Integrated control system brings the best together

ICS
In response to the client’s requirement not to be tied in to any one manufacturer or supplier of control systems and components, ICS has integrated equipment from many manufacturers for Juxon House in London.
Integration of the totally open building-management systems involving equipment from a large number of suppliers in a development near St Paul’s Cathedral in London has been achieved by Integrated Control Systems. The system for Juxon House, developed by Standard Life Investments, was designed by ICS to a specification by consulting engineers Curona. It embraces equipment from Invensys, Honeywell, Sontay, Mitsubishi, ABB, Delmatic, Calon and others on two networks to meet the client’s determination not to be tied into any one supplier or manufacturer. The flat LON system controls HVAC equipment, including boilers, chillers, AHUs and over 400 fan-coil units which are cooling-only using air-side dampers or cooling with electric reheat. The system also integrates an extensive lighting system and Monitoris generators and cold smoke clearance systems. The massive database contains more than a thousand nodes and runs on a OS 2000 graphical user interface, with an extensive suite of graphics. The installation has a high-speed backbone operating at 1.2 Mbs to serve 14 multi-port communication L-switches. There are two L-switches on each of the six floors of office accommodation (allowing for dual tenancy if required), one on the lower-ground floor and one on the roof serving landlord’s plant. The design of the system had to take account of the architecture, which allows for an east-west division to provide two separate demises. The systems were required to be applicable to open-plan and cellular office layouts, with communication ways giving tenants total autonomy to determine conditions in their area. The technologically advanced open system uses an LNS database that has enabled ICS to choose the best LON hardware for each need and exploit the LON common communications protocol on the network serving the entire development. This database has been configured to identify every device in the building and access all relevant information from it. The 7-storey building includes 2000 m2 of retail space at ground level where the ICS installation provides centralised cooling of the packaged air-conditioning systems of individual tenants. Façade lighting is under photocell control, and all security lights are linked into the main integrated system, with LonMark schedulers ensuring accurate time scheduling, over-rides and staggered switch off. More than a thousand built-in alarms range from primary plant to personal calls from disabled toilets. John Reid, managing director of ICS, explains, ‘A contract such as Juxon House reflects today’s trends in our industry, requiring companies like ICS to become full systems integrators, pulling together equipment from a multitude of suppliers. ‘The engineering requirements are therefore substantial; engineering has become the key element of major contracts. Although the various products come to us as LON compliant, they do have to be engineered and integrated into the system. The communications protocols — switching, alarming, scheduling and the like — have to be established between the devices. ‘In fact, the engineering element of these contracts is becoming a significant element of the overall cost.’
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