Paul Ehrlich, a well-known industry stakeholder and advocate of integrated and intelligent buildings.

Articles & Columns

• Why is it that control systems don’t work?  Focus on thorough control design and installation, coupled with good training and tools for continuous commissioning and monitoring. These are the keys to the delivery of high performance building operation platforms.

• When Does Building Automation Become Industrial Automation?  However tempting or logical it might seem to use industrial automation in complex building projects, it usually leads to problems (generally due to the technical and business practices “gaps”) that are greater than the benefits.

• BAS as a Tool for Existing Buildings Operations  Operations teams are tasked with running buildings that have minimal documentation and may never have been properly commissioned. New tools, processes, and training can help overcome these issues.

• Intelligent Buildings in the Age of Pneumatic Control?  How intelligent can a building be if most of the temperature control is provided by antiquated controls? 

• Integrated Lighting Control  Providing an efficient building requires good lighting control that includes coordinated scheduling, occupancy sensing, and daylight harvesting.

• Why Do Open Protocol Myths Still Abound?   We see plenty of opportunities for the industry to educate itself sufficiently to overcome these myths.

• Fundamental Changes  In June, Engineered Systems and Building Intelligence Group will be conducting the first Sustainable Solutions Conference. 

• Is Hospitality at the “Fringe” of the Intelligent Building Industry?  Hospitality-centric products appear to have been immune to the market pressure of open protocols, so we have solutions that do not enjoy the benefits of this advance nor can they readily integrate to the commercial controls.

• BAS System Tune Ups  Improving efficiency can be fairly complicated and expensive, but many changes can be made simply by tuning up the systems that are already in place.

• Integrating BAS’s To Everything All The Time?  Equipment or systems integrated to a BAS and how they are integrated is a project-by-project decision based on the needs of the client and the design.

• Smart Buildings Meet the Smart Grid  Keep the Smart Grid in mind as you start to work on your next project and think about how you can make the building a smart part of the Smart Grid. 

• The Coming Evolution of BAS Design  A good BAS design starts with a well thought-out sequence of operation and point list. 

• Advanced Controls Optimization for High Performance Buildings – Part II Water Side Last month’s column focused on the control of the air side with the use of strategies including demand controlled ventilation and static pressure reset. This month we would like to explore the control of the water side. 

• Advanced Controls Optimization for High Performance Buildings  Strategies that should be considered to optimize the operations of these systems using the control system to dramatically reduce energy usage.  

• The State of the Building Automation Market  “who makes the best building automation system?” 

• The dawn of the era of the Intelligent Building?  The simple answer is that a convergence that has been building for years is now occurring.

• Commissioning An Intelligent Building  Interoperability testing is an important key to the success of multi-manufacturer BAS’s and will become even more important to the success of Intelligent Buildings.

• BAS and Advanced, Integrated Lighting Control  New technologies including the use of wireless communications, networking and open standards are making the deployment of advanced lighting control practical in both new and existing building projects.

• Building Automation Wishes for a New Year  As with technology in general each advance seems to reveal the need for more advances to achieve that elusive state of perfection.

• BAS Use of Ethernet / IP Infrastructure II  Use of Virtual Local Area Networks

• BAS Use of Ethernet/IP Infrastructure Simply put, should a BAS use its own dedicated Ethernet/IP system, or should it use that provided for the building’s business-enterprise communications and managed by the IT department?

• Data Center Building Automation  In many ways data centers come closest to blurring the line between commercial and industrial controls in our industry.

• Selecting the Building Automation or Systems Integration Contractor  The process that we use involves a formal “Request for Proposals” (RFP), allowing us to gather information and evaluate it in an impartial manner.

• Differentiating an Intelligent Building These three levels of an Intelligent Building system can result in a significant improvement of system operations, operational efficiency, and high level tools for facility assessment and optimization.

• An Intelligently Green Building  The imagination of the building design team (along with the willingness to research and specify the technology and products involved in this integration) is the only limit to creating intelligently green buildings. 

• Controlling Demand Response  A building that has been designed for demand response can readily drop electric loads with little impact on the occupants.

• Campus Automation Presents Unique Challenges  Multiple interfaces makes campus-wide optimization, data mining, and energy and operational analysis difficult.  

• More on the Challenge of Writing the Controls Specs….   Open/standard communications protocols is probably the most important example of where a specification should contain explicit, prescriptive requirements.

• Writing the Controls Specs…. One of life’s great challenges  In reality the design of the controls system really starts with the selections made for the mechanical and electrical systems and a good understanding of how the building will be operated.

• Green Intelligent Buildings – a Brief History  The original concept of Energy Management, which later became Building Automation, started in earnest as a result of the OPEC oil embargo in 1973. 

• How Automated Are Our Green Buildings?  The new draft “LEED for Healthcare” document is not poised to add any new warmth to our hearts.  A close look at this document (or any LEED rating system for that matter) reveals very little direct reference to the use of building automation.  In fact the term “building automation” appears to be used only once in the entire document!  

• New Year, New Beginnings  “We don’t plan to fail, but often fail to plan”.  

• Delivering Sustainability   Sustainability is a complex issue and involves many decisions ranging from the use of recycled materials to safe cleaning chemicals.

• Intelligent Buildings Roadmap  “The industry needs to get together to integrate or at least educate all of the people that are involved. The owner cannot integrate the industry, the architect cannot integrate the industry, the industry must integrate itself and take the lead…” 

• Intelligent Buildings – Today!  The concept of an Intelligent, Smart or “Next Generation” building has been around for years.

• Help Wanted: Building Systems Architect

• Why your next project should be an Intelligent Building  In addition to being a better building to live, learn, work and play in it can also be a very satisfactory investment for any owner.  

• February Supplement Engineered Systems
  A Healthy Fear of Technology!
  Building Automation System Ethernet Switch Selection
  Joe Stasiek, Sales Manager, George Thomas, President Contemporary Controls
  A Return To Growth
  James McHale i&i limited
  Defining The Intelligent Building Control Market
  Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com

• The Time is Now for Intelligent Buildings  Learn why at AHR Expo

• August Supplement Engineered Systems
  What Is An Intelligent Building?
  Growing Greener Buildings with Automation 
  Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
  What’s The Role For Advanced Technologies In Green Building Design? 
  Thomas Hartman, P.E. The Hartman Company

• Elevating our Industry The time has come to work together to promote and educate end users and owners on the benefits of Intelligent Buildings. 

• XML Update From Chicago Meeting June 3rd  Helping us find facility managers, energy managers, asset managers, property managers, etc. who would be willing to participate over the next 2 - 3 months would be great. 

Interviews

• oBIX is now an OASIS Committee Specification Paul Ehrlich PE, President, Building Intelligence Group Toby Considine – Technology Officer, Facility Services, University of North Carolina Being approved as an OASIS committee standard means that oBIX has had a successful public review and that the committee has voted for approval.

• Intelligent Buildings  We have seen strong progress toward delivery of Intelligent Buildings. The technologies have become more economical, the integrators more sophisticated, but most importantly owners are starting to demand it.

• Building Intelligence Tour – Who, What and Why
  The Building Intelligence Tour is a series of educational seminars that help building owners, consulting engineers, integrators and suppliers understand the benefits, technology and solutions involved in Intelligent Buildings.

• Buildy Vision Award – One Year Later  In 2004 Paul Ehrlich was awarded the first ever Buildy Vision Award. This award was based on peer nominations and voted on by BuilConn attendees.

• Enterprise@BuilConn The concept of Enterprise Integration is that groups of buildings can now be centrally managed and also that we can connect Building Systems to Business Systems.

• The Who, What, Where, and When of BuilSpec  Paul Ehrlich and Anto Budiardjo The BuilSpec seminar series was created to provide technical owners and consulting engineers with an objective and clear understanding of the technologies, initiatives and trends that are reshaping the building systems playing field.

• What is oBIX? oBIX is an industry wide initiative to define XML and Web Services based ways to present buildings related information.

Reviews

• Commercial Buildings Initiative Workshop - New York  What if commercial buildings didn’t use any energy? While this sounds like science fiction, it is the goal of a new effort called by the Commercial Buildings Initiative or CBI

• Building Automation 2006 Conference The event was a rousing success, bringing together building owners, consulting engineers, suppliers and experts for a two day event focused on planning and change.

• Event Report ZigBee Open House – Oslo, Norway June 15, 2005 The event was open to the public and featured seminars and exhibits featuring ZigBee and other mesh solutions.  Attendance was strong, with over 300 participants. 

Other related articles/interviews published 2004-2005

“Observing Protocol – What’s in Store for BAS?” Engineered Systems. (roundtable) May and June 2005 http://www.csemag.com/article/CA601652.html http://www.csemag.com/article/CA601687.html
“The New Buzz”.  Journal of Property Management. (interview) March / April 2005.  http://www.syska.com/news/articles/irem_newbuzz_0305.pdf
“oBIX Gets a New Co-Chair”.  CSE online. (article) March 2005
http://www.csemag.com/article/CA513355.html
35 People to Watch at the Intersection of Real Estate and Technology”. RealComm Advisory. February 2005.  http://www.realcomm.com/advisory.asp?aid=136
“Building Management – Moving Into the Future”  Engineered Systems.(article) February 2005.  http://www.esmagazine.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2503,142999,00.html
“BuilSpec Spec Tips”.  Consulting Specifying Engineer. (interview) December 2004. 
http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/article/CA487680.html
“Zigbee – What’s That?” (interview)  Consulting Specifying Engineer, November 2004
http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/Consulting-SpecifyingEngineer/2004/11/01/653831?extID=10026
“BuilSpec About the IT Sea Change. (interview) Consulting Specifying Engineer.October 2004. 
http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/article/CA473233.html
“On the Road to Wireless” (article)  Contracting Business Magazine, October 2004. 
http://www.contractingbusiness.com/news/article.cfm/newsarticleid/901
“The X Factor – Understanding XML and oBIX” (interview)  Buildings.  July 2004. 
http://www.buildings.com/Articles/detailBuildings.asp?ArticleID=1975
“XML Q&A”. (interview) HPAC, July 2004.
http://www.hpac.com/microsites/pdf/arnold_0410.pdf
“oBIX interoperability picture becomes clearer at Builconn”. (interview)  Consulting Specifying Engineer, May 2004.
http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/article/CA420983.html
“Connecting the Dots Surrounding XML / Web Services”  Engineered Systems. (interview) May 2004
http://www.esmagazine.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2503,123935,00.html
“The Future of Facility Management” (author) HPAC.  May 2004. 
http://www.hpac.com/member/archive/0405freaks.htm
“What does the future hold for BAS?” (interview)  Consulting Specifying Engineer.  January 2004.
http://www.keepmedia.com/ShowItemDetails.do?item_id=362827&extID=10026

Professional Information

In 2004 he formed the Building Intelligence Group an independent consultancy, whose primary purpose is to help system suppliers as well as building owners and managers, manoeuvre their operations through the vast changes prompted by open systems, convergence and enterprise building management. The main focus is in the areas of facility and IT integration, convergence and intelligent buildings. Clients include major systems manufacturers, technology providers, integrators and property developers.

Previously Paul was with Trane where he served as Business Development Leader guiding the global direction and development of Trane’s line of building control products. Prior to working for Trane, Paul worked for Johnson Controls providing solutions to building owners.

Throughout his career, Paul has been actively involved with various industry groups involved in the creation of new automation standards and technologies. Previous roles include chairing the ASHRAE Guideline 13 committee on how to specify DDC controls, chairing the BACnet sub-committee on interoperability, and acting as the inaugural chair for the oBIX committee to establish XML standards for building controls.

At BuilConn 2004, Paul was honored with a Buildy Vision Award for his perseverance in promoting whole building integration and interoperability through advocacy, promotion, educational and training endeavors.

Paul has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. He is a licensed engineer in the State of Wisconsin and lives with his family in White Bear Lake Minnesota.

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