Building automation and controls projects, built on real plant and documented to BMS standards: points lists, I/O schedules, commissioning and test records, fault diagnosis and decision logs. I'm moving into BMS / building automation engineering after 25 years delivering business change programmes across financial services, insurance, telecoms and energy, with degrees in Physics and Telecoms Engineering.
📺 The Control Cabinet on YouTube
- Real systems, not just labs. A two-controller heating system (18 zones, radiators and underfloor, two unvented cylinders) integrated at radio-protocol level; mains water metered over Modbus RTU and field-calibrated; boiler-plant instrumentation on ESP32 controllers, with a designed OpenTherm control stage (weather compensation + PID, fail-safe changeover); fire/CO alarms interfaced through volt-free contacts; and a virtual pinball cabinet with real 24 V coils, layered protection and live current monitoring.
- Protocols: Modbus RTU and TCP, BACnet/IP, MQTT, Zigbee, Bluetooth LE, RAMSES-II (868 MHz), OpenTherm (design stage), plus SDR surveying of 433/868 MHz.
- Engineering method: every project has a points list or I/O schedule, a test record and an honest issues log. Faults are worked to root cause with evidence; for example, a permanent 5 °C override on both heating controllers was traced through eight tested hypotheses and packet-log analysis.
- Commissioning and alarms on live plant (Nov 2026): two unvented cylinders commissioned with inlet gauges, outlet temperatures and tundish sensors; a weeping relief valve detected and the fix confirmed; left/right sensor swaps found by point-to-point draw tests; a false 5 bar traced to a divider leg; 23 alerts live, with the first FDD rules running on real data.
- Head-end thinking: a ~110-integration Home Assistant estate documented as a BMS integration schedule (protocol, local vs cloud, read vs write, resilience and command-authority tiers), plus a cyber-security and privacy baseline built on OT principles.
| Qualification / course | Status |
|---|---|
| BCM01, BCM02, BCM03 (building controls) | ✅ Passed |
| 18th Edition (BS 7671) wiring regulations | ✅ Passed |
| City & Guilds Safe Isolation | ✅ Completed |
| ECS Health & Safety + ECS BMS installer card | ✅ Held |
| Resideo heating controls wiring (S-plan and Y-plan wiring, Evohome, TPI) | ✅ Completed Oct 2026 |
| Smart Buildings Academy: BAS Operator, BAS Installer, HVAC 101, BAS Fundamentals | ✅ Completed |
| Udemy: three BMS fundamentals courses | ✅ Completed |
| efixx / Crompton Controls: BMS control panels; 3-phase introduction | ✅ Completed |
| Manufacturer e-learning: Tridium Niagara, KNX eCampus/ETS, Siemens TIA Portal/PLCSIM, Schneider Electric University, CODESYS | 🚧 In progress |
| Niagara 4 Technical Certification Program (TCP) | 📐 Planned (priority paid course: software access and the credential) |
| If you have five minutes | Why |
|---|---|
| Evohome heating controls & RAMSES-II integration | Real HVAC controls, protocol-level integration, a full fault case study |
| Heating plant monitoring | Plant-room points list with an as-built wiring schematic, signal conditioning, boiler state detection, cylinder stratification and a per-cylinder hot water estimate, and live alerts mapped to FDD rules; the measurement layer for the OpenTherm control design |
| Mains water metering – Modbus RTU | Modbus RTU field device, calibration against measured volumes, metering dashboards |
The heating work is delivered as a staged programme, like a BMS upgrade: measure first, then build the supervisory layer and its first function, then change the plant control, with each step measured against the last.
flowchart LR
A["A · Plant monitoring<br/>+ on/off baseline"] --> B["B · Supervisory layer<br/>HA + Node-RED"]
B --> C["C · Optimum start/stop"]
D["D · PID rig exercise<br/>+ interlocks (parallel)"] --> E
C --> E["E · OpenTherm on the boiler<br/>weather comp + PID + preheat boost"]
E --> F["F · Before/after report<br/>(M&V)"]
| Step | Project | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A | Heating plant monitoring | 🚧 In progress (28 points; both cylinders commissioned; 23-rule alerts package live) |
| B | HA + Node-RED supervisory layer | 🚧 In progress (design) |
| C | Multi-zone optimum start/stop | 📐 Design stage |
| D | PID with anti-hunt: rig exercise | 📐 Design stage |
| E | OpenTherm boiler control | 📐 Design stage |
| F | Energy dashboard: before/after report | 📐 Planned |
| Project | Status |
|---|---|
| Evohome heating controls & HA integration (cloud → RAMSES-II, incl. fault case study) | ✅ Complete |
| Heating plant monitoring – boiler, cylinders, safety devices (ESPHome) | 🚧 In progress (pressure calibrated, tundishes and outlet probe commissioned) |
| Mains water metering – Modbus RTU | ✅ Complete |
| Modbus TCP data collector | ✅ Complete |
| BACnet/IP network explorer | ✅ Complete (v2 planned: HA BACnet integration against YABE's simulator) |
| Fire & CO alarm interface – Aico Ei413 → Shelly → HA | ✅ Complete |
| Portable aircon – Tuya data-point map, local control | ✅ Complete |
| Zigbee network migration – ZHA → Zigbee2MQTT (93 devices) | ✅ Complete |
| ESP32 BLE presence network | ✅ Live |
| RTL-SDR RF survey – 433/868 MHz | ✅ Exploratory |
| Plant points as a BACnet/IP device | 📐 Design stage |
| ESP32 as a Modbus server (plant points to controllers) | 📐 Design stage |
Gaps identified in a portfolio review, to be started once more of the design-stage projects have results:
| Project | Gap it closes |
|---|---|
| Mini air-handling unit on the rig: duct, PWM fan, damper actuator, heater, temperature/humidity, differential-pressure proving; AHU sequence with frost protection and supply-air PID | Hands-on air-side HVAC |
| Field devices and signals bench: 0-10 V damper actuator, 4-20 mA transmitter, PT1000, loop calibrator, wired into the Trend IQ411 | Standard BMS field signals and point-to-point commissioning |
| Commissioning sheet set: point-to-point, functional and witness sheets applied to the rig and the plant install | Commissioning documentation |
| Electrical drawings and panel build for the rig: IEC-symbol schematics (power, control, I/O), terminal and cable schedules, drawing numbers and revisions (QElectroTech); the rig wired to the drawings with ferrules, labels and segregation; continuity, insulation and point-to-point test sheets | Drawings and panel building |
| Motor control and BMS interface demo (24 V control): DOL with overload, latching start/stop, forward/reverse interlock, star-delta with timer and interlock, hand/off/auto with BMS run, trip and fault contacts | Motor-starter circuits and the BMS-to-MCC interface |
| VSD control: small inverter on a pump or fan, controlled by 0-10 V and enable from the Trend IQ411, then over Modbus; fault relay and speed feedback into the BMS | Variable-speed drives, as on AHU fans and pumps |
| Third-party device integration: a real Modbus energy meter and the VSD read by the BMS and a PLC, alongside the ESP32 Modbus and BACnet servers | Modbus / BACnet integration with real devices |
| RAMS: risk assessments and method statements for the OpenTherm connection and the plant-monitoring install | Site safety documentation |
| BACnet MS/TP: RS485 field device discovered and read via YABE | MS/TP in practice |
| M-Bus metering: USB M-Bus master with a heat/water meter | Heat-network metering |
| Heat-pump readiness study: heat loss from gas data and degree-days, emitter output at low flow temperatures, DHW strategy, control changes | Low-carbon heat |
| Niagara and KNX write-ups: a short build note per completed manufacturer module | Vendor platforms |
| Water sub-metering by event detection (shower, washing machine) | Metering analytics |
| Weather-responsive alerts and plant actions | External conditions |