Smart Buildings Systems for Architects, Owners and Builders

Smart buildings can reduce both the construction cost of the technology
systems as well as the overall building operations’ costs. The cost savings from
the smart building approach results in added value to the building as evidenced
by lower capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) expenses (Fig. 14.2).

Construction Costs

Construction costs for any building include the building technology systems that
are at the heart of a smart building, namely telecommunications, building
automation and life safety systems. There are construction costs for these sys-
tems whether the systems are installed separately or as integrated systems. The
construction cost savings for integrated systems are primarily attributable to
the efficiencies in cabling, cable pathways, labor, project management and sys-
tem management hardware and software (Fig. 14.3).
When the technology systems are installed separately, the project involves
more contractors and subcontractors. Each system’s contractor is installing a
system requiring cabling, cable pathways, equipment space, power, air condi-
tioning, servers and management consoles. Each mobilizes a workforce. Each
contractor must be managed, monitored and coordinated by the general con-
tractor. This results in tremendous overhead costs (Fig. 14.4).
The smart building consolidates the cabling infrastructure and the number
of contractors involved in construction. In an integrated system, the infrastruc-
ture cost, consisting of both cable and cable pathways, has a considerably
lower cost for labor. Project management and engineering costs are typically
reduced as well. The net result is that the smart building approach is less costly
than installing systems separately. Removing the redundancy saves capital
construction monies. Some examples are described in the following sections.

Maintenance

and

Alterations

Concept,

Design, and

Construction

Operations

25% 25%

50%

Figure 14.1 Life-cycle cost of a building.

160 Smart Building Systems for Architects, Owners, and Builders