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Cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IOT) have changed the way we live, work, and play. We now use smartphones, mobile devices, and computers to communicate and access our data from anywhere, at any time — on-the-go, on-site at a service call, or in bed on a Saturday night. 

A unique set of obstacles regularly challenges technicians and facility maintenance contractors servicing assisted living facilities. You may have a campus of buildings to look after, a series of individual living units with unique resident needs, or even multiple communities that you serve. This can present certain technical problems that, in the past, were considered the cost of doing business.

The new year is coming up fast, and HVAC technicians will need to be prepared for another year of change in the facilities management field. Many manufacturers have experienced supply chain difficulties that have affected the availability and cost of raw materials, equipment, parts, and supplies. Regulations continue to evolve as well, with an increased focus on the HFC phase-down and total energy efficiency.

Every piece of university facilities equipment will become obsolete eventually. And if it doesn’t make it to a point of natural obsolescence, it’s probably because you’ve needed to replace it or upgrade it due to reduced efficiency or breakdowns. This cycle is, on some level, unavoidable.

Many healthcare organizations maintain expansive buildings with multiple wards, separate outbuildings, multi-building campuses, or even additional locations in other towns and cities. This can make medical building management into notoriously complex work. 

Figures from the IFMA show that the average facilities management professional is now 49 years old, with 28 years of experience (including 16 in facilities management). This is older than the median age of the general workforce by 8 years. 

Data has had an elevated role in building management since the era of the Internet of Things began. University building managers have always been tasked with keeping campus facilities running in a cost-efficient and safe manner that is conducive to the learning environments of higher education.  What was once a largely manual process of ‘tending to the farm’ is now handled with robust arrays of sensors that feed data into complex building automation and building analytics software. 

The modern universal BACnet protocol is the current gold standard in building automation, keeping things simple and streamlined for facilities managers and technicians. However, if your campus features a legacy system composed of older protocols like Modbus and Lonworks, you may be juggling multiple systems, log-ins, and headaches throughout the day.

The original objective of the BACnet protocol was to revolutionize device interconnectivity by providing one standard set of communication rules. No matter the manufacturer, all devices using the BACnet protocol would work with your building’s BAS. This goal was promptly realized as the use of BACnet spread to building monitoring systems far and wide.

Originally published on TheS4Group.com