Smart Building
Optimisation Information
This page is the go to place for all things to better understand building environment optimisation!
What is Building Environment Optimisation and why you need it?
What data is analysed?
What are the regulations and standards?
What is Building
Environment Optimisation?
Building environment optimisation is the process of understanding how a building is performing through the analysis of data and creating business strategies based upon that data to ensure a healthier and happier building and working environment.
A well planned building enviroment optimisation program, can improve the general building health, create a better place to live for residents, save money and reduce maintenance time, save energy and water usage, and increase your carbon footprint offset.
What Data Is Analysed?
The more data collected, the better the optimisation can be. As such, understanding your building's specific requirements is paramount in prioritising the data to be collected. Sensors can be installed upon many assets within a building to provide the data required to assist in the overall optimisation of a building's environment. The following are the main types of data that may be collected by a remote monitoring IoT system.
- Electricity and Gas energy usage
- Closed water system usage
- Heating & Hot Water Temperatures
- Ambient Temperature & Humidity
- IAQ (Indoor Air Quality)
- Light & Sound
- Motion & Occupancy
- Leak detection
- Refrigeration
Why You Need It!
Any Facilities manager will argue that improving building performance and saving energy costs is right at the top of their priority list.
Implementing simple and often small strategies can lead to huge improvements if taken on board by the entire organisation.
By understanding the building data, better and more efficient decisions can be made.
Operational changes based from the data collected can potentially save large costs to any organisation. Not only will the energy usage often be reduced, the tax levy for Climate Change incurred due to CO2 outputted into the atmosphere will also be reduced, saving money in multiple places from a single change in building operation.
The world has changed!
The world has changed! This is not an opinion; it is a fact. Since Early 2020 when COVID-19 first hit the world, so many things have changed. Although we are now in a time of recovery and the restrictions on our lives do seem to have been lifted, many people are still working from home or ‘remotely’ as it is often referred to, many people are not going out as much as they did, many buildings have reduced staff numbers and many disruptions still occur in the aftermath.
- COVID-19 – Unfortunately, COVID-19 is still a big problem effecting so many aspects of life. The disruption of staff being off from work and the knock on effect of isolating is causing huge stress on the infrastructures in place across many industries.
- Access to sites and assets – With many organisations reducing staff numbers, accessing sites and assets within sites is becoming more difficult.
- Missed site visits – With many staff having to take unexpected time off from work, many planned visits for scheduled manual monitoring programs are not being carried out on time
- Missed critical readings being recorded – Many assets, especially those hard to reach are being missed from visits as there is no access available or no one to chaperon visiting engineers during planned site visits.
Remote IoT Sensors vs BMS
Remote IoT Sensors
This technology has opened the world of remote monitoring to everyone and everything. All sensors are designed to be retro fitted to assets, enabling them to be monitored in the same way a BMS systems does within more complex buildings and sites. With a fully modular approach, Remote IoT Sensors allows users to monitor their highest needing assets first and build their network up over time. Begin your journey with Legionella Watch and Remote Temperature Monitoring, simply keep adding new sensor types to expand your network, end your journey with an easy to manage, more compliant and Smart building.
BMS
Stands for Building Management Services or Systems. An approach used in large and complex buildings with a full complement of building services such as HVAC, Chilled and Hot Water and Heating, Lifts or elevators, Fire Alarms, Refrigeration, and Security Systems. All of these will be connected via a LAN (Local Area Network) to a Head End Terminal to be monitored by on site facilities staff. BMS systems are installed during a buildings construction and are very expensive to implement. They are normally focused on plant equipment with the further reaches of the system left unmonitored. The cost to extend a BMS to include these elements is often prohibitive, as the installation and commissioning of hard wired sensors after construction is completed can cause huge disruption.
Remote IoT sensors can be used to enhance existing BMS systems at a fraction of the cost. All sensors are plug and play and can be added to the network as and when they are required or desired. Grow your building environment data and see your building management optimisation in a new and smarter way!
Remote IoT Sensors vs BMS
Monitoring System
BMS
- Reduce Maintenance and repair costs.
- Provides a better working environment.
- Environment Friendly.
- Remote access means little or no down time.
- Security Risks
- Data Collection is difficult
- It is very expensive
- Installed during a building’s construction
remote iot sensors
- Reduce Maintenance and repair costs.
- Provides a better working environment.
- Environment Friendly.
- Remote access means little or no down time.
- Data Collection is easy
- It is not expensive.
- Designed to be retro fitted.
- Makes tasks easier.
- Security Risks
What is Remote Monitoring?
Remote Monitoring is a general term for any remote sensor monitoring any type of asset. Normally battery powered and with wireless data transmissions, remote sensors are changing the world we live in. Sensors send data to IoT Network gateways which then transmit it to hosted data servers connected to browser based software applications displaying the data on user dashboards. The ability to visualise data for so many aspects of building management give huge control to the building managers. Precise decisions can be made, efficiency can be boosted, preventive maintenance can be adopted, and resources and finances can be saved.
What is SMART Technology?
First, what does SMART mean? SMART stands for SELF-MONITORING, ANALYSIS and REPORTING TECHNOLOGY. It is a technology that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analysis to provide cognitive awareness to objects that were in the past considered inanimate.
There are 3 main types of Smart Technology.
Internet of Things (IoT) - Describes the network of physical objects “things” that are embedded with sensors, chips, software, online connectivity, analytics, and applications to bring fixed physical objects to life. These devices create significant value, they are innovative, scalable, and automated.
Smart Connected Devices – Usually connected to the internet or Bluetooth and controlled remotely, smart connected devices can offer a tailored user experience but must be physically managed given that they don’t adapt to the extent IoT devices do. Smart Phones or Smart Bulbs are an example of Smart Connected Devices.
Smart Devices
- With reduced automation, no internet connection required, and of a programmable nature, smart devices, for instance, smart washing machines, provide specific personalized services at a particular time.
Copyright © 2023 Smart Building Technology