Building owners, planners, contractors, and operators are increasingly confronted with complex buildings. Due to the resulting complexity of systems that perform functions within an overall system in various situations, a test is required that verifies cross-trade functions and interactions. These cross-trade functions include:

• Protective objectives required by various legal frameworks and the resulting necessary safety-related functions (e.g. fire protection, protection of people, protection of neighboring properties) for granting permission for use
• General operationally necessary functions to fulfill the protective objectives required by the operator (e.g. protection of assets, system availability)

A full-scale test therefore consists of inspections required for permission for use (including the cause-and-effect test) as well as additional tests required by the operator/owner. Full-scale tests thus serve to verify cross-trade functions of the building. This also includes testing functions for operating states during extraordinary events. Such operating states occur, for example, in hazardous situations such as:

• Fire
• Failure of supply (utilities and final energy)
• Burglary or robbery
• Flooding

In most of these complex buildings, testing to date has largely been carried out only on a sampling basis. Typically, 10%–20% of scenarios from the fire control matrix are tested. Until now, there was no other way to commission the building or extend the operating permit within a reasonable timeframe and cost framework.

With the digital cause-and-effect test, however, such scenarios can be tested within 120 seconds – the time specified by the building authority for the functional activation of components. This means that all scenarios of the fire control matrix can be tested 100%, ensuring that the building is compliant and safe, rather than only being checked on a sample basis. All of this is achieved in less time and at reduced cost compared to the manual approach.

The building owner can keep to the project schedule, the operator receives a safe building and can monitor the facility management service provider on equal terms. In addition, the owner always knows the condition of the building thanks to live data.

In this seminar, Inolares addresses the challenges described above and explains the benefits of an implemented digital cause-and-effect test using Inomatrix, based on the example of a five-star hotel in Berlin.

So: no more sampling – but a full, digital cause-and-effect test. Or would you board an aircraft that has only been tested on a sample basis?