The Basic of

Building Management System

(BMS)
By

Engr. Efren T. Pineda, PECE

ECE Consultant/Designer
Topics
What is a BMS or Building Management System?
Essential Features of BMS software
List of Equipment controlled by BMS or BAS in buildings
Main components of the BMS
BMS architecture in the modern -day building
General BMS architecture with Levels
Real-Time example for BMS
System Description
System Monitoring and Alarm
The AHU Sequence of Operation
List of Input and output points are required for the above -
discussed sequence of operation for AHU
Flowchart for AHU Control sequence of operation
What is a BMS or Building Management System?
In a nutshell, BMS otherwise called as BAS or building automation system is a
computer-based control system which reduces the workforce, automate the
system, and saving the energy consumption in buildings by monitoring and
controlling the mechanical and electrical equipment in modern-day buildings
or any industrial plants.
Not only that but BMS helps to
• Increase productivity
• Increase the equipment lifetime and better performance
• Identify the systems faults earliest
• Manage the building occupants/facilities in an effective manner
Nowadays any modern-day buildings built with BMS to support facilities
management to accomplish the maintenance and save the energy in the
building from one place of computers.
Essential Features of BMS software
• monitoring and controlling connected equipment in the building.
• The alarm should be a popup in operator workstation for any critical
faults in the system.
• Any types of equipment on, off status and alarm should be logged or
stored in PC to retrieve later.
• Schedule the equipment to on and off automatically by preset time.
• User interface graphics should be available to visualise the field
equipment to monitor for BMS operator easily.
List of Equipment controlled by BMS or BAS in
buildings
• HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning or all supply and exhaust fans, ACs etc.).

• Lighting control system.

• Fire alarm system.

• Firefighting system.

• Security control system.

• CCTV system.

• Lift control system.

• Pumping system.

• Water tanks level.

• Irrigation system.

• Electrical meters.

• Water Leak detection system.

• Split units.

• VFD-Variable frequency drives.

• VRF/VRV-Variable refrigerant flow or volume (both are same but each term copyrighted by a different vendor)

• And any other system which has provision for BMS to control and monitor.
Main components of the BMS
• Hardware
• DDC - Direct digital controller
• Sensors
• Actuators
• Cables to connect sensors, actuators to DDC
• HMI display - Human machine interface
• PC Workstation
• Server to save the extensive database
• Software
• Programming or configuration tools
• Graphics or User interface
• Networking protocols
• TCP/IP – Transfer control protocols/Internet Protocol
• BACnet – Building automation controller network - ASHRAE
• Modbus
• LonWorks
• CANbus
• and numerous protocols available.
Don’t worry about the various protocols, this all protocol doing the same task to transfer data from one device
to another device. anyhow we will discuss these each protocol in an upcoming post
BMS architecture in the modern-day building
However, BMS controls and monitor all the electrical and mechanical systems in buildings from BMS
workstation or HMI (Human Machine Interfaces), but not directly because each system has its dedicated
functionality and unique purpose like,
• HVAC System helps to facilitate and provide comfortable and healthy air conditioning to tenants
• The lighting control system which has a variety of lightings in buildings that needs to be on and off
effectively and save energy while tenants not available
• CCTV helps to facility management to secure the building
• Access control systems may also be used to control access into certain areas located within the interior
of buildings
• A fire alarm system is the life safety system to warn people by audio and visual to protect their lives
from fires, smoke, carbon mono oxide and other toxic elements for the human
• In case of fire Firefighting system aims to protect human life and property in the building by a large
amount of water and other gas
• UPS is to provide to the uninterrupted power supply in the building for electrical equipment
• Pumping system used in the building to pump the water to the required area
• Still tons of systems evolved in the modern-day building to facilitate the people
• All systems have their dedicated controllers and processing system due to the different functionality of
each system.
So BMS controllers or device designed for controlling and monitoring the HVAC system and other small
systems and integrate all other systems through dedicated networking protocols like BACnet, Modbus etc.
General BMS architecture with Levels
• Management Level: This is the front end for operator and engineer
used to visualize the graphics for controlling and monitoring the
systems which have computer workstation, server, web browser,
printers.

• Automation Level: BMS Router and other main controllers connected

in building network integrate the third-party system and connect BMS
devices.

• Field devices Level: this is Level where BMS controllers connect to

field systems sensors, actuators, and other panel circuits to monitor
and control.
Real-Time example for BMS
Any modern-day building client provides huge specifications for BMS, whereas here I am going to
take simple requirement to monitor and control the sequence of Air Handling Unit.
Let us see below the requirement of the client to monitor and control the sequence in a BMS.
Before we go detailed about how to design the BMS for the requirement, let us see some basics
components of the AHU-Air handling unit.
AHU Basics
AHU is an HVAC system which consists of the duct, fan, filter, cooling
coil, heating element, humidifier, sound attenuators, dampers, valves
and many more to regulate the air into the room by heating, ventilation
and conditioning to distributes the conditioned air through the building
and returns it to the AHU and also called as centralized AC in modern-
day building.
• Duct – It is the collection of metallic tubes that interconnected and
distributes the heated/cooled air to the required rooms.
• To monitor the duct air temperature in fresh, return and supply duct.
We have to install the duct temperature sensor in the duct.
• Fan Motor– Blower is used to circulate the air from fresh and return
duct to the supply duct.
• This fan motor controlled and monitored by the separate electrical
panel by the designed electrical circuit with the help of electrical relay
and contactor and providing an option to BMS system to
• On/Off the fan.
• Monitor the fan running status.
• Monitor the Fan motor overload fault status and many more.
• Filter – It is one of the main components in AHU to prevent the dust
and dirt particles from entering in the AHU.
• When the AHU fan motor started, the fresh outside air supplied into
the duct where filter components used to filter the dirty particles
continuously and to monitor the filter extreme dirty condition,
• Differential Pressure Switch (DPS) is used to install across the filter
and provide signals to BMS,
• When the filter gets dirty (technically DPS will send the signal to BMS
when the pressure reached more than pre-set across the filter, and
this same function can be used to monitor the fan status).
• Heating/Cooling element – It is used to cool or heat the water that
entered in the coil so that air in the duct can be heated or cooled
based on the user requirement.
• Either heating or cooling water enters into the coils are controlled and
monitored by valves on the pipe with the help of the valve actuator.

• Dampers- An HVAC damper is a movable plate, located in the

ductwork, that regulates airflow and directs it to areas that need it
most.
• Damper opening and closing position-controlled electrically with the
help of damper actuators, and these actuators have terminal for
control from BMS and terminal to monitor the feedback of position.
System Description
• The variable speeds Air Handling Units are used to serve air
conditioning need for all area of buildings.
• The Air Handling Unit comprises
• Variable Speed Supply Fan
• Chilled water coil with the 2-Way modulating control valve
• Duct mounted supply air pressure sensor
• Outdoor & re-circulating air modulating damper
• Carbon dioxide sensor.
• Supply and Return Air temperature sensors
• Supply air differential pressure switch
• Differential pressure switches for 2 set of filters
System Monitoring and Alarm
• Software alarms shall be generated at the operator workstation
whenever the run status of the supply fan (with differential pressure
switch) does not match the current command state.
• A failure alarm shall occur when the run status of the load shows no
operation, and the load has been commanded to be ON.
• An advisory alarm shall occur when the run status of the load shows
operation and the load has been commanded to be OFF. All alarms
shall be recorded in an alarm log for future review. Provide 15
seconds (adjustable) time delays before generating an alarm.
The AHU sequence of Operation
a. Auto Mode:
When the AHU start is in AUTO mode (i.e. selector switch installed in the MCC must be in Auto Position), the unit is
started and stopped from the BMS via a time schedule or BMS override command. When the start for the AHU is
initiated, the control program residing in the controller follows the following sequence
Start-Up:
The following sequence follows with a preset time interval per interlock equipment start-up:
1) Check Supply fan trip signal – Normal State
2) Supply Air Damper – Open Position
3) Outdoor Air Damper – Open Position
4) Return Air Damper – Open Position
5) Once the above conditions are satisfied, AHU is enabled to start in Auto mode or using a plant enable button on
the graphics in manual mode by the operator. Once enabled, BMS will automatically command the supply fan to
start.
6) Supply Fan shall start, and it’s associated Interlock equipment in sequence. Through the signal from the Diff.
Airflow Switch, if airflow is detected, the System will continuously run, if No airflow is detected by the DP Switch, the
Supply Fan will de-activated and send an Alarm to the DDC – for “No Airflow” and shut down the whole system
including its associated interlocks. If the Airflow switch signal is proved ‘ON’ then BMS will enable control loops.
 Shutdown:
When the shutdown command for the AHU is initiated, the control program
residing in the controller follows the following sequence.
1) Send Stop command to stop the supply fan
2) The outdoor air, return and supply air damper move to close
3) Move chilled water valve to close position
b. Manual (Hand) Mode:
When the AHU is the manual mode, the fans are started and stopped from the
AHU control panel. Other control except for fan on/off control shall function as
per the Auto mode.
c. Fire / Smoke Mode:
Fire condition is determined by the Fire Alarm Control Panel. AHU will
automatically shutdowns the whole system with associated interlocks.
4. AHU Control
The control program, on the feedback of air handling unit operation, initiates the
control algorithm. This algorithm consists of three controls. Each temperature,
pressure and ventilation control has its own control loop. The pressure control loop is
used to modulate the speed of the supply air fan hence supply airflow. The control
loops design to function as per the following explanation…

a. Temperature Control loop:

The supply air temperature installed in the duct will relay the measured signal
(temperature) to the DDC controller, the DDC controller compares this signal with set-
point (adjustable by the operator from BMS central) and generates an analog output to
the 2-way modulating cooling valve. Based on the difference between the two values,
a proportional-integral program will determine the percentage of the cooling coil
valves opening to achieve the desired condition. The default set-point value for the
supply air temperature is 13ºC (Adjustable).
b. Pressure Control loop:
The supply air pressure sensor shall be installed in the duct will relay the measured signal (static
pressure) to the DDC controller, the DDC controller compares this signal with the set-point
(adjustable by the operator from BMS central) and generates an analog output to the variable
frequency drive (VFD) of the supply air fan. Based on the difference between the two values, a
Proportional-Integral program will determine the percentage of the fan speed to achieve the desired
pressure. The set-point value for the supply air pressure for each AHU shall be adjusted.
c. Ventilation Control loop:
Demand control ventilation employs return air carbon dioxide controlling strategy.
A single carbon dioxide sensor sense carbon dioxide concentration in the return air duct and sent to
the DDC controller, the DDC controller compares the signals with return air carbon dioxide
concentration (Default carbon dioxide level difference value 400 ppm ).
Then DDC controller generates an analogue output to the outside air dampers and returns air
damper to modulate, based on the difference between the values, the Proportional integral program
will determine the percentage of the modulation of outdoor and return air dampers.
Minimum outdoor air quantity shall be governed either by building pressurisation requirement
(Input from Building differential pressure sensor) or 20% of the Maximum outdoor demand of the
AHU.
5. Alarms:
The following minimum alarms shall be generated on BMS
1) Filter Dirty Alarm: This is generated when pressure drop on each filter
exceeds the set value to indicate dirt accumulate at filters.
2) Fan Trip Alarm: A normally open “NO” volt free contact at the MCC panel
when closed will generate an alarm at the BMS indicating that the fan is tripped
3) Fan Fail: In case the supply air fan fails to start or if the differential pressure
switch across supply fan is not giving the signal according to the command due
to any reason then alarm shall be generated. In case of a fan fail alarm on the
BMS, due to abnormal behavior, the DDC controller will latch the alarm. The
operator has to acknowledge (reset) the alarm on the BMS once the trouble has
been checked and removed. The operator shall not be able to start the AHU
until the alarm s acknowledged and reset.
4) Temperature High & Low: Temperature HIGH and LOW alarms shall be
generated if the supply/return air temperature rises above or falls below the
supply /return air temperature alarm limit.
List of Input and output points are required for the
above-discussed sequence of operation for AHU
Some basic terms of digital electronics
• Analog Input: Analog inputs can come from a variety of sensors and transmitters. You can measure a whole bunch
of different things. The job of the sensor or transmitter is to transform that into an electrical signal. Here are a few
of the things you can measure with analogue sensors:
• Level
• Flow
• Distance
• Viscosity
• Temperature

• Digital Input: It allows a microcontroller to detect logic states either 1 or 0, otherwise called as VFC-Volt free
contact.

• Analog Output: In automation and process control applications, the analogue output module
transmits analogue signals (voltage or current) that operate controls such as hydraulic actuators, solenoids, and
motor starters.

• Binary Output: it is nothing but relay output from the controller to trigger on and off any equipment.
Now its time to choose the DDC controllers based on the above input and output point list.
Any BMS controllers manufacturer must have the basic controllers types of analogue input-output, binary
input, and output controllers either dedicated controllers or mixed of all types in a single controller.

For the above applications, we need to choose controllers that should accommodate 17 AI, 6 BI, 5 AO, and 1
BO(Note that temperature and humidity are two different analogue input)

Once controllers are designed, we need to calculate power load for each controller (available in controller
datasheet) and field devices to choose the right transformer rating for our DDC panel.

Next things are to write a program for our controllers to accomplish the above sequence,
First, we need to change English words into the flowchart then we can change it later on the different
programming language that required for BMS vendors either ladder logic or functional block or plain English
and etc.

Whatever it is, any BMS program functionality that will not go beyond the basic digital logic gates.
Flowchart for AHU Control sequence of operation