Echelon Corporation Case Study

Published: August 1, 2000

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"The Echelon protocol allowed us to create a building that meets the three I's: it's intelligent, it's integrated, and it's interoperable. All of the Center's systems—air-conditioning, cardkey access, and lighting controls—are integrated and running off a single network."

Rob Stokes
Controls Project Mgr.
Holaday-Parks Inc.

In Seattle's new World Trade Center, where tenants enjoy million-dollar views across Puget Sound to the jagged peaks of the Olympic Mountains, Chief Building Engineer Brian Buckland enjoys a different outlook. In a tiny, windowless office off the lunchroom, Buckland looks through his computer monitor directly into the heart of the structure. Software from Visio Corporation was combined with partner applications to design and manage the control systems for this state-of-the-art "smart building."

Indeed, "building" seems a measly word to describe the massive digital nervous system controlling the structure's heat, air, lights, elevators, and cardkey access. The building controls are a collection of unseen but highly integrated subsystems that communicate using a special language, the LonWorks protocol developed by Visio Development Partner Echelon Corporation. It's Echelon's LonWorks system that makes the structure habitable. In effect, Chief Engineer Buckland sits at the cortex of a giant brain.

In 1997, while the architect and builder exchanged blueprints in Autodesk AutoCAD files, space planners imported AutoCAD DWG files into Visio Technical and began planning offices. Visio drawings for the 174,000 square feet of office space would eventually contain 444,000 shapes, including every wall socket, switchplate, desk, and storage cabinet.

Meanwhile, the systems integrators at Seattle's Holaday-Parks created drawings to show where wiring, control boxes, and other devices should be placed, and they installed the devices. In the World Trade Center East (the first of three linked structures), Holaday-Parks identified 232 HVAC zones—areas in which lights and air are jointly controlled.

The World Trade Center 's building controls in CIRCON's Visual Integrator.

The Visio floor plan shows lighting zones outlined in color and a temperature reading for each HVAC zone.

Each of the 232 zones has a sensor that reads the temperature and drives the VAV (variable air volume) boxes to provide warm or cool air, based on changes in solar gain, heat from lighting, and even the number of computers running in a room. At the request of the prospective tenants, there are never more than six offices per zone. This way, an office on the eastern perimeter doesn't freeze while warmer offices on the west are cooled. Zones also control open spaces where employees meet informally on sofas or enjoy a stress-reducing round of golf on a carpeted putting green. The LonWorks network reliably delivers thousands of control messages each day throughout the six-story structure. A message might be a temperature reading from a sensor or a new speed setting for a motor. To add to the complexity, Holaday-Parks collected groups of air and lighting zones into eight override zones. This accounts for the mysterious blue buttons found on every hallway. Employees who work after hours—when air and lighting have been shut down—can press an override button to restore service.

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Visio shapes come alive with real-time data
Open, integrated, and distributed control
New tenants move in
Additional Information

Visio shapes come alive with real-time data

Zones make it possible to distribute control. Each zone has a stand-alone microprocessor, called a node. There's a node for every AC zone, VAV box, and cardreader, for example. For Holaday-Parks, the size of the building and the complexity of integrating its HVAC, cardkey access, and lighting on one network made the job a challenge. Controls Project Manager Rob Stokes explains: "The complexity meant that we needed a lot of coordination up front to understand what the requirements were for lighting and security, and to incorporate those requirements into the electrical and mechanical designs. This was to ensure that as the builders and electricians did their work, they understood where and how air, lights, and security would be controlled." Holaday-Parks' involvement—from initial designs to final installation—lasted more than two years and involved more than 50 employees.

Meanwhile, in Buckland's hideaway, the systems come together in one interface on a single computer. Visual Integrator, by Echelon partner CIRCON, is a graphical browser for monitoring building controls for LonWorks networks. On the screen, the system's devices appear in a Windows Explorer-type hierarchy and in corresponding floor layouts. A Holaday-Parks controls technician supervisor, Engwin Chang, created the layouts by importing the architect's Autodesk AutoCAD files into Visio Technical, then populating each layout using drag-and-drop Visio shapes to represent actual equipment. In Visio Technical, says Chang, "I can group objects and manipulate them all at once."

First, Chang used Visio tools to create shapes like exhaust fans, cooling banks, and alarm points. Then he animated the shapes, so that when an alarm occurs, the point flashes onscreen, instantly alerting the building engineer. The SmartShapes symbols exchange real-time data with the network, something static CAD symbols cannot accomplish.

Not long ago, building engineers monitored air, electricity, and security systems from an array of computer monitors, each running a different interface. In those days, interfaces were little more than tables of numeric codes that the operator had to mentally translate into real-world events. One code meant a system was up and running; another meant an alarm was sounding. Thanks to Chang's animation efforts, on Buckland's monitor, fans spin and dampers open and close. The animated shapes are linked to the building's automation network. Because of the Visio drawings, Buckland explains, "numbers suddenly become self-explanatory."

"If the end user has to look at raw data, he often can't interpret it. With a visual interface, anyone can sit down and see what's going on with the building. People like colors and they like to see things moving.

Visio can do that."

Engwin Chang Controls Technician Supervisor Holaday-Parks Inc.

Open, integrated, and distributed control

The World Trade Center's LonWorks network is an open protocol for integrated controls that allows multiple vendors to produce devices like VAV boxes, cardreaders, and lights that can be linked to a single control interface. Open protocols are quickly replacing older, proprietary software/hardware packages, in which a builder had to purchase all devices in a system from a single vendor to run on that vendor's proprietary network. The trend toward decentralized controls integrated into one buildingwide network allows a builder to bid out devices separately, saving money. Later, after the building is occupied, the systems can be maintained from a unified interface on a single PC.

One of the key benefits of LonWorks networks is that it distributes control among subsystems, giving greater stability. If there's a problem with venting in one room, it can be pinpointed and fixed locallywhile the rest of the building continues to operate normally.

In fall 1999, Holaday-Parks plans to move the building controls to a new platform: Echelon's LNS Network Operating System. With LNS, the controls database becomes a server on the Internet, allowing Stokes to monitor the building controls remotely through an LNS application. Buckland and Stokes can collaborate more easily on ongoing maintenance while viewing the same controls simultaneously, in real time. Says Stokes, "This removes 95% of potential for error." Once LNS is in place, Stokes plans to install Echelon's network editor, LonMaker for Windows Integration Tool. The LonMaker tool allows integrators to fine-tune a configuration with client-server architecture under an easy-to-use Visio Technical interface. According to Rich Blomseth, product marketing manager at Echelon, "We chose Visio because of its ease of use for the end user as well as the ease of integration with LNS."

Animated, data-linked shapes in an air-conditioning unit.

Dampers are shown in their actual positions, a motor turns, and airflows are indicated by percentages.

New tenants move in

The ability of Visio Technical to import AutoCAD DWG files enables system integrators to work with the architect's blueprint, reducing errors in planning and placement. Visio Technical's open architecture enables partners like Echelon to build interfaces for installing and maintaining the LonWorks network, allowing remote troubleshooting and reducing response times. SmartShapes symbols provide the system operator with live-motion drawings that help him easily view and test the equipment at work throughout the building. In March 1999, the World Trade Center's new tenants, more than three hundred employees of Visio Corporation, moved into their new headquarters.

Additional Information

For more information: https://www.microsoft.com/office/visio