ATLANTA - New tests for features of BACnet and refinements to existing tests will be available under an addendum approved for publication at American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE's) 2005 Annual Meeting.

Addendum a to ASHRAE Standard 135.1-2003, "Method of Test For Conformance to BACnet," defines new tests for features of BACnet that have been added since publication of the testing standard as well as refinements based on experience testing BACnet products.

Standard 135.1 defines the steps to test whether a product or application conforms to the BACnet standard and correctly provides the features claimed by the supplier. "This addendum is notable because it is the beginning of an ongoing process. As the committee adds new features to BACnet, we will develop tests for those features," BACnet committee chair Bill Swan said.

Addendum b to ANSI/ASHRAE 135-2004, "BACnet - A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks," also completed public review shortly before the meeting. The BACnet committee is studying and responding to the 14 comments received. The proposed addendum contains new BACnet features related to advanced trend logging capabilities and specialized alarm handling capabilities important in Asian markets.

The BACnet committee also approved the last of its responses to the 53 comments received from the public review of BACnet/WS, the BACnet Web services proposal. BACnet Web services are intended to integrate building automation systems with various enterprise applications. "Experts from around the world submitted these comments," Mike Newman, XML Working Group chair, said. "We have adopted a number of the suggestions and are working on an improved revision of the BACnet Web services capability."

Publication date: 08/08/2005