If you are a building owner, engineer, or HVAC contractor you hear terms like open verses proprietary building controls system and Lon and BACnet. These concepts and terms can be a bit daunting. Thanks to Honeywell’s national account manager and technical control wizard, David Witherspoon, these concepts just got a whole lot easier to understand. Check out David’s presentation by clicking

here. David takes concepts like Lon,BACnet and other communication protocols, and makes them easy to understand. David also demonstrates how system architecture looks. This process integrates access and security, lighting, and energy monitoring with the building automation controls system creating “single seated control” over the entire building. Single seating removes the necessity of  looking at different software packages for each individual building controls systems ( lighting, HVAC, access and security). Instead,  users are able to use one graphical software package to look at all systems simultaneously.

These efficiencies and advantages are made available through open system platforms like Honeywell Webs and Niagara. All major controls manufacturers have access to open systems, so a building owner should never have to be held hostage to a “proprietary” or closed building automation system.

Building owners beware, just because a building automation control system can speak Lon or BACnet, does not mean that the system is truly open.

To be truly open the building owner should insist on the following:

1) Multiple factory trained contractors must be able to work on the system ( giving the owner service choices after the system has been installed)

2) Controller programming tools must be available to the building owner and service contractors. ( Just because the system is open at the network      level does not mean the system is open if the building owner has to go to one source ( proprietary) to get a replacement field level controller)

3) Make sure that the building owner has access to the same training as the staff that the control manufacturer’s technicians receive. ( there  are controls manufacturers that offer training on their building automation system that is different than the training their techs get, the result being  you as an owner are still stuck with calling the control vendor for service work putting you back in a choice less situation.

The message here is that open systems mean choice, and choice is good for a building owner.

In todays control world all control manufacturers offer “open solutions”. Only a few truly offer “open”  building automation control systems. With a network of independent distributors and factory trained building automation controls contractors, Honeywell is the best example of a company that offers a building owner the real “open” building automation controls solution.

For more information on open building automation systems, check out my  Stromquist Radio interviews with two of the countries leading experts on open systems and building integration, Scott Cochrane and Brian Turner

For even more information on open building automation systems, including Honeywell, Johnson Controls, building controls system integration and energy sub metering, contact the control pros at Stromquist & Company (Georgia or Florida). Other locations can find controls expertise from one of our affiliates at Controls Group North America.

in this video our friend Kelly shows how to integrate Lon and BACnet when configuring a Johnson Controls FX20. For more information on Kelly’s training videos check out his website.

In this video our friend Kelly walks us through the Johnson Controls AX software platform in preparation for his programing of the Johnson Controls FX 20 controller.

Our friend Kelly did these great videos on how to set up a Johnson Controls FX20 Building automation control. Using the FX Tools Kelly shows just how easy it is to connect to and program a Johnson FX20 control.

Look for more “how to videos” from Kelly on controltrends. For more information on Kelly’s online training program go to his website.

Johnson Controls

Eric interviews Chris Eichmann who is the director of product and systems sales North America for Johnson controls. In this interview Eric and Chris discuss everything from Johnson Controls AX DDC product offering to how the Johnson Branch, Johnson distributors and independent controls contractors can co exist in the marketplace.

Click to play

If you have portable or modular classrooms you know how hard it is to implement energy saving temperature control strategies. Johnson Controls has the answer with the Johnson Controls T600 family of thermostat controllers.

To understand the elegance of the solution Johnson Controls provides with the T600 series of thermostat controllers, you must first understand the problem that portable classrooms provide from a control strategy perspective.

With school districts and universities across the country looking for ways to accommodate the increased demand for student classrooms, the portable or modular classroom proved to be a low cost solution. Over thirty six percent of the nation’s schools use these type of classrooms. Look around just about any school and you will see dozens of these classrooms adjacent to school buildings. These portable classrooms need heating, cooling, lights, and exhaust fans. To control them is not that difficult: a thermostat for the heating and air conditioning and a switch to turn the lights and fans on and off. Conserving energy in a portable classroom is another story. In Florida alone it is estimated that there are over 25,ooo portable classrooms each using more than 30 Kwh per day. That number gets even larger if the HVAC and lights are left to run in the occupied mode when the classroom is unoccupied.

One of the key energy savings strategies for portable classrooms is to reduce the electrical load by accurate temperature control and by making sure that temperature set points are set back during heating season and set up during cooling season when the class room is not occupied, and that the lights and fans are off when the class room is not being used. ASHRAE studies have shown energy savings as great as 36% to 47% implementing proper control and equipment strategies.

Time of day control strategies seem simple enough; either replace the thermostat in the portable classroom with a programmable thermostat or control your portable classrooms with your existing building automation system. The first option is not practical from a operation standpoint and the second option is usually too expensive. The challenge with programmable thermostats in portable classrooms is that the schedules in schools tend to change during the school year, and if you have a lot of portable classrooms you have to constantly send someone to reprogram the thermostats every time a change is made. Most school buildings have a building automation system that has the flexibility to either have all the holiday programs for the school year programmed in advance or the ability  to make a schedule change for an entire building with a simple key stoke. It would be ideal to use this system to control the portable classrooms, but because the classrooms are portable and not connected to the building the cost to run wire, including digging trenches, is usually too high.

Johnson Controls has a proven low cost solution. They have taken a very accurate programmable thermostat, added a passive infrared occupancy sensor and an extra relay. The result is simple but effective. You program your thermostat as you would any programmable thermostat, but during the occupied program times if the occupancy sensor does not sense movement after a programmed amount of time it puts the HVAC and whatever you have hooked up to the auxiliary relay in the unoccupied mode, guaranteeing your equipment only runs when the classroom is occupied.

Johnson Controls has several different models of the T600 series of thermostats that we stock at Stromquist & Company. The Johnson Controls Communicating Thermostats, the Johnson Controls TEC1100 thermostat, the Johnson Controls TEC210x-2 Thermostat you will note that have both Lon and BacNet versions, as well as the Johnson Controls Wireless thermostats.

As an extra incentive Stromquist Company is offering 10% off the following Johnson T600 thermostats through the end of October 2010:

Johnson Controls T600 HCN-4+PIR

Johnson Controls T600 HPN-4+PIR

Johnson Controls T600 MSN-4+PIR

 This special is only available when you order on line at our web store at www.stromquist.com

Be sure to check out Part 2. Mike gives a very in depth presentation on this great family of Johnson Controls thermostats.

Stromquist & Company is committed to saving our customers energy. Our part is to provide great control solutions from companies like  Tridium, Honeywell and Johnson Controls. Did you know how much money you could save ??? Check this video out and see

Stromquist & Company works with the tridium niagara open framework bring building owners intergration solutions through our contractor partners. It has gone from just open HVAC control systems to intergrating lighting and access controls. Check out this video to get a feel for where the controls industry is heading it is amazing.

I came across some really good training videos on the Johnson FX20 controllers. Once you get past the commercials these are excellent videos on the Johnson Controls FX Series of Controllers. They do an excellent job of showing how to set up and configure the Johnson FX 20 controller including integrating Lon and BacNet  points.

Check these out:

Configuring the FX20 controller

AX Programming Overview

Johnson FX20 Programming Pt1

Johnson FX20 Integrating Lon and BACNet

Johnson FX20 IO Point Assignment

Nothing beats the certification training, but this is a great refresher.

Stromquist is an authorized Johnson Controls Automation distributor in Georgia and Florida.

If you are a Stromquist customer or are in GA or FL, call your Stromquist rep.  All others, please refer to one of our affiliates at the Controls Group North America site to find a distributor in your area.