Can someone explain what BacNet and Lon means in the controls industry ?

Question

Also can somone tell me where i can learn basic knowledge of Air Conditioning , Heating and Ventilating ?

Answer 1

BACnet is the world standard for high level interfaces and interoperable management. It is the only worldwide-accepted method of passing management level information between systems in the building services industry. BACnet became an ASHRAE and ANSI standard in North America in 1995. BACnet became the European standard through CEN in 2000, and will shortly be the only real world standard when it finishes the ISO process through TC205. Regardless of acceptance level, it is the only protocol really designed and suited for transmitting complex information such as schedules, calendars, trend logs, alarms, and event notification.

Lon is the most widespread device level protocol. There are many small companies that do not have the financial wherewithal to develop a complete BACnet stack. The cheapest method of achieving device interoperability is to buy the Lon development kit and then just pay for proprietary Echelon Neuron chip and the FTT transceiver. The implementation cost is low and the long term cost only slightly higher. The real downside is that scalability and functionality is lower than that of a BACnet based system.

Both systems are going to be around for the foreseeable future. This is not a VHS versus Beta scenario.

Second part of your question:

There are plenty of tutorials available online for example:
http://www.hometech.com/learn/hvac.html
http://www.hvacsolution.com/tutorials.php
http://www.khake.com/page23.html
http://docs.codehaus.org/display/DROOLS/Drools+Spring+Tutorial
etc. etc.