Cost Comparison between Borer's FUSION System and a Legacy Competing System
The fitting of Access Control systems demands several disciplines as follows:
- A qualified electrician to fit the mains power spurs;
- A joiner to fit the lock;
- A technician to install and commission the electronics;
- An IT technician to setup and integrate the system into the user's IT network.
Reducing or eliminating any of these will cut costs and speed up installation. In the development of FUSION, Borer has striven to reduce the cost ownership by: -
- Reducing the amount of equipment needed;
- Reducing services and infrastructure (trades and technical disciplines, power outlets, cabling complexity);
- Simplifying and speeding up installation and commissioning;
- Reducing maintenance overheads;
- Lowering energy demands.
To illustrate our progress in reducing lifetime costs we compare two systems.
- Borer FUSION System is designed to work over the corporate LAN using TCP/IP. Each door is individually connected to the Midspan Bridge using the CAT5e data cable. Power and data are delivered down the CAT5e cable thereby eliminating the need to install a power supply at every door.
- Typical Legacy Competing System uses a traditional architecture which connects a chain of access doors to the LAN via an Ethernet to RS485 data converter. A data cable is run from one door to the next in a daisy chain style. Main power outlets are required at every door. In addition a metal wall box to house a power supply, battery pack and door controller is mounted at each door. Cables are installed to connect electric locks, card reader heads, etc. back to the control box.
The comparison is modeled on installing access control into a commercial property on an 8 door access control system on 2 floors of 5000 sq ft each. The model, which includes the projected energy cost over 7 years, compares a mid to high end “Legacy” system with a “FUSION” system. The comparison can easily be scaled up to provide an indication of costs for larger applications.
Table 1. Eight Door Access Control System using Fail Safe Electric Strikes
| Unit Price | Borer FUSION System | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical Competing Legacy System | |||||
| 1. Card Access Equipment | MRRP | £4520 | £11090 | ||
| 2. Door Furniture & Locks | £270 | £2160 | £2160 | ||
| 3. Cable Costs | FARNELL Catalogue Price (Oct 08) | £60 | 150m CAT5e cable at 40p a metre | £226 | 120m Belden 8723 RS485 cable at £1.88 a meter |
| 4. Cable Installation Costs | £320 Man Day | £640 | 2 Man Days | £640 | 2 Man Days |
| 5. 220v Fused Spurs Retrofit | £220 a Spur | --- | --- | £1760 | 8 Fused Spurs |
| 6. Equipment Installation Costs | £320 Man Day | £1600 | 5 Man Days | £2880 | 9 Man Days |
| 7. Maintenance Costs | We have made no provision for cost of maintenance in our calculations as end users and installers will negotiate a package suited to the end user's individual needs and installer's resources. | ||||
| 8. Energy consumed over 7 years | 3066 kWh | 50 Watts 23 Watts base load plus 3 Watts per door |
41,698 kWh | 680 Watts 85 Watts x 8 Doors |
|
| 9. Energy cost over 7 years based on £0.106 per kWh | £441 | Price Escalation of 10% pa | £6,275 | Price Escalation of 10% pa | |
| Lifetime Cost over 7 Years | £9,421 | FUSION | £25,031 | LEGACY | |
1. Card Access Equipment
The above table makes a comparison between a Borer FUSION system and an alternative manufacturer’s mid to high-end system employing Legacy architecture. Legacy systems commonly require power at every door and a daisy chain (RS485) data connection. The FUSION system uses network architecture and supplies power to the door down the CAT5e network cable, eliminating the requirement for local power supplies and mains power spurs at every door.
2. Door Furniture
The electric door release used for the above comparison consists of an electric strike (fail safe) with matching lock, exit handle and door open monitor contact fitted to single leaf wood door with wood frames. Installation of a magnetic lock instead of an electric strike (magnetic locks consume more energy) would add increase the energy used by approximately 4 Watts per door for the FUSION solution and 16 Watts for the Legacy solution.
3 & 4. Data Cable Supply and Installation
The two solutions are cabled differently. While FUSION employs true network architecture with CAT5e cable run in a star configuration from a central 19” rack mounted network bridge, the Legacy system utilizes a multi-drop or daisy chain architecture using twisted pair cable run from door to door.
5. Powering the Equipment
Legacy architecture demands that a 220 Volt mains power outlet is installed at every door or shared between two doors if the doors happen to be in close proximity. In contrast the FUSION system provides power to each door from a central power supply over CAT5e cable using the Power over Ethernet (PoE) power delivery technology (similar to the way the telephone network operates). Consequently there is no need to provide a mains power outlet at every access door doing away with the requirement to employ a qualified electrician in compliance with Part P of the 2005 building regulations.
6. Equipment Installation Cost
Using Legacy architecture it is common practice to cost for one-man day to install access control at one door. This is because of the quantity of equipment required, the difficulty of installing the controller housing above the door or in the ceiling void, and number and complexity of interconnecting cables and cable terminations local to the door. The control box, containing a power supply, battery pack, and door controller is often mounted in the ceiling void above the door. Individual cables are then run from the control box to the door lock, door monitor contact and card reader head.
In contrast FUSION is much less complex and requires only an electric door lock, door monitor contact, reader head and lock manager. These are all fitted at door handle height close to the door, making for a far faster, leaner and neater installation. This enables two or more doors to be installed in a single day.
7. Maintenance Costs
Fit and forget – as an installer, being able to use your resources to sell and install systems rather than rectifying faults with existing systems can make a significant contribution to profit. Maintenance contracts are an important part of many installers’ business. They also help to maintain contact with the user, identify improvements and generate additional business. Maintenance visits for access control systems should be used to ensure the backup procedures are in place, magnetic locks are securely mounted and run a general system health check. This is vastly different from having to respond to unscheduled call-outs due to equipment malfunction.
Borer has developed a client support model which is both unique in the industry as well as cost and energy efficient. In a survey of installed systems of all types (CCTV and Access Control) we have identified that up to 80% of the instances when service technicians are called out are resolved with a power reset. The service technician simply removes and restores power to the offending device. This is a huge waste of manpower and energy in the form of fuel traveling to and from the customer’s site. It also adds to traffic congestion and also being a source of unnecessary carbon emissions.
FUSION manages monitors and controls the delivery of power to all the devices (door access equipment, alarm monitoring and control equipment, etc.) connected to the FUSION Controller Area Network. This allows the system, the system operator and/or the service technician to remotely, across the LAN/WAN, run diagnostics and power reset individual devices, eliminating many otherwise necessary site service visits. This reduces costs, leads to better utilisation of manpower, saves on energy and assists in the rapid and efficient resolution of minor faults.
8 & 9 . Cost of Energy over 7 Years
The cost of energy to power a door access system is seldom taken into consideration. With the cost of energy escalating (an increase of more than 30% in the last two years) and set to increase substantially over the coming years, energy costs should not be left out of the purchasing decision. As an illustration, here is a calculation for the cost of energy to power a 100-Watt domestic light bulb assuming it is left illuminated for one year: -
0.1kW (100 Watt light bulb) x 24 (hours in the day) x 365 (days in the year) x £0.106 (cost of 1kWh of electricity) = £92.856 (cost of energy for one year)
Using these figures as a guide we can easily calculate the cost of energy for an access control system. Legacy access control systems often consume around 85 Watts or more for each door controlled (hence if a 100 Watts light bulb cost £92.856 then 85 Watts will cost £92.856 X 0.85 = £78.93 to power one door for one year). The amount of energy consumed will vary according to the equipment deployed; magnetic locks consuming far more energy than electric strikes.
As illustrated in the table, the cost of energy consumed over the lifetime of the system can be substantial and for low cost solutions the energy cost could easily amount to more that the initial purchase price of the equipment.
It therefore makes sense, before putting forward a solution, to calculate the total lifetime costs of each of the systems under consideration taking the following costs into account: - purchase price, infrastructure, labour and energy.
Do not simply assume that all systems are equal and purchase the system with the lowest price tag because it may end up costing the Earth.
