Smart Buildings

The ongoing increase in energy consumption along with rising operational costs and shrinking budgets makes building management one of the topmost concerns for building owners. Managers need insight and understanding of how their buildings work, when is the peak time and what utilities are being used. Manually tackling these issues is an arduous, as well as, dated task.

In large sites, such as shopping malls, office parks, industrial zones, airports or seaports, IoT-enabled buildings reduce energy consumption, spatial management, and building maintenance by up to 30 percent. – Gartner

Efficiencies have been designed around just about all systems such as lighting, heating, cooling, and major electrical systems. The issue for building managers or owners is bringing that data back to one place and acting on it. Traditionally, building automation systems were reserved for large companies with massive buildings, unlimited budgets, or both.

With the rise of the IoT, sensors, and the cloud, this system has gotten further simplified with numerous small and medium-sized IT companies like Echolo being able to deliver quality solutions. As the Internet of Things becomes more and more “mainstream” and for those who want to do less with more there will be even more efficiencies to be had. Utilizing some of the latest features and cloud offerings such as IFTTT, and others a building manager’s job can become more relaxed and allow them to focus more on people.

Energy efficiency

Offices tend to use around 40% of their space at any given time during the business hours, according to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) studies on achieving operational efficiency. Data collected by motion and occupancy sensors at a building level can be used by facility managers to regulate air-conditioning and lighting level in real time, thereby reducing energy costs and optimizing the internal environment for its intended purpose.

Taking this a step further, and allowing an automated system to manage the building to regulate air-conditioning and lighting level in real time by using the data collected by the already deployed sensors. This takes the human error out of the equation and allows for maximum efficiency.

Efficiency of occupants

Each heating & cooling zone can be controlled individually, a system can handle the temperature and lighting level, of the occupant in each room. This is how it offers tailored experiences for users based on their temperature preferences throughout the day and optimize their efficiency.

Predictive maintenance

Continuous monitoring and historical capability of IoT-enabled solutions can enable a building manager to take appropriate corrective action before tenants even notice a problem. According to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), predictive maintenance can:

• Reduce maintenance costs up to 30%,
• Eliminate 70% to 75% of equipment breakdowns
• Reduce equipment downtime 35% to 45%
• Increase production up to 25% and
• Achieve a 10x ROI on predictive maintenance to facility managers.

As your IoT solution is bringing in truckloads of data, you have to be able to look into it and do something with it or it’s 100% useless. Your IoT data should be stored in an accessible way, it should not just be archived and used for reactionary purposes. If you have not already seen our previous post about Use IoT to Predict Failure, it has a great use case to show the real value of using predictive maintenance.

Time to get efficient

Buildings of any age can be outfitted with sensors and IoT technologies, allowing them to become more efficient and providing its occupants with more comfort and flexibility. Companies are often concerned that their employees lack IoT skills and knowledge, along with senior managers lacking knowledge of, and a commitment to, the required technologies to succeed with an IoT strategy. The Internet of Things is new and often a very nebulous idea. In fact, 70% of companies often look to outside consultants or IoT companies for help or try to learn from early movers in similar markets.

When companies look to secure outside help they tend to be more successful and reach the market faster. Consultants like Echolo have often seen the pitfalls and can help identify issues early because of the experience they already had with launching IoT based projects.

Echolo has unique experience in both HVAC, Lighting and Civil Engineering and can help integrate new or existing systems to make them work for you. Let us help make your building more efficient.