BACnet is a communications protocol for building automation and control networks.
It is an ASHRAE, ANSI, and ISO 16484-5 standard protocol. BACnet was designed to allow communication of building automation and control systems for applications such as heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning control, lighting control, access control, and fire detection systems and their associated equipment. The BACnet protocol provides mechanisms for computerized building automation devices to exchange information, regardless of the particular building service they perform. Proper communication between building automation devices is critical for maximizing building energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and other aspects of “green” buildings.
BACnet has been under active development since June of 1987 when the first meeting of Standard Project Committee 135P (SPC 135P) took place at the ASHRAE Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. The “P” in “135P” meant that the standard was in the process of being “proposed.” Who would have thought that it would take eight-and-a-half years to complete? Of course, there was a large body of skeptics who maintained that it could NEVER be done…
Finally, in 1995, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135 was published and BACnet was officially born! The next year ASHRAE Standing Standard Project Committee 135 (SSPC 135) was formed to interpret, maintain and extend the standard. In 2003, BACnet achieved the status of an International Organization for Standardization standard (ISO 16484-5). The same year, BACnet’s companion standard, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135.1, Method of Test for Conformance to BACnet, was published in the United States and sooned joined the BACnet protocol itself internationally as ISO 16484-6. Consolidated versions of both BACnet standards, including all errata and addenda, have been published every few years ever since and today BACnet is in use in hundreds of thousands of installations around the world.
