Smart buildings - Spectrum, IEEE

18 IE E E S P E C T R U M • A u g u st 2 00 3 would instantly seal them off and contact authorities [see “The Road Ahead” on the Web at http://www.spectrum. ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/ aug03/bbroad.html]. For now, though, efforts to make buildings smarter are focusing on cutting costs by streamlining building operations like air conditioning and lighting. Building automation is critical to these efforts, mainly because it could reduce the annual operating costs of buildings by a whopping 3.6 to 7 cents per square meter, according to a 1999 study conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology [see “Getting a Handle on Costs,” http://www. s p e c t r u m . i e e e . o r g / W E B O N LY/ publicfeature/aug03/bbcost.html.]