Glossary

The language of building intelligence.

A working glossary for owners, consultants and integrators — the terms that show up in an IBMS scope, a point schedule or a commissioning meeting.

Plain definitions, not acronym soup.

IBMS: Intelligent Building Management System: the integration layer that unifies building subsystems into one operating picture.
BMS: Building Management System: the plant-level system that controls HVAC, lighting and other building services.
BAS: Building Automation System: the control system for mechanical and electrical services, often used interchangeably with BMS.
Point schedule: The list that defines every point, its address, range, alarm limits and naming.
Interlock: A rule that makes one system respond to an event in another, such as access opening a room and triggering lighting and HVAC.
Trend log: A time-stamped history of a point or group of points, used for analysis and performance review.

BACnet: An open building-automation protocol used by plant, AHUs and BMS; BACnet/IP runs over Ethernet.
Modbus: A simple serial or TCP protocol widely used by meters, inverters, sensors and PLCs.
KNX: A building-control standard for lighting, shading and room control, common in Europe.
DALI: A digital lighting protocol for dimming and addressing individual luminaires.
DMX: A lighting-control protocol used for theatrical, architectural and scene lighting.
1-Wire: A low-speed bus for sensors such as temperature probes.
EnOcean: A wireless, energy-harvesting protocol for sensors and switches.
REST API: A web interface for exchanging data with a system, typically over HTTPS.

HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning: the plant and distribution that control temperature, humidity and fresh air.
RCU: Room Control Unit: the in-room controller that coordinates lighting, HVAC, shading and service requests in a hotel guest room.
PMS: Property Management System: the hotel front-office system that manages reservations, check-in and check-out.
OCPP: Open Charge Point Protocol: the standard for communicating with EV charging stations.
Access control: The system that manages who can enter which door, when, and records the event.

Setpoint: The target value a control loop maintains, such as 22 °C or 600 ppm CO2.
Alarm rationalisation: The process of reducing, ranking and grouping alarms so operators can act on what matters.
CO2: Carbon dioxide concentration, a proxy for ventilation and occupancy; high-performance targets are below 600 ppm.
PM2.5: Fine particulate matter; high-performance targets are below 15 ug/m3.
TVOC: Total volatile organic compounds; high-performance targets are below 0.4 mg/m3.
Demand-controlled ventilation: A control strategy that modulates fresh air based on CO2, occupancy or air quality.
Baseline: The reference consumption or performance against which savings and operation are measured.

Next step

Send it to our engineers. If it belongs in an IBMS scope, we will add it or explain how we use it.