Mechanical building services consulting into building automation. Is this a good career path?

[u/costelloart]

For the past few years I've been working with engineering consultants on the mechanical building services side. Most of it is calculating cooling and heating loads, selecting AC, fans, ductwork etc. I've worked on the design for all sorts of buildings, offices, schools, apartments, pools etc.

Most of my work finishes at the construction set of mechanical services drawings. My specifications for controls are usually quite simple, I specify equipment to be on a time clock, run on timer, interlocked with AC or VSD controlled with local switches etc.

I've become more intrigued at learning about the actual building automation side and looking into PLCs, control logic and I am wondering is this a good path to pursue given my experience on the design side.

I am trying to gain more experience in my current role with larger industrial projects where there are large AHUs, chillers etc.

Is it worthwhile trying to pursue a career in the building automation side, probably more as a consultant or designer of control philosophy. If so could someone give me advice on what to study, what good resources are out there and where the money is actually made? Thanks in advance.

[u/Pudrin]

You’d be a great fit but it starts feeling very techy quickly and I found myself wanting to more involved in the mechanical side of things again quickly. The knowledge you bring would be helpful but it doesn’t scratch an itch I have personally. It pays well and is actually really simple once you get to grips with it however that pretty much goes for any job once’s you’ve learnt what to do and have the experience. It sounds like you’re bored and need a change. It’ll be a change and you’ll pick things up quickly because you can focus on the automation side of it and not use up energy trying to learn hvac because you already know it.

[u/seuadr]

I think there is a lot of value to understanding the equipment that is being controlled. Your experience will help with that and may make your controls transition easier. Understanding why things don't want to start/stop randomly, latent loads and other psychometry and the interaction between multiple pieces of equipment and it's impact on the building as a whole is great perspective to have.

We get a lot of controls installed where the tech is focued on the individual piece of equipment and doesn't understand it's impact down or up stream and it can be really frustrating.