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I'm pretty sure ASHRAE would disagree. BACNet is their Building Automation and Control Network standard, and has been a standard since the early-to-mid 1990's.

Back when I worked in that industry, Euroweenies were big on LON, which is proprietary. I'm not sure if that's still the case or not. But BACNet is quite stable and extensible, and is a real standard backed by a real standards body. (I used to work for an Automated Logic dealer, until about 2005 or so.)

Fuck Google and their toys. Gimme a commercial-grade, panel-mounted controller any day.

Just for the /.-ers that don't know much about this stuff, LON-anything is patent-encumbered. BACnet is far less so, since it was designed by ASHRAE instead of a corporation. BACnet was designed to be a standard from the get-go, while LON-whatever was developed by Eschelon and met whatever needs they had to sell their gear. That said, it may be one of those US vs. The World things, as Europe picked up LON as their de facto standard, and ASHRAE is the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers.

As far as Modbus goes, it was a low-cost also-ran that had been mostly left behind by all of the big players in the building automation industry. BACnet vs. LON has been the real turf war for over a decade now.

I used to work for an Automated Logic dealer in the early 2000's, and had to deal with this stuff daily. Making a LON bridge play nice with a BACnet network is not fun. Looking through their product catalog, I see they still have the SE Line controllers. Those were single-program, but had 6 digital outputs, 10 inputs, and 4 analog outputs. They'd be quite nice for some home applications. But the list price on those was right around $1000. And then you needed software, which ran another $8000-ish. And then you needed a network bridge (Ethernet-to-Arcnet), which was another $3000 or so. Then you had to wire up and program the thing, which would be far easier to do than to part with $12,000. Totally not worth it for home use unless you're a millionaire.

most new data centers are trying to do everything they can to use "free" cooling methods. indirect evaporative cooling, air side economizer, pre-warming the incomming city water for the heaters. litterly everything, they then also simulate the cooling systems based on outdoor temps for every hour of every day in an ASHRAE standard year for the location of the data center.

If you want a geek-friendly DIY version of this, the devices you speak of are called either Current Switches (for on/off units) or Current Transducers (for analog reading units). They're commonly used in HVAC automation to determine whether a device is running or not.

The HVAC controls shop I used to work for used the ones from Veris Industries, and they're quite solid. Kele has a lot of neat bits and pieces you can easily work with too.

These are US-based, but I'm sure there are similar shops for these things in other countries. Another international consideration is the network protocol. Europe mostly standardized on LON (de-facto, not a real standardization). In the USA, ASHRAE did actual studies, designs, and specs, and from this came BACNet. Don't bother with a LONTalk device if you're in the US.

Also, for lighting and other electricity controls, I just found Leviton yesterday. Some of that stuff looks interesting, and they have Ethernet interfaces for some of their stuff. (Finally! A real network protocol!)

I don't know about you, but I've become somewhat jaded when it comes to standards like these. Usually, there's one or more parties who stand to gain financially if the standards are implemented (naturally). But when those who benefit are those that impose the standards themselves, doesn't it become somewhat of a slippery slope?

Where I work, there was this company XXX who was touting some kind of solution to protect mobile phone users; if your phone is stolen, and you report it to the operator, there was some mechanism in place that would lock the phone when it was powered up. This could be done because each phone has a unique identifier, kind of like a MAC address. Problem was, the technical platform was supposedly half-baked and too pricey, so many of the operators rejected it. But then, they got the idea to approach the government - and lo and behold, the powers-that-be came up with some regulation and standards that all operators had to comply to. Best of all -- we had to use Company XXX's technology!

So the question is -- do the members (or more likely, ASHRAE's Technical Committee members) stand to gain financially by implementing this? I would think so, since ASHRAE's made up of persons in the HVAC and other related fields. Members will gain access to "many opportunities to participate in the development of that technology"

I fear that Woz will spend a bunch of money on another well-meaning but ulimately failed project.

So much of the new technologies we hear about are full of hype and unsupported claims. I wish the folks who are enthused about building the "next ground-breaking energy efficient house" would take the time to purchase, read and understand the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals, download some typical weather data for their locale, and then DO THE CALCULATIONS. If done properly, you can can find out how much energy each scenario will use. It is much cheaper to do this on paper than with bricks and mortar.

Someone like Woz would have no trouble figuring it all out.

"one which is as close to being carbon neutral as possible within economic constraints." (emphasis mine)
Nothing new here. They're going to scavenge waste heat from their power plant, do some intelligent rain water capture, and put the sewage through a wetlands for treatment. Mix in a decent recycling program, modern building standards on par with ASHRAE 90.1 2004 or California's Title 24, and efficient buildings and you're there. Pull in Amory from the Rocky Mountain Institute if you want a touch of inspiration (Solar powered traffic lights? Communal electric cars? Sewage fermented into methane for generators?) and call it a day. Not entirely carbon neutral, but as carbon neutral as possible within 'economic constraints.'

Is Arups any relation to Ove Arup? I think they're the guys who once put in a 5 acre lake to provide evaporative cooling for an adjacent office building (along with synergistic landscape and park benefits yadda yad). Sigh. I wish I had that kind of economically 'constrained' budget on my next building.

If you are young enough to handle it, how about getting into the HVAC trade? Try and get in as an apprentice with a company like Honeywell, Johnson Controls, or McQuay. All of the big industrial equipment (chillers, boilers, air handlers, etc.) is very advanced. Gone are the days that any old mechanic can change a relay and be done with it - at least when dealing with chillers.

I was in a similar boat just over 2 years ago. Fed up with sitting at a desk all day. Got hired as an apprentice and I've been enjoying it ever since. Probably learned more in the first week than I had done in 5 years previous. I don't work for an outfit that is heavily into controls though. But there are many out there.

Check out HRAI and ASHRAE for lots more information.

I work for a building automation contractor, and I can tell you, this stuff has been around for years. There's even a standard for stuff like this, and it's nothing nearly as lame as a new XML-DTD-that-will-save-the-world.

The standard is called BACnet (Building Automation and Control Network), and it was (and is) developed by ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers.

We (at my company) are a dealer for a particular brand of native BACnet controllers and software. It's all web-based. Everyone in the industry has web-based software now. Ours happens to be multi-site, too. And ours can interface easily with several hundred different manufacturers' products, including UPS and generator managers. We also frequently take direct control of chillers, which are huge power hogs. All of this can be programmed to maintain a steady climate, light areas appropriately, and keep equipment from failing prematurely, all while monitoring and controlling power usage.

This is hardly news, and certainly not standards-compliant.