March 2021

40 n BUILDING SERVICES March 2021 www.drivesncontrols.com Agriculture: a growing market for building controls W hen most people think about smart buildings and building automation, they think of large office buildings in city centres. But building automation systems (BASs) have applications far beyond the world of the corporate office. They can be applied in any building with HVAC, IoT devices, security systems, lighting, refrigeration or energy management needs. Indoor farming and food-processing plants are the perfect application for BAS software. As more plants implement IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technologies, they will need BAS software to manage the many facets of food production, automation, energy, and quality management. Here are some of the ways that some food production facilities are already benefitting from BAS. Environmental monitoring To ensure crops are growing with optimum efficiency, the environment in which they are produced is of utmost importance. Temperature, humidity, light levels and gas concentrations all affect growing crops. If the environment is not properly supervised, product quality can be affected, and food safety can become an issue. These factors can be all managed automatically by BASs to control the growing environment. For example, the software can monitor HVAC systems to ensure proper temperatures and airflows, as well as controlling humidity and gas concentrations where these parameters need to be managed. Light levels can also be controlled. Mushroom farms, for example, grow their crops in a minimal amount of light. For the mushrooms to thrive, air and gas levels need to be monitored. Ventilation is vital and can be monitored using sensors and managed by a BAS. The same is true for indoor or vertical farming installations, where the environment also needs to be controlled closely. Wireless sensors and software dashboards can help to optimise and automate the environment. Building automation systems are finding a new role controlling the environment in food-growing facilities. Chris Irwin, vice-president of sales for the EMEA region and vice-president of global marketing at the Siemens subsidiary J2 Innovations, reports on a revolution in agriculture. Robotic vehicles, used in conjunction with building control software, are helping to boost the productivity of mushroom farms by more than 300%