Worldwide shipments of wireless controls for smart buildings will exceed 36 million units by 2020

USA: Wireless technology is finally entering the mainstream of the commercial buildings controls market. While building automation and controls have been used for decades, wireless networks are enabling more granular control over building systems without many of the design and labor challenges involved with running traditional cabling to support communications and/or power.

According to a new report from Navigant Research, worldwide shipments of wireless controls for building automation systems will exceed 36 million units by 2020.

“While various forms of wireless controls have been used for at least a decade, the ZigBee and EnOcean standards are catalyzing mainstream market adoption,” says Bob Gohn, senior research director with Navigant Research. “Though wireless will not displace traditional wired controls, it will be an essential tool in every supplier’s solutions toolbox, especially for retrofit projects.”

Following years of niche, proprietary solutions and slow standards development, open standards such as ZigBee and EnOcean are replacing proprietary, vendor-specific wireless RF technology, ensuring device interoperability and ease of installation and operation. Shipments of ZigBee and EnOcean products will account for nearly half of all wireless building control node shipments by 2020, the study concludes.