当然，对于当今大多数咨询机械工程师来说，最具挑战性的任务之一就是为一类被称为楼宇自动化系统的设备编写全面的规范和评估建议。遇到困难的原因来自一个不标准且令人困惑的术语；i、 也就是说，严格的收费标准是建筑业的一部分。一些困难的存在是由于工程界可以控制的原因，一些困难的存在似乎是由于小型、低成本微型计算机的“突然”发展及其进入楼宇自动化领域的结果。Automation Construction Technology，Inc.被印第安纳州埃尔克哈特的一家A.E.公司K/M Associates聘请为建筑自动化系统顾问，负责Miles Laboratories的一座新实验室/办公楼。 以这种身份，我们与K/M和业主合作，制定了一套规范，鼓励控制制造商进行谨慎和竞争性投标，评估建议书，并因此向业主提出了关于“最佳”系统的经证实的建议。在本文的后续章节中，我们将从咨询工程师的角度进一步讨论与楼宇自动化系统规范和评估相关的各种问题，概述Miles实验室项目规范的制定，并描述制定的评估程序。在最后一节中，我们概述了我们认为必要的技术改进，并概述了我们认为建筑信息顾问能够并将发挥的作用。引文:研讨会，ASHRAE交易，第80卷，第一部分，加利福尼亚州洛杉矶

Certainly one of the most challenging tasks for most consulting mechanical engineers today is writing comprehensive specifications and evaluating proposals for a class of equipment which has become known as Building Automation Systems. Reasons for the difficulty encountered run all the way from a non-standard and confusing terminology; i.e., semantics, to the rigid fee schedule which is a part of the construction industry. Some of the difficulty exists for reasons over which the engineering community has some control and some exists for reasons which appear to be as a result of the rather "sudden" development of small, low-cost minicomputers and their arrival on the building automation scene.Automation Construction Technology, Inc. was hired as Building Automation Systems Consultants by K/M Associates, an Elkhart, Indiana A.E. Firm, for a new laboratory/office building at Miles Laboratories. Acting in that capacity, we worked with K/M and the owner to develop a set of specifications which encouraged careful and competitive bidding by the control manufacturers, evaluated the proposals and as a result, made a substantiated recommendation to the owner regarding the "best" system.In subsequent sections of this paper, we further discuss the various problems associated with Building Automation System specification and evaluation from the point-of-view of the consulting engineer, outline the development of specifications for the Miles Laboratory project and describe the evaluation procedure developed. In the final section, we outline the improvements in technique which we feel are necessary and outline the role we feel that a Building Atuomation Consultant can and will play.