Building Automation Systems Technicians

Automation technologies may seem new, but building automation technology has been around for more than 400 years. In fact, around 1620, the Dutch inventor and engineer Cornelius Drebbel created one of the first building system control devices: an egg incubator with an automatic valve that kept the incubator at a constant temperature. It is considered to be the first thermostat. In 1883, a teacher and inventor named Warren S. Johnson patented the electric room thermostat. It was used to control the temperature in boiler rooms. Johnson went on to found Johnson Controls (which, today, is a multinational building controls company). In 1906, an American engineer named Mark Honeywell developed the first programmable thermostat, which was just the beginning of decades of advances in automation that include the invention of heat regulators, programmable logic controllers, direct digital control systems, motion sensors, networked devices, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, and other emerging technologies. The need for technicians has increased as demand grows for the installation of BAS technology in large buildings to improve efficiency and reduce energy costs. These systems will also increasingly be installed in smaller buildings to take advantage of these benefits. “In the U.S., if existing building automation systems are used effectively and low-cost BASs are deployed in commercial buildings that currently do not have BASs, almost 30 percent of commercial building energy consumption can be eliminated,” according to “Building Automation: Where is it Today and Where it Should Be,” from IEEE.