ASHRAE Journal - June 2019 - 10

INDUSTRY NEWS
opportunities for optimizing the operation of buildings.
The analysis of data such as the level of usage of devices,
actuators and valves provides predictive information on
the expected serviceable life. Thus the maintenance can
be planned predictively with the smallest possible effect
on the daily usage.
Also keeping pace with IoT possibilities is Beckhoff. For
almost three decades, PC-based control technology from
Beckhoff has been used in all areas of industrial automation. The company says the idea of a "green building"
based on sustainable, energy efficient construction
and operation is now being realized with intelligent,
integrated, cloud-based building automation. At ISH, it
displayed its solutions for a universal, scalable building
automation control system covering PC- and Ethernetbased controllers and a modular I/O system for logging
all data points in buildings.
Among its new products is TwinCAT 3, the latest version
of its software tool for building automation. It bundles all
building services on one platform: from heating, ventilation and air-conditioning to shading, lighting and energy
data acquisition. This results in synergy effects enabling
energy-efficient building control and at the same time
significantly simplifies engineering and control.
Other highlights at the Beckhoff booth included
TwinCAT Speech, for processing voice signals in smart
building control, and the implementation of BACnet
Revision 14 in TwinCAT. It provides the user with
improved alarm processing options.
"Connectivity to cloud systems is rapidly changing our
industry," said Frank Schubert, responsible for building automation marketing and training. "My personal
perspective is that in the next 5 to 10 years local systems accessed only through a PC on the desk of facility
manager will vanish, replaced by dashboard systems,
databases in the cloud, and so on. With our automation
stations we can send SMS or email messages directly
from the controller," he said. "It does not matter if you
connect a machine to the cloud or the BAS."
In an age where data is considered the fuel of the
21st Century business model, Schubert sees profound
change coming to building services. "We could be transitioning to a model where building owners no longer
purchase physical devices. With IoT, physical devices
will only collect data and deliver service. For example,
we partner with a lighting company on automation
enabling them to sell light to a building owner not a
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ASHRAE JOURNAL

ashrae.org

J U N E 2 0 19

Listen to music. Catch up on news, appointments, weather. Or connect other smart
devices to your mirror to get a quick look at your weight or level of skin moisture. The
smart mirrors displayed at ISH get your day off to a connected start.

lamp. The physical item is the equipment necessary to
offer the service but the business model is to deliver the
service not sell the physical item."
Another smart product at ISH was the Phyn Plus smart
water assistant offered by Uponor as a solution to reduce
water waste in European homes. Uponor announced it
will be available across Europe, starting with Finland,
France, Spain and Sweden. Phyn Plus is a single connected smart water monitoring device that detects leaks
anywhere in a home and can automatically shut off the
main water supply to prevent costly damage. Phyn Plus
also monitors water use, giving homeowners insight
into how much water their homes and water using
fixtures are consuming so they can conserve and save.
"Supported by nearly a decade of R&D, Phyn is dedicated
to advancing its technology to deliver the most accurate and reliable intelligent water monitoring solution
and leak detector available on the market today," said
Ryan Kim, CEO of Phyn. "Users can rest assured they
are doing their part to solve the global challenges facing
water scarcity." Phyn Plus is expanding its smart home
capabilities by integration with home digital assistants.
Homeowners can ask Amazon Alexa or Google Home to
provide updates on their water consumption and even
turn on and off their water using voice commands.
Collection and use of data was such as reoccurring
theme at ISH, it was difficult to imagine a time equipment
being smart was not a requirement for specification.
And with interconnectivity the theme of seemingly every
exhibitor, a time at future ISH's where a visitor follows a
path through the hall to one connected partner to another
may not be far off.

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ASHRAE Journal - June 2019

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