Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has proved to be very effective in industries as diverse as aircraft manufacturing to health and care. The construction industry has been slow to take up on RFID and this paper will discuss the merits of the technology in its potential for application within the construction sector. The paper reports about the prototypical implementation of RFID-based information management in FM-scenarios. The prototypes were tested at University College Cork (UCC). The general applicability of RFID for decentralised information management could be demonstrated.

Currently, the IT-support for energy performance rating of buildings is insufficient. So-called IT-platforms often “built” of an ad-hoc, inconsistent combination of off-the-shelf building management components, distributed data metering equipment and several monitoring software tools. A promising approach to achieve consistent, holistic performance data management is the implementation of an integrated, modular wireless sensor platform. This paper presents an approach of how wireless sensors can be seamlessly integrated into existing and future intelligent building management systems supporting improved building performance and diagnostics with an emphasis on energy management.