Mastering interoperability: an analysis of the KBOB BACnet Recommendation for public and private buildings.

In an increasingly connected real-estate landscape, building automation has become the hub of technical information. However, to avoid being locked into a proprietary solution that’s costly to operate, it’s essential to adopt a common language.

At Workswell, we rigorously apply the recommendation of the KBOB (Coordination Conference of the Building and Property Services of Public Building Owners).

Here’s why this document is essential for your future projects.

The Objective: An Independent and Durable Interface

The primary goal of the KBOB recommendation is to guarantee that devices from different manufacturers can be seamlessly integrated into a single system. This allows building owners to:

• Stimulate competition when purchasing equipment.
• Replace outdated installations independently of the original manufacturer.
• Reduce operating costs, which represent a far larger share than the initial construction costs

The Swiss Requirement Profiles: MBE-CH and AS-CH

The strength of this recommendation lies in defining profiles specific to the Swiss market, going beyond the basic ASHRAE standard. Every device must be classified under one of these profiles:

• MBE-CH (Management and control unit): The profile for the supervision/management level.
• AS-CH (Automation station): The profile for field controllers.

Workswell ensures that every piece of equipment offered complies with the strict lists of objects and properties imposed by these profiles (such as Trend Log, Schedule, or Event Enrollment objects).

Technical Rigour and Data Standardisation

For interoperability to work, everyone needs to speak the same language, down to the smallest detail. KBOB requires:

• Character set: Mandatory use of UTF-8 to correctly handle special characters and accents.
• Alarm management: A precise classification of notifications (NC) by category (life safety, property protection, technical alarms, maintenance). For example, a life-safety alarm (NC1) has critical priority compared with a maintenance notification (NC128).
• Trending: The recommendation favours local logging on the controllers (to avoid overloading the network) with default intervals of 15 minutes for energy data.

Integration From the Planning Stage (SIA Phases)

The classic mistake is to think about BACnet integration at the end of the project. KBOB is clear: the strategic decision must be made even before planning begins. BACnet requirements must be built into the deliverables from the project study (SIA 3), the tender (SIA 4) and execution (SIA 5) phases.

Defined Building Automation Functions

The recommendation goes as far as defining how to model common physical objects. For example, a pump or fan (“drive”) must be controlled via a Binary Output object for the command, monitored via Feedback_Value, and have its running hours counted via Elapsed_Active_Time. At Workswell, we use these standard models to ensure your ventilation or heating installation can be operated by any supervisor on the market.

Conclusion

The KBOB BACnet recommendation is not a mere option — it’s the guarantee of quality and freedom for your infrastructure. As expert integrators, Workswell helps you translate these technical requirements into lasting performance for your buildings.

Do you have a construction or renovation project? Contact our experts for a BACnet compliance assessment.