Comments on: Are Commercial Buildings Ready for Open-Source Energy Management?

By: JimA

JimA — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:32:09 +0000

Re: Alex – standard protocols are not open source – they are implemented in proprietary systems, and the standards are often ‘enhanced’ by a manufacturer (if not just interpreted differently), which can cause headaches for any other mfg. on the same network.

Yes, Niagara can glue anybodies anything together, but you had to pay for the license, and you must use the framework to develop the machine & human interfaces.

By: Chu: For Green Building Design, We Need to Go Open Source

Chu: For Green Building Design, We Need to Go Open Source — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:01:36 +0000

[...] Scholten, vice president of business development for NovusEdge, told us recently that it’s time for the commercial building energy management industry — which is now [...]

By: Four short links: 19 June 2009 | Design Website

Four short links: 19 June 2009 | Design Website — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:54:46 +0000

[...] Open Source Energy Management for Commercial Buildings — open source project to enable interoperable applications for integrated Building Automation Systems (BAS). From NovusEdge. I wonder how they’re planning to spread their open source and use it to disrupt. (via earth2tech and timoreilly on Twitter) [...]

By: Four short links: 19 June 2009 | Tech-monkey.info Blogs

Four short links: 19 June 2009 | Tech-monkey.info Blogs — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:42:06 +0000

By: P2P Foundation » Blog Archive » Open source energy management in buildings

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:50:23 +0000

[...] article by Katie Fehrenbacher in Earth2Tech, mentions the OpenLynx project, started by Anno Scholten, vice president of business [...]

By: Links 12/06/2009: Hadopi Down | Boycott Novell

Links 12/06/2009: Hadopi Down | Boycott Novell — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:15:45 +0000

[...] Are Commercial Buildings Ready for Open-Source Energy Management? Picture the lighting and chillers of commercial buildings being controlled by a system designed in the same way as Mozilla’s Firefox — through open source, the collaborative method of developing software source code. While we’ve covered open source-based home area energy management systems, the OpenLynx project, started by Anno Scholten, vice president of business development for NovusEdge, is looking to tackle the underlying software that controls the energy consumption of massive commercial buildings. [...]

By: Open Serendipity » Open Energy Projects?

Open Serendipity » Open Energy Projects? — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:14:11 +0000

[...] – No code yet, but a this earth2tech article says: “…the OpenLynx project, started by Anno Scholten, vice president of business [...]

By: Shai Sachs

Shai Sachs — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:03:18 +0000

Has anyone had a chance to find and download the OpenLynx source code? I tried browsing the CVS repository via SourceForge, and there doesn’t appear to be anything there. Nor does a Google search turn up anything useful. I suppose the proper forum for this sort of question is the forum at SourceForge, but the only activity there are a couple of messages saying “where is the source code?” (see http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=3185105&forum_id=825830). Is any of the OpenLynx source code available to the public, and if so, where?

By: The Daily Five: Wednesday, 10 June, 2009 | EcoTech Daily

The Daily Five: Wednesday, 10 June, 2009 | EcoTech Daily — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:02:12 +0000

[...] Will commercial buildings start having their energy use managed by the likes of Mozilla? OK, so maybe not Mozilla, but there is open-source software being developed that could be implemented in commercial buildings to manage their energy use. I am all for this, as the ingenuity of the public is sometimes way better than that of only a few people stuck in a room somewhere. [...]

By: Links 09/06/2009: Fedora 11 Released | Boycott Novell

Links 09/06/2009: Fedora 11 Released | Boycott Novell — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:27:37 +0000

By: Karsten Wade

Karsten Wade — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:31:22 +0000

Great article on the round table, it was very informative being there. If anyone is interested in hearing how and why open source has revolutionized IT, I have the presentation slides plus full notes available here:

http://quaid.fedorapeople.org/presentations/ConnectivityWeek_2009/resources.html

Regarding the uphill battle and open protocols, it is hard to beat the ubiquity of IP. There will be ways to solve and interoperate. The main silo effect that Anno was discussing was not in the open systems installed in buildings. It was the proprietary software and remaining proprietary devices in buildings.

There is a very clear set of reasons why open source has gained so much ground and is winning so many battles. FIrefox is literally the tip of the iceberg. Linux is by magnitudes the dominant operating system on embedded devices. Server share is significant. The consumer desktop/laptop market is just barely beginning.

The same circumstances that have made open source so dominant in IT are present in building automation. From my perspective outside looking in, it is only a matter of time before open solutions replace the closed ones, with time being on the side of the open source efforts.

By: Are Commercial Buildings Ready for Open Source Energy Management? - Earth2Tech | Open Source News

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:22:46 +0000

[...] Read More advertising Tags: Chillers, Collaborative Method, Commercial Buildings, Developing Software, Energy Management, Firefox, Lighting, Mozilla, Open Source, Software Source Code, Source Energy ← Mac vs. Linux support for Windows users – CNET News Magirus and Ingres Sign Distribution Agreement to Market Open … – Business Wire (press release) → [...]

By: 4smartgrid

4smartgrid — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:09:17 +0000

Alex,

Do you think companies like Google should shift focus to commercial buildings with their push for open/free platform for energy management? Their focus on residential market is missing out the 40% of total energy buildings consume. Perhaps they could make bigger impact by pushing for open source in commercial arena.

By: What to read on the GigaOM network

What to read on the GigaOM network — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:48:27 +0000

[...] be pre-loaded on Nokia N97 (NewTeeVee) Video: Comparing the Viliv X70 and the S5 UMPC (jkOnTheRun) Are commercial buildings ready for open-source management? (Earth2Tech) Open-source networker Vyatta raises $11M (OStatic) Zero-guilt activities for when you [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:30:48 +0000

The building automation industry, controlled by large companies like Siemens, Johnson Controls and Honeywell, have created automation technologies that work well on their own but largely live in silos (each one is based on a different non-compatible platform) and mostly don’t rely on the common language of Internet Protocol.

Building automation controls have been moving to standard protocols for at least ten years now. Many support LON or BACnet now. Tridium can also glue many differenet systems together.

These guys will have a long uphill battle to get any market share. By the time they get up and running with a product, I don't think there will be a need for another open protocol.