The Smart Buildings Academy Podcast | Teaching You Building Automation, Systems Integration, and Information Technology

One of the biggest struggles that any person faces is what career path to go down. This is even more true in building automation. You see, building automation doesn’t naturally lend itself to a “path…

Depending on what studies you read, 40% to 60% of the Building Automation Systems installed are more than 20 years old. On the surface, this wouldn’t be much of an issue but the real problem is that …

Have you ever stopped and thought about what is required to create a good BAS design... and then once that design is created, what deliverables should you expect to receive? 

If this topic seems a li…

You've got an IP controls network and you're in a world of hurt because it's not working. You search Google looking for ideas, tech support puts you on hold for hours trying to help the thousands of …

In my last podcast episode, I explained what IP BAS controls are. 

In this episode, I'm going to be diving even deeper down the rabbit hole and exploring how to design IP control systems. This episod…

IP controls are one of the hottest trends in the building automation world right now.

Yet for many folks in the BAS profession, IP controls are a mystery. Despite the prolific marketing by some of th…

You can master networking... 

But you need to start now! In this episode, I give you 7 tips that have been immensely helpful to me over my career in BAS.

That's it... No fluff just tons of valuable i…

What is a building automation server? 

What does it do? 

Should I cloud host my server? Should I use a desktop or server class platform?

If you've ever wondered these questions then this episode is f…

In last weeks podcast episode, I talked through how you can enter the building automation field. But what if you are already in the field?

More specifically, what if you are trying to build your own …

Do you want to have a career in building automation systems? Does it seem like every job interview ends in a salary that is too low or you being told you don't have enough experience? If this sounds…

I recently went through a 3-day power outage. It was utterly debilitating. Our well pump wouldn't run leaving us without water and we ended up loosing all our food. The good thing is we were prepared…

Man, I am so stoked for this episode. I've got to say out of all the episodes I've recorded I think this is the most value packed episode of them all!

As you may or may not know, at the time of this …

I've gotten a lot of questions from my subscribers about BAS networks lately. I actually find this interesting as there is a definite uptick. 

I get it, networks can be ultra confusing and most folks…

Naming standards.

As you know I'm a bit of a standard fanatic.

The reality is most of the BAS problems I have experienced have come from when people went off into left field and created designs that …

Most BAS training at the end of the project is terrible.  I know you've been there. You bring in 2 dozen donuts and a jug of coffee and hope and pray that you can keep the customer's attention for m…

Alarms, they can make or break your BAS. Yet so many building owners seem to just accept that having a crappy alarm design is just par for the course.

Why is this? 

Is it possible to have a structure…

When I say redlines and as builts what do you think of? 

Do you think of how much redlines and as builts can impact the success of your project?

Do you think about how much redlines and as builts can…

CSI MasterFormat is the defacto standard for specification formatting. But how does it work?

What are the gotchas you need to be aware of?

By the time you finish this episode you will know:

• What Mas…