ABB HVAC drives integrate easily with BMS

Ease of integration with building management systems has lead to ABB HVAC drives being installed at the new Cheshire and Merseyside NHS Treatment Centre.

Ease of integration with building management systems has lead to ABB HVAC drives being installed at the new Cheshire and Merseyside NHS Treatment Centre based at Halton Hospital, which is operated by InterHealth Care Services (UK) in partnership with the Cheshire and Merseyside Primary Care Trusts The Native BACnet based building management system was installed by Controls Specialists Open Building Systems.

Andy Dutton, owner of Open Building Systems, says: "The ABB drives are very easy to integrate with the BMS.

We simply connect them to the communications network, enter their addresses in the system and it is virtually done".

"It's all very easy." The ABB HVAC drives are used to run air handling units and fans, for facilities such as operating theatres and MRI scanner rooms.

Eighteen ABB HVAC drives are being used on the project, in sizes ranging from four to fifteen kilowatt.

The BACnet communications protocol is native to the ABB HVAC drive, with no requirement for additional gateways.

The protocol is developed specifically for building services applications and used extensively in continental Europe as well as in the United States.

BACnet is increasingly being adopted by leading BMS manufacturers.

The protocol offers "plug-and-play" integration of devices in building services.

BACnet is embedded with the standard RS485 interface of the ABB HVAC drive.

Other protocols supported by the drive are Modbus, FLN, N2 Metasys, Profibus-DP, Interbus, Lonworks, CANopen, DeviceNet, Modbus Plus, ControlNet and Ethernet.

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