By Yuri Ramsamy, Product Marketing Specialist Building Products
In July 2020, the world’s population was estimated at 7.8 billion. A growing population demands more dynamic management of every building’s space to accommodate a more fluid workforce and more careful stewardship of our precious energy and water resources. Buildings consume more than 30% of the world’s energy. Therefore, to meet these new demands, building ‘green’ is no longer a luxury.
ABB is a world-leading provider of smart home, smart building and intelligent community solutions that embrace a pragmatic and innovative spirit, as well as contributing holistically to social and environmental responsibility and sustainability. Smarter building solutions can take advantage of ABB’s expertise and know-how of building automation in both electrical and mechanical building systems. From the individual components through to systems and a choice of communications protocol platforms, ABB supports a broad range of requirements. Its solutions cover smart mobility, smart homes, smart buildings and smart utilities.
Old buildings currently rely on forms of passive energy management that are often deeply embedded in the fabric of the building itself, from the insulation to double glazing, flooring and so on. Most of these methods are highly inefficient as they do not actively respond to how the building is used, nor are they easily adjustable.
Even buildings erected as recently as the 1980s consume up to twice as much energy as new construction. Retrofitting existing builds is possible, and ABB has many solutions in this regard. These range from EDCS (Electrical Distribution Control System) to ABB i-Bus (a lighting and HVAC control system). All these systems are retrofittable, which leads to lower energy costs, reduced maintenance costs and fewer voids.
We can expect more everyday building functions to become automated. Smart offices will become independently intelligent, learning how occupants use the space and services and then proactively adjust lighting, HVAC and other systems to maximise health and comfort. Buildings will recognise employees as they arrive at work, direct them to an EV charging point and then on to a workstation configured to meet their requirements for a productive day’s work.
Visitors to an overseas office will be recognised as they arrive and automatically checked-in, along with all the appropriate access rights and personalised settings. More offices, hospitals, malls, stadia and homes will capture and store renewable power from the sun and wind. Many will supply power back to the grid or to EVs charging on site.
As a technology pioneer for 130 years, ABB has market-leading expertise in smart building electrification and integration. Along with the breadth of the ABB automation offer, ABB Ability™ boasts more than 200 digital solutions across industries, each of them the result of collaboration and partnership with our global customer base.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a technology leader that is driving the digital transformation of industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB has four customer-focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by the ABB Ability™ digital platform. ABB’s Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 144,000 employees. www.abb.com.
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