Honeywell is working with Massachusetts-based electronics company Analog Devices (ADI) and Dutch electronics firm NXP to improve smart buildings in deals announced at last week’s CES in Las Vegas.

The deal with ADI will see the two companies explore the digitisation of commercial buildings by upgrading to digital connectivity technologies without replacing existing wiring.

And the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with NXP should help optimise the way commercial buildings sense and securely control energy consumption.

The MoU with ADI could help reduce cost, waste and downtime. The alliance aims to bring these technologies to building management systems for the first time.

Many of the commercial buildings in the USA are outdated and inefficient and, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), most of them were built before 2000. Additionally, organisations are relying on networking technology to transmit ever-greater volumes of data, causing a surge in demand for cloud storage and processing speed.

Digitising building management systems will let managers reduce energy consumption through real-time decisions, while it will upgrade a building’s network performance and security to current IP networks without extensive costs and remodelling.

“For more than a decade, ADI and Honeywell have collaborated on driving the next waves of innovation,” said Martin Cotter, senior vice president of Analog Devices. “In this next phase of our work together, we are thrilled to see these ADI technologies move beyond factory automation and into Honeywell’s building management system to help customers reduce building energy consumption, which can save money, improve resiliency and help meet emissions reductions goals.”

Suresh Venkatarayalu, Honeywell’s chief technology officer, added: “Honeywell is revolutionising building management systems to help building owners tackle today’s biggest challenges. This collaboration with ADI would offer building owners the ability to upgrade and enhance their wiring without a significant upfront investment, and with less labour and environmental impact.”

Honeywell plans to adopt ADI’s single-pair Ethernet and software configurable input-output offerings in its building management systems. ADI’s single-pair Ethernet enables long-reach Ethernet connectivity with the possibility of reusing a building’s existing wiring, reducing installation time and cost, and reducing waste. Single-pair Ethernet complements existing Ethernet connectivity in building management systems, bringing enhanced connectivity from the edge to the cloud, helping eliminate data islands and better using assets.

ADI’s offering would also reduce product complexities by letting Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) build a single version of the product for different needs, allowing more future-proofed control and automation for when a building is remodelled, or requirements change. This helps increase the speed of product installation, reduces inventory needs, and enables easier and more affordable changes.

Analog Devices (www.analog.com) combines analogue, digital and software technologies to drive advancements in digitised factories, mobility and healthcare, combat climate change, and connect humans and the world. It had revenue of more than $12bn in 2023 and has approximately 26,000 workers and 125,000 global customers.

The collaboration with NXP aims to help make buildings operate more intelligently by integrating NXP’s neural network-enabled, industrial-grade applications processors into Honeywell’s building management systems. The MoU will initially focus on the Honeywell Optimizer suite, which offers a flexible, more future-proofed building control and automation platform.

More broadly, the efforts aim to deliver smart energy options powered by AI, machine learning and data analytics to enhance building autonomy, driving energy efficiency while guiding service technicians. The goal is to leverage NXP’s neural network-enabled i.MX chipset capabilities to enhance Honeywell’s building management system.

“Buildings are increasingly relying on data and the ability to control operations via automation to make them more sustainable while operating more efficiently,” said Venkatarayalu. “NXP’s latest machine learning will help us deliver excellence in building automation for our customers.”

Lars Reger, NXP (www.nxp.com) chief technology officer, added: “It has never been more important to increase the sustainability and comfort of smart buildings. NXP’s advanced portfolio of securely connected processing is supported by easy-to-use tools for rapid AI model development and service platform for provisioning and managing IoT devices throughout the long building management lifecycle. This capability, combined with Honeywell’s expertise as one of the leading building management providers, marks an important milestone in our shared vision to enable a smarter, more connected world for all.”

Honeywell will build on NXP’s scalable semiconductor and software, such as the i.MX 8M applications processors and i.MX RT crossover microcontrollers, to help observe, learn and adapt securely in real time, enhancing analytics and decision-making in the same on-site BMS equipment that manages critical building systems. Augmented by cloud-based big data analytics through Honeywell Forge analytics, buildings can increasingly leverage better foresight and insight for energy usage optimisation to enable improved sustainability outcomes.