by Shane Henson — December 27, 2013—The U.S. market for building automation equipment is set to grow by more than 40% within a five-year period ending in 2017, according to findings within Building Automation Equipment—World—2013, a new report from global information company IHS Inc.
Building automation systems centrally manage the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of a structure. Compared to more basic mechanisms, building automation systems can save a considerable amount of energy consumption via scheduled periods of heating or through cooling controlled by a thermostat, to cite two examples.
Some vendors of building automation systems claim that energy savings of more than 30% can be obtained when evaluated against conventional HVAC systems. This is why building owners will increasingly look to building automation systems to achieve savings on energy consumption, especially as the cost of electricity keeps going up, says IHS.
All told, the U.S. building automation systems market will reach a projected $1.65 billion by year-end, up 5% from $1.57 billion in 2012. Solid growth ranging from 7 to 9% will follow in the next four years, with industry revenue forecast to hit $2.24 billion by 2017, equivalent to a 43% increase from 2012, says IHS.
The report notes that the spiraling cost of electricity is a major factor in the operational efficiency of a commercial building structure, which explains why building automation systems could play an important role. Prices for U.S. retail electric power will increase by 8% from 2012 to 2020, with a sizable proportion of the increase in price related to the investments being made by the market in renewable energy, says IHS.
“With budgets cut and many large companies struggling to grow at more than 5% on an annual basis, the higher cost of electricity could prove to be a major headache for commercial and government building owners,” said Sam Grinter, market analyst for the Building Technologies group at IHS. “Making buildings as efficient as possible is crucial to driving down energy consumption, and one way to increase energy efficiency is to install an integrated building automation system.”
