AutomatedBuildings.com Article - Convenient Access to Your Building


"With Infinity's web access, we can make our facility available to researchers all around the world. It doesn't matter where they are located as long as they have a computer and Internet access. With Infinity's Internet capabilities, you can turn your PC workstation into an operator's console."	Priscilla B. Janson, Marketing Writer, Andover Controls Corporation 978-470-0555 x237 jansonp@andovercontrols.com

Control and monitor your building with your web browser? With Andover's built-in Web Server feature, you can! Now available to our customers in Infinity software Revision 2.17 and Continuum controllers Revision 1.02 and higher, Andover's Web Server capabilities allow you to retrieve your facility's data and control and monitor your building automation system using your web browser and an Internet or Intranet (TCP/IP) network. From a computer at the office, at home, or on vacation-you can get real-time and convenient access to your building. Even a casual computer user can use their favorite web browser such as Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer™ to retrieve equipment status reports, check alarms or room temperatures, change setpoints, and perform system diagnostics and routine maintenance. Building personnel can "surf" multiple building sites located anywhere in the world to extract information for billing purposes or obtain equipment run-time data without leaving the office! And combining the full power of Andover Controls' programming language, Plain English®, and the Web's Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), you can even create custom web pages that display in "real-time" all your equipment information in a familiar point-and-click format.

The possibilities are endless-read on to learn how several Andover customers are discovering the power of Andover Controls' Web Server feature to meet their unique information retrieval needs.

One of Andover Controls' original beta sites for the Infinity Web Server feature was the Iowa Energy Center's Energy Resource Station (ERS), located on the campus of Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). The ERS is a one-of-a-kind research, demonstration, education, and training facility for commercial HVAC and building systems technologies. The ERS provides practical information to building and business owners, architects, engineers, and operation and maintenance personnel and utility companies on cost-effective, energy-efficient technologies for commercial and industrial buildings. The ERS is the flagship of the Iowa Energy Center's (IEC) building research efforts. The Iowa Energy Center is a state organization dedicated to increasing Iowa's energy efficiency and use of renewable fuels.

The ERS has four identical test rooms in which three commercial HVAC systems, one of which is an Andover Controls Infinity system, are tested under "real world" environmental conditions. Recently, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) awarded a research grant to MIT University, Loughborough University (England), and the University of Tennessee to carry out a year-long study on fault detection and diagnostics in commercial buildings using the ERS facility as their research site. The Infinity Web Server feature allows the research team to monitor the progress of their testing and retrieve live data from the Andover system from anywhere in the world via the Internet. From the ERS/Andover web site, researchers can scroll through "live" list views of every Infinity point in the ERS facility. According to Kurt Klaassen, Manager of ERS, "With Infinity's web access, we can make our facility available to researchers all around the world. It doesn't matter where they are located as long as they have a computer and Internet access. With Infinity's Internet capabilities, you can turn your PC workstation into an operator's console."

You can tour ERS's site yourself by clicking on Andover Controls Web site at www.andovercontrols.com, clicking on the Infinity Web Server page, and then clicking on the link entitled "Tour a Live Beta Site."

Thanks to Andover's Infinity Web Server feature, residents of a classroom/office building on the Purdue University Calumet campus are now able to manage their personal space temperature via the web. Purdue Calumet is part of the internationally respected Purdue University system. Located in Hammond, Indiana, the Calumet campus enrolls more than 9,000 students. Mike Kull, Purdue Calumet's Executive Director of Facilities and Logistical Support Services, and Rich Trznadel, Facilities Supervisor, worked in partnership with Hoekstra Building Automation (HBA), the Andover Controls Representative who installed the Infinity system on the campus, to create a "climate control interface" web site for their new CLO classroom/office building. By simply clicking on the CLO web site, professors and facilities staff can view and change room temperatures and adjust temperature setpoints. The graphical interface on the web site is extremely easy to use. Just click on the applicable floor number button and select a classroom or office by clicking in the appropriate zone. A list view with temperatures and setpoints for all rooms in that zone displays on the screen. Click on a specific room number, enter a username and password, select a new setpoint within a 71º F. - 75 º F. range, and click the "Submit" button.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the world's largest indoor aquarium, uses an Andover Infinity system for not only the facility's HVAC and access control, but also to control and monitor the life support systems for several of its aquatic exhibits. Currently the Shedd's marine biologists and lab staff use the Infinity Web Server feature in conjunction with their life support systems to retrieve live data from the penguin and sea horse exhibits. They can view the space temperatures, setpoints, discharge temperatures, tank pressures, etc., pertaining to these exhibits via the Shedd's intranet network. According to Tim Nitsch, an Account Executive at HBA, the aquarium will eventually expand the Web Server capabilities to interface with their Infinity HVAC and security systems also.

Brad Popovich, Shedd Aquarium's Operation Manager, adds, "We believe that this type of information system will take us into the 21st century and beyond. And now, because the information is shared instantaneously, we can provide a safer environment for the animals while maintaining state-of-art business practices."

For more information on the Andover Controls' Web Server feature available in Infinity Revision 2.17 and Continuum controllers Revision 1.02 and higher, contact Alan Williams at 978-470-0555 x275 or e-mail him at williamsa@andovercontrols.com.