BACnet-capable drives speed commissioning at Blackburn Hospital

Over a hundred HVAC drives with native BACnet capability have been installed in the new Blackburn Hospital to control water pumps and motors for air-handling units. One of the key benefits was a significant time saving during commissioning. These ABB drives are said to be the only ones available with native BACnet capability. Neil Lawless, site manager of building-services contractor Haden Young at Blackburn, explains, 'BACnet makes the units much easier to commission. It saves the control specialists from having to spend time inputting gateways to talk to the equipment. BACnet enables the drives to download the settings they need once they're connected. Instead of taking between two and three hours to set up a drive conventionally, drives equipped with BACnet are ready to go in around 15 minutes.' Haden Young's control sub-contractor TAC Satchwell recommended the BACnet approach to make the project run more smoothly.

Related links:

• www.abb.co.uk/