ATLANTA, GA — BACnet®, the building controls standard published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), has moved a step closer to becoming an international and European standard.

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2001, “BACnet — A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks,” is being considered as an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and as a European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standard.

“This is important in the marketplace because in Europe, public projects are required to follow CEN standards,” said Steve Bushby, chair of the 135 committee. “This would give a market boost to BACnet technology in Europe. In addition, ISO standard status is particularly important in Asian markets. China and Japan are both growth areas for BACnet technology and ISO standard status will stimulate that growth.”

Standard 135 has been approved by ISO Technical Committee 205 as a draft international standard. It has been distributed to voting member countries of ISO/TC 205 for acceptance as an international standard.

The vote for both groups is expected to take place by Dec. 18, 2002, the society stated. If the draft is approved, Standard 135 will be published as international standard ISO 16484-5 and as European standard EN/ISO 16484-5. If the draft is approved with no negative votes, it would be published in January 2003.

According to ASHRAE, BACnet installations are located in 82 countries worldwide.

Publication date: 09/16/2002