trigger on and off any equipment.

Now its time to choose the DDC controllers based on the above
input and output point list.
Any BMS controllers manufacturer must have the basic controllers
types of analogue input-output, binary input, and output
controllers either dedicated controllers or mixed of all types in a
single controller.

for the above applications, we need to choose controllers that

should accommodate 17 AI, 6 BI, 5 AO, and 1 BO(Note that
temperature and humidity are two different analogue input)

Once controllers are designed, we need to calculate power load

for each controller (available in controller datasheet) and field
devices to choose the right transformer rating for our DDC panel.

Next things are to write a program for our controllers to

accomplish the above sequence,
First, we need to change English words into the flowchart then we
can change it later on the different programming language that
required for BMS vendors either ladder logic or functional block or
plain English and etc.

whatever it is any BMS program functionality that will not go

beyond the basic digital logic gates.
Flowchart for AHU Control sequence of
operation

(flowchart is drawn by Mr.Faizal)